In my view as an attorney who has represented numerous brain injured clients throughout the years, the human brain is the final frontier of modern medicine. There is much yet to be discovered. The more we understand the brain, the more we realize our misunderstanding of the brain.
A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can occur without actual trauma to the head. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can occur due the sudden acceleration and sudden deceleration of the brain caused by the whiplashing of the spine. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can also occur due to sudden rotation of the head. Since the brain is encased inside of a hard and rigid bony cage we know as the skull, certain sudden movements of the head can cause Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
In many cases of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), there is no loss of consciousness nor bleeding (hemorrhage or hematoma) in the brain. While a person may have suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) from an accident, the initial examination in the emergency room may fail to diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and/or the symptoms associated with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). This failure to initially diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or symptoms associated with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can lead to a misunderstanding that the victim did not suffer Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a result of a certain accident.
There are approximately 1.4 million new brain injuries in the US each year. Approximately 85% of these injuries are considered mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI). The term mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) is misleading since it appears to lessen the nature of the injury to the brain and the impact to the person's ability to function cognitively and emotionally. Furthermore, impairments from mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) are often permanent and require ongoing treatment and medication.
Over the past few years doctors and scientists have worked together in an effort to better understand the brain by developing various neuro-imaging techniques. These new non-invasive techniques are allowing us to visualize the brain in ways to understand it's function and lack of function.
At our firm, we work closely with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) experts to combine neuro-imaging investigative tools with the clinical picture from the diagnoses of the psychologist or psychiatrist to prove the dysfunction and impairment of the brain despite the fact that there was no loss of consciousness or bleeding as commonly misunderstood.
In 2010, my firm obtained an offer of $5,000,000.00 on a mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) case where there was no reported loss of consciousness when the ambulance arrived nor in the emergency room. The victim suffered other injuries to his shoulder, neck and back. Within two (2) years of taking over the case from another firm, my firm was able to secure a $5,000,000.00 offer for what I believe to be mainly for a mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI).