The Types of Brain Injury Our Texas TBI Lawyers Handle

The brain trauma attorneys at Patino Law Firm are well-versed in handling claims involving all types of brain injury in Texas, ranging from a concussion that causes long-term dizziness to severe or life-limiting TBIs and head injuries.

If you or a loved one has suffered any of the following, contact us to explore your legal options:

• An open head injury: Any head injury that involves an open wound that breaks the skull.
• A closed head injury: Any head injury that does not break the skull.
• A hemorrhage: Also known as uncontrolled bleeding from the head or brain.
• A hematoma: Where blood collects outside of a blood vessel due to a damaged vein or artery. A subdural hematoma is most commonly associated with head injuries, where blood collects between the skull and brain.
• Anoxic or hypoxic brain injuries: Caused by an absence or restriction of oxygen to the brain. Anoxic brain injuries are caused by a total lack of oxygen. Hypoxic brain injuries happen when the oxygen to the brain is restricted, causing the brain cells to gradually deteriorate.
• Diffuse axonal injury: This involves damage to the brain cells without bleeding. It happens when the brain rapidly moves around within the skull during an injury and causes loss of consciousness. It can also leave victims in a coma.
• Concussion: A mild traumatic brain injury caused by the brain colliding with the skull. Common symptoms include headaches and nausea. While these usually subside after a couple of weeks, some individuals may have long-term problems.

Other traumatic brain injuries: All of the above fall into the category of a TBI, but this isn’t an exhaustive list. We can help you seek compensation for any accident that causes a mild, moderate, or severe traumatic brain injury in Texas.

What Are the Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries?

A traumatic brain injury involves a violent blow or jolt to the head that causes the brain to collide with the skull and leads to bruising, bleeding, or damaged brain cells. In some cases, the damage can be permanent. Because the brain is so delicate, any type of accident can lead to a TBI, including:

• Slip and fall accidents
• Car accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Commercial truck accidents
• Construction accidents
• Accidents while using a defective product.

Traumatic brain injuries in Texas are also surprisingly common. Data from the Texas Division of the Brain Injury Association of America reveals that every year over 144 thousand people sustain a traumatic brain injury in Texas. When looking at the whole country, this number goes up to 2.8 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What Are the Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury?

It can be difficult to diagnose a traumatic brain injury after an accident in Texas.

In many cases, a TBI isn’t immediately apparent. It can take days, weeks, or longer for a person to experience the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury, and even a CT scan immediately after the accident won’t always show a TBI unless there is significant swelling or bleeding.

This means that unless you have an open wound or bleeding, there is often no way to tell from the outside. That said, there are symptoms you can look out for. While some of these symptoms indicate mild brain trauma that may resolve on its own, it’s vital to get checked out if you experience any of the following, as delayed treatment can cause further problems down the line.

• Loss of consciousness, which may be for a few seconds or several hours
• Feeling dizzy or confused
• Persistent headaches
• Feeling sick and vomiting
• Fatigue
• Muscle weakness and lack of coordination and balance
• Difficulty concentrating and communicating — you may have slurred speech or struggle to think of the right words
• Blurry vision
• Feeling agitated or irritable
• Clear fluid from the nose or ears
• Convulsions
• Depression.

You may have a TBI and experience just one or many of these symptoms, and the severity may vary, depending on the extent of the damage. Symptoms like headaches or feeling sick may subside after treatment, but you might be left with permanent or long-term health problems that impact your everyday life, such as depression or difficulty focusing. Of course, in the worst cases, head trauma can cause death or put patients into a coma or coma-like state. This can range from a minimally conscious state where a person can react to stimuli to locked-in syndrome, where they are fully aware of their surroundings but cannot communicate or move their body.

Whatever the symptoms, a traumatic brain injury can be devastating, but our Texas brain trauma attorneys can help you secure the compensation you deserve.

What Compensation Can a Texas Brain Injury Lawyer Help You Get?

A traumatic brain injury in Texas can leave you needing significant time off work or with a permanent disability that will affect you for the rest of your life, but you don’t have to struggle alone. A personal injury claim allows you to receive a monetary award to cover your past and future medical expenses and lost earnings and compensate you for pain and suffering.

Want to find out how much compensation you could be entitled to? Try our quick and easy personal injury calculator.

What to Do if You Have a Traumatic Brain Injury in Texas

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in Texas, you could be entitled to compensation for your injuries, including your pain and suffering and medical bills.

Texas is a fault state, which allows you to hold the party that caused your accident liable for your injuries.

If you’ve been in a car or slip and fall accident, or any other accident, there are three crucial steps you should follow.

1. Seek Medical Treatment

After an accident, you may have several injuries that need treatment, whether it’s a broken bone from a car accident or a spinal injury after a slip and fall. Your health comes first, so it’s vital to get checked out. The benefit of this is that if you decide to file a personal injury claim, you have valuable evidence of your accident and injuries, which you may be able to claim for. Even if you don’t experience symptoms of your TBI immediately, seeing a doctor will help support that it came as a result of your accident rather than because of a later event. The responsible party’s insurance company will try to claim that your accident and head trauma are unrelated events to reduce or contest their liability, so gathering evidence is crucial.

2. Don’t Speak to Insurance Companies or Accept a Settlement

After your accident, you’ll likely be approached by an insurance adjuster who will ask you what happened. First, understand that you are under no obligation to speak to an adjuster. If you do, it’s important to watch what you say. Even if the accident genuinely wasn’t your fault, the insurance company will be looking for any admission of guilt. For example, you might apologize or use statements such as, “I should have done…” or “I shouldn’t have done…”. An insurance company will use this information to justify offering you a low settlement, and it could be far less than what you’re entitled to.

It’s also important not to accept a settlement before speaking to a Texas TBI lawyer. A brain injury can have unforeseen consequences, and you might require lifelong rehabilitation or surgery or go on to develop a permanent condition. By waiting to get the full picture of your injury and its long-term impact on your health, you can seek a realistic and fair settlement that ensures you’re financially set for the future.

3. Speak to a Personal Injury Lawyer

No amount of money can ever compensate you or a loved one when a traumatic brain injury has had such a profound impact, but it can help you financially and ensure you never have to struggle to pay for medical treatment and other bills after an accident that wasn’t your fault.

Whether you have a concussion that means you can’t work for several weeks, you have to leave a job you love because you can’t do it anymore, or you’re left with permanent damage after a brain injury that has destroyed your independence and confidence, you are entitled to damages from the person or company responsible.