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Unfortunately, many people do not receive fair compensation
for their traumatic brain injuries. Inexperienced attorneys
often do not know how to recognize the issues involved
in brain injury cases, and therefore do not effectively
represent their client.
Traumatic brain injuries vary in severity, and are often
classified as mild, moderate, or severe. Strangely, a common
mistake made by people suffering from a brain injury is
to assume that they do not, in fact, have a brain injury,
and that they just had a "bump" on the head.
The most common method of measuring the severity of a person's
brain injury is the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). This is a
clinical scale of measurement that was developed to assist
practitioners in the initial assessment of the presence
and depth of a brain injury. GCS scores range from scores
of 3 (worst) to 15 (best). A brain injury is considered
mild if the GCS is 13 or higher, moderate if the GCS is
between 9 to 13, and severe if the GCS is below 9. Because
the symptoms can be subtle in mild traumatic brain injury
cases, they are often not recognized as brain injuries,
and are the source of many mistakes by attorneys.
One generally recognized definition of a mild brain injury was developed by The
Head Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group of the American Academy
of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. According to this definition, a person
with a mild brain injury is someone who has a traumatically induced physiological
disruption of brain function, demonstrated by at least one of the following:
- A loss of consciousness of up to thirty minutes. Within thirty
minutes of the injury, the person must have improved to a GCS of 13 to
15.
- Memory loss for events immediately before or after the accident.
- A change of mental state at the time of the accident (e.g., feeling
dazed, confused, disoriented).
- Focal neurological deficit that may or may not be transient
- Posttraumatic amnesia lasting no longer than 24 hours.
The first thing you need to do is to get the necessary treatment for your injuries.
If you have injured your brain, an accurate diagnosis will be critical to determine
what type of treatment will most beneficial. In addition, it will be critical
for you to get the proper imaging studies (MRI, CT, etc.) to effectively document
your injuries, should it become necessary to litigate your case in front of a
jury.
For some people, a mild traumatic brain injury has few consequences, but for
others, significant and long-lasting disability may result. You will only have
one chance to bring your case to a jury, and it is important to hire an attorney
who knows what they are doing, who has been there before, and who can help you
achieve the best settlement possible. Call us and let us be a skilled and compassionate
advocate for you as you recover from this serious accident. |
