New York City, NY top attorney, handles MTA, bus accidents, medical malpractice, doctor errors, wrongful death, airline injuries & death, and construction cases. Attorney Jonathan C. Reiter consistently delivers results.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans suffer about 1.7 million brain injuries every year. While there are many causes of brain injuries, car accidents are a leading cause of traumatic brain injury and concussion.
When someone is involved in a car accident, the impact may cause his or her head and body to be thrown back and forth violently. This force can cause the brain to strike the inside of the skull and sustain serious trauma. In other car accident cases, the impact of the accident causes a passenger’s head to collide with an object inside of the car, for example, a window or steering wheel resulting in additional trauma to the brain. People can also experience a life-altering brain injury when they are ejected from the vehicle and hit their head on the pavement or another object.
If you’ve been involved in a car accident or any other type of accident, and you think you may have suffered a brain injury, help is available. You may be entitled to compensation for your injuries, which is why it’s important to work with an experienced New York City car accident lawyer.
Open and Closed Brain Injuries
Medical professionals break brain injuries down into two main groups: open brain injuries and closed brain injuries. As you might guess from the names, an open brain injury is an injury that involves penetration of the skull. The injury can be caused by an actual fracture of the bone or an object or projectile that enters the skull from the outside. A person also suffers an open brain injury when they are struck in the head by a bullet.
By contrast, a closed brain injury involves trauma on the inside of the skull without any fracture or penetration. While it may sound like a closed brain injury is less serious than an open brain injury, this is not always the case.
Some of the most serious brain injuries occur when the brain bounces off the inside of the skull, resulting in tears or bleeding. Some types of closed brain injuries also cause excessive swelling in the brain, which can lead to permanent injury and death.
Brain Injury Symptoms
After suffering a car accident, injury victims don’t always realize they have suffered a brain injury. When you’re involved in a car crash, your body does whatever it can to protect itself, including releasing adrenaline. The surge of adrenaline can temporarily mask the symptoms of any injury, including a dangerous brain injury.
Unfortunately, some brain injury victims go for weeks, months, or even longer before they receive a diagnosis. Because brain injury symptoms can vary widely from person to person, and because they often mimic symptoms of other injuries, it can sometimes take doctors time to determine that an individual has suffered a brain injury.
Everyone is different, but some of the most common signs of a brain injury include:
- Headaches that never seem to go away and progressively get worse
- Ongoing nausea and vomiting
- Convulsions
- Seizures
- Difficulty waking up
- Enlarged or non-reactive pupils
- Slurred speech
- Numbness, tingling, or weakness in the extremities
- Difficulty concentrating
- Lack of coordination and motor skills
- Confusion
- Mood changes, such as irritability or agitation
Cerebral concussion is a type of brain injury that is getting increasing media attention because of scientific studies documenting the terrible long-term effects of such injuries on athletes, such as football players, boxers and soccer players. However, experienced attorneys have long known of the very serious consequences endured by accident victims who have suffered cerebral concussions from automobile accidents, construction accidents, falls and other traumatic events.
When doctors assess someone for a possible brain injury, they may ask a number of questions and perform numerous tests. These tests can become very costly, which is why it’s important for someone involved in a car accident to work with an experienced New York City car accident lawyer. No one should have to take on the heavy burden of medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses due to another person’s negligent driving without the help of an experienced attorney.
Filing a Car Accident Claim After a Brain Injury
If you have an injury as a result of a car accident, your first step should be to seek medical treatment. Your health should be your first priority, and only a doctor can tell you what kind of treatment you should receive.
It’s also important to see a doctor to avoid any delays between the accident and your initial doctor’s visit. If you wait too long, the insurance company may try to argue that you weren’t actually hurt in the accident, or that a separate event caused the injury in the time between the accident and your treatment.
Once you have seen a doctor, you should consider speaking to experienced New York City car accident lawyer Jonathan C. Reiter. There are time limits for filing a car accident claim, and delaying could mean missing out on your chance to receive the compensation you deserve.
Unnecessary delays could also make it more difficult to gather and preserve important evidence that supports your case. For example, an accident scene can quickly degrade after a hard rain or with the passage of time. Similarly, the memories of eyewitnesses can fade much faster than you might realize. Your lawyer can help you safeguard critical evidence, allowing you to focus on improving your health and recovering from the car accident.
Manhattan Car Accident Lawyer Jonathan C. Reiter
(T): 212-736-0979
JONATHAN C. REITER LAW FIRM, PLLC.
350 5th Ave Suite 6400, New York, NY 10118
Sources:
- https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html
- https://medlineplus.gov/headinjuries.html
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