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New York Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
A severe traumatic brain injury can change someone’s life forever. A victim can sustain a TBI in a car accident, for example, and lose the ability to speak, work, write, move, and learn. They may have to receive constant care in a facility or within the 4 walls of their home, racking up thousands of dollars in medical debt for an injury they didn’t cause or deserve. Not only are these injuries devastating for the victims, but for loved ones as well. That’s why it’s so important to work with an experienced traumatic brain injury lawyer in order to recover maximum compensation. At Bailey, Johnson & Peck, we understand that no amount of money will ever change what happened. But receiving appropriate compensation could take away some of your worries, like: how will I ever get rid of these medical bills? How will I ever afford the therapy I need to regain basic functions?
If you or someone you love is in a situation like this, you need legal representation from traumatic brain injury lawyers at Bailey, Johnson & Peck. Call us today at 518-456-0082 for a free consultation.
What is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when someone suffers a violent puncture wound, jolt, or impact to the head. Depending on the cause of injury, a victim’s brain tissue or brain cells could suffer major damage, leading to lifelong disability.
How Common are TBI’s in The U.S.?
Unfortunately, hundreds of Americans suffer from brain damage every day in the U.S. In fact, the CDC reports that approximately 176 Americans died from a TBI every day in 2020. Not only that, but the CDC also reports that more than 223,000 hospitalizations occurred due to traumatic brain injuries in 2019. Scary statistics like these are the reason why traumatic brain injury attorneys at Bailey, Johnson & Peck fight for the justice of their injured clients.
Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms
Brain injuries and their symptoms range from mild to severe. Additionally, victims can experience physical, emotional, and neurological symptoms as a result of their traumatic brain injury.
Mild TBI Symptoms
Did you know that a concussion is actually a mild traumatic brain injury? Most people who suffer concussions can recover with minimal medical care and without long-lasting disability. Common symptoms include headache, confusion, and so much more including:
- Dizziness
- Balancing issues
- Difficulty speaking
- Nausea or vomiting
- Sensory issues such as light sensitivity, ear ringing, differences in smell, and blurry vision
- There may be loss of consciousness for only a few minutes or no loss of consciousness at all
- A general feeling of being dazed and confused
- Changes in memory and concentration
- Changes in sleeping patterns
- Mood swings such as increased anxiety or depression
Moderate to Severe TBI Symptoms
A moderate to severe brain injury requires more medical attention. Victims can recover, but they may suffer from lifelong physical, behavioral, emotional, or neurological health issues. Symptoms of a severe TBI are similar to the ones listed above, but can also include the following:
- Seizures
- Severe headache
- Pupil dilation in one or both eyes
- Longterm loss of consciousness or an inability to wake up
- Fluids coming out of the ears or nose
- Extreme confusion
- Constant nausea or vomiting
- Loss of coordination
- Numbness and weakness in the limbs
- Difficulty speaking
- Major mood swings and odd behavior
Long-Term Effects of a Traumatic Brain Injury
As previously stated, those who suffer a mild TBI can generally recover quickly with very few long-term complications. However, this type of recovery often isn’t possible for those who suffer serious brain injuries. Some TBI victims may never wake up from their injury due to brain death. Others may wake up and experience post-concussive syndrome, which is basically when TBI symptoms continue for weeks, months, or years. Unfortunately, this syndrome can rack up thousands of dollars in medical costs.
Physical Complications
Long-term physical complications of a TBI can include:
- Frequent seizures
- Frequent headaches
- Hydrocephalus, which is a buildup of fluid in the brain that can lead to swelling
- A blood clot or general damage to blood vessels in the brain
- Vertigo and dizziness
- Difficulty balancing
- Weakness or tingling in the limbs
If the head injury specifically occurred at the base of the skull, the 12 cranial nerves could suffer significant damage. As a result, people could suffer long-term symptoms like facial paralysis, permanent changes in taste or smell, vision loss, ear ringing or hearing loss, or difficulty swallowing.
Emotional and Behavioral Complications
TBI victims can suffer emotionally and behaviorally for the rest of their lives. For example, they may experience:
- Awkward social behaviors
- Lack of self-control
- Increased depression and anxiety
- PTSD from the motor vehicle accident (or other accident) that caused the TBI
- Violent outbursts
- General irritability
- Lack of empathy for other people
Communication and Intellectual Complications
Victims of severe TBI’s can also suffer intellectually and communicatively for the rest of their lives. For example, they could suffer from the following issues:
- Poor short term or long term memory
- Learning difficulties
- Inability to concentrate
- Changes in reasoning and judgment
- Difficulty planning, problem-solving, making decisions, organizing, multitasking, etc.
- Inability to speak or slurred speech
- Inability to understand writing or speech
- Loss of social awareness and social cues, especially in conversations
- Changes in speaking tone, emphasis, or pitch
- Struggling to formulate thoughts and sentences either through speech or writing
Common Causes of a Traumatic Brain Injury
Any kind of physical violence or major accident can cause a traumatic brain injury. The most common causes of serious brain injuries are listed below.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Motor vehicle accidents such as car accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, and even pedestrian accidents can cause head injuries. More specifically, head trauma can occur when a driver hits their head violently on a steering wheel or a window during a car accident.
Sports Injuries
An athlete can easily suffer from a mild traumatic brain injury, such as a concussion. Football players, baseball players, lacrosse players, and boxers are all at risk of suffering from a head injury.
Slip and Falls
Slip and falls are common among elderly people and those who work in dangerous jobs. People who slip and fall can easily hit their heads on the way down, causing a brain bleed and a serious brain injury.
Physical Assaults
A physical assault can easily result in brain damage. Common types of physical violence that can cause brain trauma include child abuse, shaken baby syndrome, gunshot wounds, and general domestic violence.
Combat and Explosive Injuries
Combat and explosive injuries are common among military members. A traumatic brain injury could occur from bullets, falling shrapnel and heavy objects, slipping and falling, or just hitting the head on something.
Additionally, being in the vicinity of an explosion can cause brain damage, even if the person isn’t hit by explosive shrapnel. Doctors don’t fully understand how explosions can cause a brain injury, but they believe it has something to do with the pressure waves passing through the brain and body. These waves are certainly strong enough to disrupt normal brain function.
Medical Malpractice
Medical negligence often doesn’t cause a brain injury through a violent blow to the head. Instead, a TBI can occur through mistakes during childbirth, mistakes during surgery, incorrect medications, misdiagnosing a stroke or a heart attack, failing to control excessive bleeding which results in low oxygen levels, etc.
Treatments for Traumatic Brain Injuries
If you sustain a mild traumatic brain injury, such as a concussion, it’s important to rest until your symptoms subside. Your doctor may prescribe you some pain medication while you recover. Your doctor will also instruct you to avoid normal daily activities or intense physical exercise until you feel better.
Meanwhile, those who suffer from a severe head injury will likely receive extensive medical care. Specific treatments vary on a case-by-case basis. For example, the treatment for a TBI caused by a bullet will be much different than treatment for a TBI caused by slipping and falling.
Generally, medical professionals will start by closely monitoring your brain pressure and oxygen levels to make sure the damage doesn’t progress. Then they will move on to one or more of the treatments listed below.
- Surgery may be necessary to prevent the brain damage from progressing. For example, a surgeon may remove blood clots or damaged brain tissue, relieve skull pressure, or fix skull fractures.
- Medication varies depending on what the patient needs. If they’re seizing, a doctor will likely prescribe anticonvulsants. If blood clots are a concern, then a doctor may prescribe anticoagulants. If the patient is awake and panicking from their accident or injury, then a doctor may prescribe anti-anxiety medication.
- Therapy is often a necessity for victims of severe TBI’s. As stated previously, these victims can suffer lifelong disabilities. Therapy may improve physical pain, motor control, speech, learning, psychological distress, etc.
How To Prove Negligence in a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawsuit
Tragically, many people suffer traumatic brain injuries from someone else’s negligence. For example, maybe someone was texting and driving and crashed into the victim, causing their head trauma. That driver could be held liable, especially if the victim files a traumatic brain injury lawsuit.
Proving negligence in a traumatic brain injury claim is crucial for recovering maximum compensation. Traumatic brain injury lawyers at Bailey, Johnson & Peck can help you prove the following elements of negligence so that you can receive the best possible case outcome.
- Duty of Care: The defendant owed the victim a specific duty of care.
- Breached Duty of Care: The defendant breached that duty of care.
- Causation: A TBI is the direct result of the defendant’s breached duty of care.
- Damages: The victim suffered several types of damages that they should recover compensation for.
Types of Damages for Traumatic Brain Injuries
Victims can pursue compensation for many types of damages related to their brain injury, such as:
- Past and present medical bills
- Past and present rehabilitative bills
- Caretaking expenses
- Bills associated with expensive medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, walkers, hearing aids, etc.
- Lost wages
- Loss of earning capacity
- Emotional distress
- Physical pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of daily enjoyment in life
When you choose the legal team at Bailey, Johnson & Peck, you can rest assured that your personal injury case is in good hands. We fight tooth and nail for our TBI clients to receive the compensation they deserve to afford their new normal following a serious head injury.
How Bailey, Johnson & Peck Can Help a Traumatic Brain Injury Victim
A major accident can change your whole life in a matter of seconds. We know that TBI victims and their families don’t have the time or energy to focus on fighting a lengthy legal battle. That’s why it’s crucial to hire traumatic brain injury attorneys at Bailey, Johnson & Peck. We will handle all the stress that comes with a lawsuit while you and your family focus on healing. When you hire our experienced legal team to take on your traumatic brain injury case, we will:
- Thoroughly investigate your accident and gather evidence in order to prove the elements of negligence
- Hire a medical expert to analyze your medical records in order to help us prove how the defendant is responsible for your injuries
- Negotiate an appropriate settlement with the defendant and their legal team
- Defend you and your rights in court, especially if a settlement negotiation could not be reached
- Communicate with you and your family throughout the whole process
Call a New York Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Today
At Bailey, Johnson & Peck, we take traumatic brain injury cases very seriously. We know that no amount of money will ever reverse the physical, emotional, and neurological trauma you’ve suffered, but receiving justice may bring you a sense of peace during your healing. Call us today at 518-456-0082 for a free consultation.Practice Areas
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Our attorneys have extensive experience in personal injury law, including car accidents, slip-and-fall accidents, catastrophic injuries and wrongful death. If you have questions about insurance coverage and how to get the financial compensation you need, contact us today to see how we can help.
We have represented many clients on both sides of personal injury and insurance disputes. Let us use our depth of knowledge and experience to help you and your family get the medical care and financial compensation you need and deserve.
