Brain Injury Symptoms After a Car Accident to Look Out For

Your morning commute almost turns deadly when another driver runs the red light and slams into you at nearly 60 miles per hour. You don’t see it coming. You don’t even remember it after the fact.

Fortunately for you, emergency crews cut your seat belt, get you out of the wreckage of your motor vehicle, and rush you to the hospital. Medical professionals give you immediate medical care and extensive medical treatment. They save your life. You only remember bits and pieces from when you lost consciousness of the process, but you know what they did for you.

The tragic downside is that your brain injury is serious, despite being considered one of the common car accident injuries. They warn you that you may never fully recover. You’re lucky to be alive. The car crash caused severe injuries in the form of a head injury known as a traumatic brain injury (TBI). There are three score ranges or types of TBI/traumatic brain injury; Mild TBI, Moderate TBI, and Severe TBI. Mild traumatic brain injury (Mild TBI) may only require rest and allowing the body to heal. In contrast, brain trauma from a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (Severe TBI), such as a gunshot wound or another penetrating injury (open head injury), can last a lifetime and significantly impact your quality of life.

You are aware that head trauma like this could still change your life. You know, personal injury of this nature can reduce brain function, affect brain cells, and require years of ongoing medical attention. The severe TBI from your auto accident could affect parts of the brain, causing memory loss and more. The damages can vary greatly depending on the severity of the injury and the type of injury, with diffuse axonal injury (DAI) and contrecoup (where the brain is injured on multiple sides due to the shaking inside of the skull). Gunshot wounds and motor vehicle accident victims are often the cases with the most serious injuries and potential for brain tissue damage.

It will never again be the same as it was a few seconds before you drove into that fateful intersection. Beyond the medical bills, hospitalization, and ongoing medical care, how you and your family members will deal with this traumatic brain injury (TBI) will affect the rest of your lives. 

While having a healthcare professional such as a neurologist perform x-rays, Computer Tomography (CT scans), Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other imaging tests during hospitalization, there are symptoms you can watch out for to determine if you or a loved one has suffered a brain injury. Such as clear fluid draining from the nose or clear fluids draining from the ears. Your medical providers will be able to give you and your loved ones the best medical care for your situation.

What types of car accident brain injury symptoms and changes might you experience from a head injury like a traumatic brain injury (TBI)?

Changes to the Senses

Brain damage can impact your major senses, such as sight, hearing, and even taste. These senses can be altered or lost completely. For instance, this impairment may cause you to have blurry vision or be unable to see. It could clear up with treatment and recovery, as your brain heals, or the changes could last forever from the TBI. When the brain is damaged, and axons, which connect nerve fibers in the brain, become damaged, then signals can not find the right path. This can happen from violent shaking or even the brain rotating during a skull fracture under extreme external forces, potentially leading to an internal hemorrhage, blood vessels being damaged, or the blood vessels rupturing.

The Loss of Abilities

You could also lose some of your learned abilities, even if they seem like basic abilities that you take for granted, depending on what areas of the brain were affected by the traumatic brain injury. For example, some people struggle and experience a loss of balance, finding it hard to walk, with the risk of falling and sustaining a contusion. Blurred vision is another possibility of a head injury from a car accident. They certainly cannot run or participate in other complex activities. Others have trouble speaking. They may not be able to find the right words, or they may not be able to talk at all. Reduced brain function in these areas may or may not return, and other life-threatening conditions, such as a hematoma (blood clot), may occur.

Cognitive Problems

As you probably expect when you hear about brain injuries, it is a common cause of memory loss, and you may struggle with cognitive problems in the wake of the crash from the violent shaking experienced. Your brain does not work as smoothly as it did before. For instance, you could have trouble problem-solving or making decisions. Things that were easy to you before are now complex and challenging to grasp. You feel like your abilities have regressed. These come from as little as a mild concussion or a severe TBI. This can also lead to someone slipping into a coma, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rates on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS).

Mood Changes

One thing that many neurologists, neuropsychologists, and caregivers note is that people’s moods and even their personalities tend to change after traumatic brain injuries. You could go through mood swings that keep everyone else on edge. Simple things could make you far angrier than they should. Your fundamental personality how you handle yourself and interact with others may be so different that family members don’t even know you anymore.

When is Legal Help Necessary?

Living with catastrophic injuries is not easy. After an accident, make sure you know your rights to financial compensation. You don’t have to deal with car accident brain injury symptoms alone.

The injury attorneys at Townsend Law, LLC have been fighting for serious injury victims for years and have experience in traumatic brain injury cases.

Contact us today for a free case evaluation, and let our personal injury lawyers help you and your family.