Statistics show that every year somewhere around 2.5 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Most TBI’s occur during the following events, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention:
- Motor vehicle accidents (14.3 percent)
- Falls (40.5 percent)
- Assaults (10.7 percent)
- Struck by/against events (15.5 percent)
How the remaining 19 percent occur remains a mystery.
How does a TBI affect the body?
After suffering a TBI in one of the aforementioned events, you more than likely want to understand what happened and what your future holds. The nerve tracts and neurons in your brain send messages throughout your body to keep your body functioning properly. When the brain suffers trauma, those impulses fail to get through, which means your brain no longer knows what to do and systems can break down.
Whether your injury and its effects last for weeks or months or remain for the rest of your life depends on how much damage occurred. What part of the brain received trauma dictates the effects. Your brain is divided into six different lobes:
- Parietal lobe
- Occipital lobe
- Temporal lobe
- Cerebellum lobe
- Frontal lobe
- Brain stem
Each side of your brain also controls certain bodily functions. This means that depending on where your injury occurred, your ability to perform certain actions or control certain bodily functions becomes impaired. If you fail to recover from your injuries fully, the impact on your life more than likely prevents you from performing daily activities. You require medical and other care in order to adjust to your new circumstances. The alterations to your work and personal life could be significant.
You suffered a TBI through no fault of your own. What to do now?
If your TBI resulted from the negligence of another, pursuing your legal rights to seek compensation remains a possibility. An independent investigation into the incident that left you injured done by your attorney could reveal the evidence needed to establish negligence on the part of the party or parties believed to be responsible for your injuries. The details regarding your TBI and the effects on the rest of your life also help your personal injury claim.
If a Louisiana court determines that one or more parties caused your injuries, it then considers awarding you damages, such as medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost income, among others. Your attorney calculates these damages based on a variety of factors. The monies collected on a monetary judgment provide for your medical and other needs, both current and future.
