Traumatic Brain Injury

Out of all of the types of injuries that you can suffer in an accident in Baltimore, a traumatic brain injury is one of the worst. These injuries are often fatal. If they are not, they are frequently disabling or even paralyzing. The effects of a traumatic brain injury can be permanent.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an accident – whether a car accident or one involving a truck, bicycle, or motorcycle – and suffered a traumatic brain injury, you need legal help to recover the compensation you deserve from the person who caused the crash. The personal injury attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian can make this happen.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

A traumatic brain injury occurs when the brain suffers a contact with another object, whether directly or indirectly. Many traumatic brain injuries happen when your body or head gets jolted suddenly and violently.

When your body gets jolted, your neck can act like a whip, slinging your head to the side as it reacts to your body’s sudden movement below the shoulders. In these cases, while your head was never touched by the source of the contact that your body has experienced, it can directly impact the inside of your skull as your neck gets swung to the side to correct for the sudden jolt to the rest of your body.

When it is your head that suffers the initial jolt, your skull can be violently pushed to the side. However, because your brain is housed inside your skull rather than actually connected to it, the sudden movement of your skull can cause it to crash into your brain.

In either case, the impact between your brain tissue and the inside of your skull is a concussion. If the impact is strong enough, it can kill brain cells, causing bruising, swelling, and internal bleeding, and lead to long-term brain problems.

While concussions like these are a common scenario for a traumatic brain injury to occur, they can also happen if you have suffered a gunshot to the head, or if your skull has been pierced by another foreign object.

Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury

In some cases, it is clear that you have suffered a traumatic brain injury. In others, though, the symptoms are far more subtle. To make matters worse, these injuries can happen even when you have not been hit directly in the head, so many people do not even consider a head injury as a possible source of their medical problems, and the symptoms can remain latent for days or even weeks, long after people think they have recovered from the incident that caused the injury.

This makes it incredibly important to understand the signs of a traumatic brain injury. Symptoms include:

• A loss of consciousness or mental “flickering” during the impact
• Confusion, disorientation, or dizziness after the event
• Nausea, vomiting, or lack of appetite
• Drowsiness or a change in sleeping habits
• Sensory problems to any of your five senses
• Mood swings
• Memory problems
• Headache
• Seizures
• Slurred speech or other speech problems
• Weak or numb fingers or toes

Again, these symptoms can take weeks to surface because of the complexity of a traumatic brain injury, so paying close attention to how you feel after a serious accident is paramount.

Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injuries in Baltimore

The treatment that you need to recover from a traumatic brain injury can be extensive, risky, costly, and time-consuming. In many of the worst cases, a full recovery might not be possible, even after numerous brain surgeries. In most cases, the occupational therapy required to get you back on your feet can take years, and there is a significant chance that you are unable to return to the level you were functioning at, before the crash.

Luckily, the medical facilities in and around the city of Baltimore are top-notch and have all of the resources that you need if you have suffered a traumatic brain injury. For even the most complex of cases, the doctors and surgeons at the Johns Hopkins Hospital are more than up for the task.

Legal Damages and a Personal Injury Lawsuit

When you suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident that you did not cause and could not avoid, it would be incredibly unfair to expect you to also pay for the costs of your recovery and put your financial health into jeopardy, as well.

This is why personal injury lawsuits exist in the state of Maryland, and why you should seriously consider taking legal action to get the compensation that you deserve.

Compensation for your recovery is especially important when you have suffered a traumatic brain injury. Many of the legal damages that you are entitled to recover in a lawsuit are at their highest in these devastating situations:

• Medical costs. The costs of the treatment necessary to recover from a traumatic brain injury are staggering, making compensation critical.
• Lost wages and earning capacity. The recovery time for a traumatic brain injury can run well over a year. Being out of work for so long can cripple the financial state of both you and your family. The injury can also debilitate and disable you to such an extent that working after the injury is out of the question.
• Loss of life’s enjoyments. While you can also recover for the pain you have been put through, it is the suffering that you have undergone that is truly heart-wrenching after a traumatic brain injury. Recovering compensation for your losses covers this, as well.

Baltimore’s Personal Injury Attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian

The personal injury lawyers at the Baltimore law office of Gilman & Bedigian strive to represent victims of traumatic brain injuries both in the courtroom and outside of it. By advocating for your interests, we can fight for your right to recover compensation for the person or parties that were ultimately responsible for the accident that caused your injuries. Contact us online for the legal help you need to get through this troubling time.