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Traumatic brain injury is one of the most
common serious injuries that require the services of an auto
accident attorney. Each year, it is estimated that one million
people nationwide experience a head injury, with 50,000 to
100,000 of them suffering long-term problems that limit their
ability to work or take care of themselves. Today, about 5
million Americans are living with disabilities caused by traumatic
brain injury, and the great majority of these injuries began
with a car accident.
Drivers and passengers throughout Tampa,
Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Pasco, Orlando, Lakeland, Sarasota,
and the rest of central Florida may be subjected to traumatic
brain injury in almost any type of car accident. Even fender
benders and other minor accidents that cause no external injuries
– not even bruising – can leave the brain damaged. This is
a special challenge for an auto accident attorney who is fighting
for compensation for a client with traumatic brain injury.
If the client shows no visible signs of an injury, insurance
company adjusters or jury members may wonder, “How is it possible
that your client has traumatic brain injury, when there is
no obvious injury anywhere on the body?”
Often, a car
accident attorney will rely upon medical experts to explain
how traumatic brain injury happens and why the symptoms of
these injuries are severe:
- Bleeding and bruising on the brain—When
an auto accident causes a car to come to a sudden stop,
a great deal of force is transferred to the occupants of
the car. This force may cause the soft flesh of the brain
to literally bounce around inside the rough, bony skull.
Within hours or days, blood begins to leak and bruises develop
inside the skull, increasing pressure that crushes and kills
brain tissue. If the damage is extensive, it may lead to
permanent disabilities or car
accident fatalities. All of this can happen without
any visible injuries outside the body.
- Stretching, twisting, and tearing of
nerve endings—When the head is thrown forward and back in
a whiplash motion, the brain is thrown back and forth inside
the skull, damaging nerve endings and cutting off the signals
inside the brain. Since this damage is microscopic, it often
cannot be seen on an X-ray, CT scan, or MRI, but the damage
becomes obvious in the patient’s loss of consciousness,
headaches, loss of memory, fatigue, and other symptoms .
- Direct trauma to the brain—If the head
hits a hard object during the accident, it may cause a variety
of direct injuries to the brain such as an epidural hematoma
(blood collecting between the skull and brain tissue) or
by pieces of broken skull penetrating the brain.
If you or a loved one has suffered traumatic
brain injury in a central Florida car accident, please contact
an auto accident attorney from Kennedy Law Group for a free
first consultation about your case. We are here to help residents
throughout the area, from Tampa to Sarasota, Lakeland to Pasco,
and St Petersburg to Clearwater.
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