Brain Injuries After Car Accident
The brain can suffer serious harm even in a relatively minor car accident. Brain injuries are complex, with no two being exactly alike. Severe brain injuries can have lasting effects on a victim, including permanent brain damage. Suffering any type of brain injury in a car accident could make you eligible for financial compensation in Pennsylvania.
How Can a Car Accident Cause a Brain Injury?
Car accidents can cause traumatic brain injuries, also known as TBIs, in a few different ways. TBIs can be caused by blunt-force trauma to the head and skull in a car accident, such as if a driver’s head hits the steering wheel or windshield.
Brain injuries can also arise from penetrating injuries, or puncture wounds to the skull and brain, in a car accident. These are known as open head injuries, as opposed to closed head injuries, where the skull is not fractured.
If the victim’s head spins or twists rapidly around in a collision, this can also inflict TBIs from the rotation of the brain within the skull. A diffuse-axonal injury, for example, occurs when a sudden shearing motion damages the nerve fibers in the brain.
Common Types of Brain Injuries Caused By Vehicle Collisions
A major brain injury from a motor vehicle accident can cause permanent brain damage or death, but even a TBI that is classified as “mild” can significantly impact a victim.
The most common types of brain injuries caused by car accidents include:
- Concussion: injuries from a jolt, bump or blow to the head. The most common TBI seen in car accident victims.
- Contusion or hematoma: bruising of the tissues of the brain that can cause structural brain damage.
- Coup-contrecoup injury: contusions on opposite sides of the brain, caused by the brain bouncing off the skull and striking the other side.
- Edema: swelling of the brain’s tissues, which can create a medical emergency by creating pressure against the skull.
- Hemorrhage: uncontrollable bleeding that can put pressure on the brain, potentially resulting in permanent brain damage.
- Second-impact syndrome: suffering more than one TBI before the first has fully healed. This can compound the damage of the injuries and lead to life-changing or fatal brain damage.
The symptoms of a brain injury after a car accident can include headache, nausea, vomiting, loss of consciousness, memory loss, dizziness, blurred vision, trouble sleeping, and mood or personality changes.
How to File a Car Accident Claim for a Brain Injury in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is a “choice no-fault state,” which means car accident victims who opt-in to the no-fault system can only hold someone else responsible for the crash if their injuries are significant. Moderate to severe brain injuries typically make an individual eligible to file a claim against an at-fault driver with or without no-fault insurance.
To hold another driver accountable for your TBI after a motor vehicle crash, you or your Pittsburgh car accident lawyer must prove fault. This will take compelling evidence, such as medical records, crash reconstruction, expert testimony, witness statements and a police accident report. Hiring a personal injury lawyer in Pittsburgh, PA can make it easier for you to prove your brain injury claim.
It is especially important to hire an attorney if you or a loved one suffered a severe or catastrophic brain injury. Serious TBIs often require constant or ongoing medical treatments. Your family may only be able to afford these treatments with a fair settlement or judgment award from the person at fault for causing the crash.
To discuss a specific car accident case involving brain injuries with an attorney at no cost, contact Dallas W. Hartman P.C., Attorneys at Law.