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Brain Injury Lawyer

in Denver and Aurora, Colorado

Brain Damage

The brain is a highly delicate and exact organ. It’s housed in a hard, hollow bone which can survive for thousands of years lying somewhere in the earth. That’s pretty solid protection for an organ so central to our continued living.

1. Brain damage from external injury

However, the skull can be penetrated and the brain injured. This is known as an open brain injury, or a penetrating brain injury. There are also closed brain injuries, where the skull is not penetrated, but sustains a severe blow. It knocks the brain against the inside of the skull and bruises it.

These are all known as Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) or Acquired Brain Injury, and they damage the brain through an external injury. They impair brain function, either temporarily or permanently. They can leave a person with a permanent disability.

TBI causes

About half of TBIs to adults under age 75 occur in road accidents — car, motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrians accidents. Falls are the main cause for those over age 75. About half of all TBI accidents involve alcohol use. About one fifth are caused by violence, whether assaults or child abuse.

Symptoms

Brain damage symptoms may appear immediately, or not until days or weeks have passed. Symptoms of a mild TBI are often similar to those of a severe TBI, although they may fade away sooner as the body recovers. A severe TBI will give some extra symptoms.

The list of possible symptoms is very long and can’t be quoted here, but some of them are:

• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Double vision
• Memory problems
• Mood changes
• Sleep pattern changes

In addition a severe TBI can give symptoms such as:

• Unconsciousness
• Vomiting or nausea
• Seizures
• Dilation of the eyes
• Slurred speech
• Loss of coordination
• Weakness in the limbs

A small child can show these symptoms, and some more as well:

• Crying despite all attempts at comfort
• Refusal to eat

Brain damage can be enormously complex. It can be focal or diffuse — that is, in one brain area only or in several. The results as they manifest in daily life are uncountable in their types and degrees of severity.

When brain damage is severe, the person might be in a coma, in a stupor (that is, disoriented in space and time), in a locked-in syndrome (conscious but unable to move), in a persistent vegetative state (woken from a coma but showing no detectable awareness) or brain-dead (the brain has ceased all activity but the person is kept alive on machines).

2. Brain damage from internal causes

A disease or health condition can damage the brain. Some examples are:

• A stroke
• Parkinson’s disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• A brain tumor
• Shaken Baby Syndrome
• Oxygen deprivation
• Loss of blood pressure

Here the brain damage is caused by bruising which tears or damages nerves, by loss of or interference with the blood supply to areas of the brain, or by other causes, some of which are poorly understood.

If you or one you love have sustained brain damage through someone else’s negligence, please contact us for a free case evaluation. Our brain injury lawyers can give you information about your legal rights, assess your situation, and start asking pertinent questions to gather information. If we find you have a valid claim, we will help you pursue it and win compensation for you medical costs, pain, suffering, and lost income past and future.

 

Since 1983 the Brake Law Firm has successfully served clients throughout Denver and Boulder, Colorado in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, employment law, corporate law, insurance law, individual services, and wrongful death.
This website has been posted to the public for informational purposes only. No information within this site should be viewed as formal legal advise. Contact our brain injury lawyer today for a consultation.