Articles Tagged with brain injury

Brain Trauma and Head Injuries

Head Injuries and Brain Trauma

As a Sacramento Brain Injury Attorney, I have represented a great many clients over the years who have suffered horrible head trauma and brain trauma as a result of an auto accident or motorcycle accident.

Head_CT_scanRecognizing a post- concussion syndrome (PCS) case is often the most difficult aspect of representing people suffering a closed head injury.

Assessment of such cases requires attorneys and intake staff to understand the basic aspects of the medicine behind such injuries, the sympotomolgy that often accompanies these injuries, as well as to recognize how to develop the damages in the case. One key aspect in evaluation of a PCS case is the understanding that the potential client may not be able to aid in recognizing or developing your understanding of the injury the he or she has sustained. As a result of their injuries, PCS clients are generally unaware that they have sustained a closed head injury nor do they appreciate the impact of the injury upon their lives. In many cases the consequences of such an injury are quite subtle and difficult to detect in casual conversation.

moto grpUnfortunately, many victims of motorcycle accidents suffer a brain injury.  Sometimes these victims also suffer post-traumatic amnesia which can be short term, or long term.

Does the length of post-traumatic amnesia and/or a loss of consciousness predict long-term cognitive impairment? The two clinical terms are not necessarily ­synonymous.

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Many auto and motorcycle accidents result in whiplash injuries.  Many also unfortunately involve a brain injury.  Perhaps not so coincidentally, there are many similarities between whiplash and brain injury.  Both includes many similar symptoms.

The biggest challenge with treating auto injuries is getting a proper diagnosis. Countless studies show that whiplash patients have objective, organic injuries; unfortunately; many of these injuries are difficult to pinpoint with conventional diagnostic imaging techniques, such as CT or MRI.

elk grove accidentParalysis is a common symptom from a traumatic brain injury following an auto or motorcycle accident.  I have represented clients over the years who have suffered paralysis resulting from a head injury.  Sadly, this condition can have a devastating effect on one’s life.

Hemiplegia is a complete paralysis of one side of the body; hemiparesis is a partial paralysis.

Although the dangers of exposure to asbestos fibers has now been well-known for many years, the several different diseases that may result may not be. In addition to malignant mesothelioma — a cancer that appears in the mesothelial tissues lining the lungs, peritoneum, pericardium, and chest cavity — other cancers of the lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract have also been connected to asbestos. Asbestos fiber inhalation is also the direct cause of asbestosis, a condition in which the lung tissues become increasingly scarred, seriously reducing lung function.

Malignant mesothelioma is a very devastating diagnosis — most people diagnosed with this cancer die within 12 months of receiving their diagnosis. This is not to say victims of this disease should be without hope. For example, famous scientist Stephen Jay Gould lived for more than 20 years after his mesothelioma diagnosis, eventually succumbing to an unrelated condition. While certainly grim, malignant mesothelioma diagnoses are still relatively rare.

hazmatAnyone who watched an older building being torn down or remodeled in recent years will have become familiar with the sight of workers performing asbestos testing and remediation. Buildings constructed in the middle part of the 20th century very commonly used asbestos in a variety of building materials because of its fireproofing performance. It was also used as fireproofing material in a number of other industries, such as shipbuilding, beginning early in the 20th Century, but becoming increasingly prevalent from the 1940s forward.

Malignant mesothelioma is a relatively rare form of cancer that appears most commonly in the pleural lining between the lungs and the chest wall. Only in recent decades has the strong connection between most pleural mesotheliomas and workplace exposure to asbestos become well-established and recognized.  Although cancer in the pleural lining had occasionally been observed and described by doctors for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that doctors began to recognize these as “primary” cancers — that is, cancers originating actually in the lungs, rather than spreading as “secondary” tumors from cancers beginning in other locations.

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A JAMA study published in January concluded that people who have sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBI) were more likely to experience a premature death, which is defined as dying before 56 years of age.

The researchers followed everyone born in 1954 and later in Sweden who had been treated medically (outpatient or inpatient) for TBI between 1969 and 2009.  The total number of people who followed under these criteria was 218,300.  The researchers looked at death rates at least six months after the brain injury and compared them with the general population.  The study also considered the death rates of siblings of people within the study.

Neuropsychologists are scientists with advanced training in detecting injuries to the brain and how such injuries affect an injured person.

While most people believe neurologists are the experts of choice in dealing with brain injury, this is seldom the case. Neurologists are helpful in detecting and treating some serious brain injuries, and CT-Scans and MRI’s can also be useful, but most of the time the neuropsychologist does the heavy lifting in brain injury cases.

When a child suffers a serious fracture in an accident, it’s fairly easy for a jury to understand the seriousness of the injury and its consequences.

When a child suffers a brain injury, however, its much more challenging for a jury to understand the nature of the injury of its consequences.

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