Before you read this article, please be aware that it is only intended for informational purposes and should not substitute visiting a doctor or other qualified health care professional.  If you think that you or someone close to you may have suffered a brain injury, you should consult your family doctor immediately, even just to rule out the possibility.  Only a qualified medical professional is able to properly assess all your medical symptoms and needs.

When someone has truly suffered a brain injury, the worst thing that he or she can do is assume that there has been no such injury or that everything will be fine eventually.  Failing to report your symptoms to a doctor can result in your insurance company not rewarding you with compensation for your accident-related injury.  You could also become unable to receive damages rewards from the person responsible for your injury.  Since brain injuries are among the most serious and life-changing accidents that can occur, they must be dealt with quickly.

(1) Get Medical Help
If you feel that you may have suffered a brain injury, plan a meeting with a doctor at the soonest time possible.  You may not think that you have a brain injury, but should still report any symptoms that might indicate a blow to the head or a brain trauma, such as: headaches, pain and bruising, memory loss around or after the time of the accident, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), dizziness, blood or fluid in the ear canal, etc.  The physician in the emergency room will be able to answer your other questions regarding possible testing or exams, and can help you find out if you are currently suffering from the effects of a brain injury.

Many people assume that brain injuries cannot result from traffic accidents that take place at low speeds, but this is very untrue.  Medical literature has confirmed that even so-called “minor” accidents can cause brain injuries that affect victims for the rest of their lives.  Do not trick yourself into thinking that your injury is less severe than it is; any head injury has the potential to become serious and should be brought to the attention of a physician. 

(2) Causes of Injury
There are a number of causes for traumatic brain injury (TBI), but the most common is a direct blow to the head.  Yet, brain injuries can happen even when there is not a blow to the head; for instance, the brain colliding with the inside of the skull can cause an injury even if there is little to no force exerted on the outside of the head.  Although brain injuries can occur quickly and suddenly, the trauma that follows often creates tears in brain tissue or causes bleeding or swelling of the brain.  Violent shaking, such as sometimes occurs with “shaken baby syndrome” in abused children, can causes lack of oxygen to brain, or even poisoning and infection.

(3) Signs and Symptoms of Injury
If a brain injury is serious, it is usually noticeable at the time of the accident.  Mild brain injuries (MTBI) are harder to diagnose and may include symptoms such as:

-Brief loss of consciousness
-Loss of memory at the time of or following injury
-Changes in mental state around the time of the accident
-Focal neurological deficits (problems in the nerve, spinal cord, or brain that cause lack of proper function to specific areas of the body)

Many MTBI cases leave a person looking fine at the beginning, but chronic functional problems often result later on.  Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) affects some people who suffer from mild traumatic brain injuries, a condition that can cause dramatic personality changes and/or alterations in cognitive abilities.  Either of these states can seriously affect the way an injured person is feeling, physically, mentally, and psychologically.

Physical State
The symptoms that may follow a brain injury can alter a person’s endurance, strength, balance, walking ability (ambulation), fine motor skills, or coordination.  Tinnitus, a ringing in the ears, is another common symptom, as is “double vision” or blurred sight.  TBI sometimes causes effects as severe as continuous headaches or seizures.

Mental State
The brain is not always able to function properly directly after a traumatic brain injury, and people sometimes report symptoms such as: speech and communication difficulties, loss of short or long-term memory, trouble with processing information, disorientation, frustration, anger, and loss of accurate perception.

Psychological State
Brain injuries can affect people psychologically in many different ways.  Some experience personality changes or mood swings, loss of impulse control, diminished sense of judgment, and depression.  TBI are able to directly cause depression, but this state sometimes comes on as the result of recent personality alterations, lost capacity in some areas, or other symptoms.

(4) Rehab and Adjustment
When one suffers a brain injury, adjustment is often the most difficult part of the whole process.  Dealing with loss of cognitive skills or stark personality changes can be frustrating, and people sometimes have trouble accepting the fact that activities that once came easily and naturally have become harder to do.  Even in cases where a brain injury is fairly mild, the road to recovery and therapy is usually physically, mentally, and emotionally tiring.  This exhaustion may become magnified for people who also suffer from chronic headaches and/or depression.

Ideally, if you have been diagnosed with a brain injury, you should consult with both a physician and a psychologist who primarily deal with cases of brain injury.  These experts are qualified to prescribe medications and therapies that will make your healing process much easier and faster.  Depending on your case, you may wish to hire a “vocational therapist” or “job coach” to help you readjust to your employment situation or possibly relearn methods for performing a job.  To avoid the problem of dependency or “rebound headache,” select your medications with care and with the assistance of your doctor or psychologist.

(5) Informing Your Family
Family education services can be useful in educating your loved ones about how TBI may affect an injured family member.  Those who suffer injuries sometimes refuse to admit that they have suffered injury at all, and some people are unable to recognize the injury themselves.  Counseling can be helpful in letting other family members know how to relate and communicate with the injured person in the future, or how to be attentive to his or her personal needs.

(6) Injury in Children
When your child has experienced a traumatic accident, he or she may be unable to recognize or communicate the symptoms, and it is your job to be on the lookout for signs of injury.  If you are unable to identify a brain injury, you should seek appropriate medical help or testing.  Brain injuries can have severe results in young children and may even affect the rest of their lives, so identifying any injuries early enough is very important. 

Children often undergo brain injuries from sources that may not be obvious to any parent, such as poisoning from lead paint dust in an older house.  Parents should be aware that lead poisoning does not happen only from eating “paint chips” or making direct contact with lead paint.  Opening or closing windows coated with lead paint or inhaling air in a high-fume area can easily lead to a serious state like lead poisoning in small children.  Anyone who is uncertain of the lead levels in his or her home should have it tested so that the area is child-friendly and safe.

Brain injuries are often diagnosed by looking at cognitive symptoms, so doing this becomes difficult when a child is not yet old enough to use certain skills in an injured area of the brain.  A six-year-old child may seem to have recovered fully from a TBI, but it is possible for this child to experience difficulty learning certain skills, like math for example, by the age of nine.  Although in past years people have believed that infants and children recover more quickly from brain injuries than do adults, this is not the case.  Research has proved that young children and babies are usually the ones who struggle the most to recover from any kind of injury.