Alexandria Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

The Serious Impact of a Head Trauma

Head injuries can be as mild as bumps or contusions, but they can also be as dangerous as internal bleeding, fractured skull bones, or traumatic brain injuries. These traumas can disable a person for life, affect their memory and coordination, cause seizures and even death. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) annually. Even if the trauma does not result in death, serious medical conditions can result from injury to the brain, such as:

• Memory loss (amnesia) and confusion
• Impaired cognitive skills and performance
• Vision or hearing loss or impairment
• Dizziness or balance problems
• Coma
• Paralysis
• Reading or learning disabilities
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

Traumatic Brain Injury Diagnostic Criteria

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury, and there are distinctions to the level of severity of traumatic brain injury a person can suffer that are classified as mild, moderate, and severe. A person suffering from a concussion is usually diagnosed as suffering from a mild traumatic brain injury, however, depending on the symptoms, the injured person can certainly be diagnosed as also suffering from a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury. Similar to concussions, there is no one single test to classify one severity compared to another, but treating doctors do follow certain guidelines to diagnose the severity of a traumatic brain injury.

Loss of Consciousness: Loss of consciousness is a way of diagnosing a traumatic brain injury. The amount of time someone experiences loss of consciousness can be a criteria used in diagnosing the severity of any traumatic brain injury. If someone is unconscious for less than twenty minutes, it is considered a mild traumatic brain injury. Being unconscious less than six hours after being admitted to a hospital is considered a moderate traumatic brain injury, and being unconscious for more than six hours after being admitted to a hospital is considered a severe traumatic brain injury. This is just a general template some medical professionals follow; doctors use a number of other considerations to determine the severity of the traumatic brain injury.

Glasgow Coma Scale: A Glasgow Come Scale is another metric used to measure the severity of traumatic brain injuries. It is based on a scale from 1-15, a patient scoring a 13-15 will be considered suffering from a mild traumatic brain injury, 9-12 as suffering from a moderate traumatic brain injury, and anything 8 and below is a severe traumatic brain injury. The score is based on cognitive functions exhibited by the patient—eye opening, motor, and verbal responses.

Imaging Studies: If someone suffers from a traumatic brain injury, one of the first things a treating emergency room physician usually does is order imaging of the head, typically a CT or MRI scan. This can show objective findings of a traumatic brain injury in the form of a skull fracture, contusions, and/or intracranial hemorrhage. These findings can also result in emergency surgery.