Brain Injuries

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. In the U.S. each year: 52,000 individuals will die because of a TBI 1.4 million individuals will visit an emergency room because of a TBI 275,000 individuals will be hospitalized because of a TBI Pre-school children, adolescents, and older adults are the groups most impacted by traumatic brain injuries. From 2006 to 2014, the number of TBI-related emergency departments (ED) visits, hospitalization, and deaths increased by 53%. In 2014, about 2.87 million TBI-related emergency department visits,

Definition and Classifications The CDC defines a traumatic brain injury as “a disruption of normal function of the brain that can be caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or penetrating head injury.”  A traumatic brain injury is considered a type of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) which is “an injury to the brain that is not hereditary, congenital, or degenerative, and one that has occurred after birth.”  There are 3 broad classifications of TBI: mild, moderate, and severe, with such designations roughly matching the symptom severity associated with each.  Even a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), however,

Two Injury Types Damage to brain tissue from trauma can occur to different structures  through multiple mechanisms over different time periods.  There are the damage mechanisms triggered immediately (primary) and then those triggered thereafter in the form of damage “processes” (secondary).  Secondary injury processes can take days, weeks, or longer, to run their full course, and are generally thought to cause the greatest damage to brain tissue. Primary Injury:  Damage occurs immediately in the form of brain bruising/bleeding (hematomas), referred to as “traumatic vascular injuries,” immediate and direct tissue obliteration from a projectile (bullet, metal object), blast wave damage from

Definition by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine A significant and now widely accepted definition of mild traumatic brain injury was established by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) in 1993. ACRM defined Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) as follows and added important  “Comments” at the end to clarify the definition. Definition A patient with mild traumatic brain injury is a person who has had a traumatically induced physiological disruption of brain function as manifested by at least one of the following: Any period of loss of consciousness, Any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the

Proving a Microscopic Injury Most traumatic brain injuries fall under the “mild” classification, yet there is nothing mild about MTBI symptoms.  They can be significantly disabling, chronic, and pose unique proof challenges to a brain injury lawyer.  Simply stated, these cases can be difficult to prove. What’s unique about an MTBI that makes it difficult to prove?  What does it take to prove the existence of a MTBI?  Why is it sometimes hard to prove the accident caused the MTBI?  The answers to these questions, and similar others, can be found in the nature of the injury and in the