In the United States, one individual sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every 19 seconds, totaling approximately 1.7 million individuals each year. Brain injuries range from mild to moderate to severe. Every injury is different, but when a brain is injured, it can affect everything from the ability to remember to the ability to control or regulate emotions.
Brain Injury Signs and Symptoms
TBIs are unfortunately common. Symptoms depend on the severity of the injury. Mayo Clinic lists the following symptoms:
- Loss of consciousness/unresponsiveness
- Confusion, disorientation
- Impaired concentration, cognition, and memory
- Inappropriate emotional responses
- Headache and dizziness
- Fatigue and drowsiness
- Sleep disturbances
- Impaired balance
- Clear or blood-tinged leakage from ears or nose
- Droopy eyelids and facial weakness
- Hearing changes or ringing in the ears
- Vision changes (e.g., blurred or double vision)
- Changes in speech (e.g., slurring)
- Difficulty breathing and swallowing
- Slow pulse
- Muscle weakness
- Loss of bowel or bladder control
- Nausea and vomiting
- Numbness or tingling
- Paralysis
- Seizures
Although medical technology has been essential for treating persons who have experienced a TBI, those who survive often will continue to require treatment and special resources to live and function as normally as they can. This also means that medical professionals and brain injury lawyers must face significant challenges to ensure that persons with a TBI have continued access to the long-term care needed for many survivors.
What Are TBI Recoverable Damages?
A victim of a TBI should receive some relief from the tremendous financial burden of this potentially devastating injury. Moreover, individuals whose negligence, incompetence, or egregiousness caused the incident that led to your pain and suffering should be liable for related losses. Working with a brain injury lawyer in New Port Richey can help you get the justice and compensation you deserve.
Here are some of the damages you can recover:
- Medical expenses, which may include past, present, and future costs
- Costs associated with an assisted-living home or long-term treatment plans
- Lost wages and income and lost future earnings
- Property damage
If you have been the victim of a TBI, you may encounter many more challenges aside from monetary obligations. The human brain controls all bodily functions, including abilities such as moving, sensing, thinking, and recalling information.
Many of these abilities will be impaired when the brain is damaged, and some may be entirely lost. This is another reason why a brain injury attorney may be beneficial to help you get reimbursed for non-economic damages, such as the following:
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of consortium
- Physical pain and suffering
- Mental and emotional pain and suffering
- Loss of reputation
Recovering From a Brain Injury With the Help of Your Attorney
Your life would likely still be challenging if you only had to deal with physical and mental rehab following a brain injury. As healthcare bills accumulate, however, those who suffer from brain injuries and their loved ones may feel as if they are inundated in debt. Receiving relief can be as simple as hiring competent brain injury lawyers to collect evidence and navigate the complex legal system. We can help you with the following:
Qualifying for Workers’ Compensation
If your TBI accident occurred at work, Florida workers’ compensation might offer some protection. Florida employers typically offer this insurance to provide money for lost wages and medical benefits to workers injured or made ill on the job. Our brain injury attorneys offer a free consultation to those who want to ensure they receive reasonable compensation for their job-related brain injury accident claim.
Filing Medical Insurance Claims
Regarding insurance claims, details are often indispensable. Some applicants encounter issues due to missed deadlines, lack of proper documentation, or errors on paperwork. For this reason, sometimes, the more effective course of action may be to contact a brain injury lawyer to help you initiate a claim. There’s still hope if you are stuck in the insurance process or have received a rejection letter from the company.
Seeking Damages for Negligence
Negligence is a fancy word for carelessness. If another party(s) played a significant role in your TBI accident by being negligent, they could be held liable in a court of law that can order responsible parties to pay monetary damages for your losses. For example, someone’s action (or inaction) might have contributed to your brain injury, such as a drunk driver that caused an accident in which you were involved.
In other instances, companies are responsible for injuries, such as if airbags failed to deploy in an accident due to a defect. Similarly, malpractice can occur when healthcare providers inflict damage to patients in some part of their diagnosis or treatment.
Brain Injury Treatment in New Port Richey
Just as no two people are exactly alike, no two brain injuries are the same. For many individuals, brain injury treatment is a complex field of medical rehabilitation. The Brain Injury Association [2] of America suggests that there are numerous treatment options for those suffering a severe brain injury:
- Intensive Care Unit – The goals in the ICU include achieving medical stability, medical management, and prevention of medical crisis.
- Acute Rehabilitation – During acute rehabilitation, a team of health professionals with experience and training in brain injury works with the patient to regain as many activities of daily living as possible.
- Postacute Rehabilitation – When patients are well enough to participate in more intensive therapy, they may be transferred to a postacute rehabilitation setting, such as a residential rehabilitation facility. The goal of postacute rehabilitation is to help the patient regain the most independent level of functioning possible.
- Outpatient Therapy – Following acute or postacute rehabilitation, a person with a brain injury may continue to receive outpatient therapies to maintain and/or enhance their recovery. Individuals whose injuries were not severe enough to require hospitalization or who were not diagnosed as having a brain injury when the incident occurred may attend outpatient therapies to address functional impairments.
- Independent living programs – Independent living programs provide housing for persons with brain injury with the goal of regaining the ability to live as independently as possible. Usually, independent living programs will have several different levels to meet the needs of people requiring more assistance and therapies as well as those who are living independently and being monitored.
Contact a Brain Injury Attorney’s Team Serving New Port Richey Today
The effects of a brain injury can be dramatic and life-long, causing temporary or even permanent injuries. If you have suffered a brain injury, speak to your New Port Richey personal injury lawyers.
At Dolman Law Group, in New Port Richey, Florida, our team of highly skilled brain injury lawyers have helped many victims obtain the recovery they need for their injuries and related losses. These can include lost wages, medical expenses, and pain and suffering. Please contact our office today for a free consultation.
Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA – New Port Richey Office
5924 Main St
New Port Richey, FL 34652
(727) 477-9660
References:
[1] https://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2012/03/t20120319a.html
[2] https://www.biausa.org/brain-injury-treatment.htm