Brain Injury

A brain injury can significantly impact a person’s life. If you suffered a brain injury in an accident, you may be facing weeks, months, or a lifetime of medical treatment and rehabilitation. Even once you have made as full a recovery as possible, you may still have disabilities caused by your brain injury that interfere with your personal and professional life. If your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence or recklessness, you deserve to seek accountability and justice for the trauma and losses you have endured.

Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas has a long track record of helping accident victims secure full compensation in brain injury claims. For more than 60 years, our St. Petersburg brain injury lawyers have represented the rights and interests of individuals and families who are coping with catastrophic injuries. Our clients are more than just case numbers to us. We take a proactive role in our clients’ recoveries, doing everything we can to help not only with your legal claim but also your treatment, rehabilitation, and other challenges that arise.

Contact us today for a free consultation with a brain injury lawyer in St. Petersburg. Our full-service law firm can connect you with trusted medical specialists and help families deal with related issues such as setting up guardianship for victims who can no longer care for themselves. Let us take some of the pressure off you during this extremely difficult time.

When Can You File a Personal Injury Claim After a Traumatic Brain Injury?

If you sustained a traumatic brain injury in an accident caused by someone else, you may be entitled to file a personal injury claim to recover compensation for the losses you suffered. In a personal injury case, you need to be able to show that your accident resulted from someone’s negligence, recklessness, or other wrongdoing. For example, if you were hit by a negligent driver or fell and hit your head due to a dangerous condition of somebody else’s property, you can seek financial recovery for your medical expenses, missed wages, and other losses.

To discuss the specific details of your case, please reach out to our St. Petersburg brain injury lawyers for a free consultation. We do not charge any fees upfront to work on your case. In fact, you only pay us if we recover money for you.

Demanding Compensation for a Traumatic Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury may require months of treatment, potentially followed by a lifetime of personal care. As a result, accident victims deserve full compensation for a TBI. That includes financial recovery for expenses and losses such as:

Medical treatment expenses, including hospital stays, surgeries, visits with specialists, therapy and rehabilitation, prescriptions, and medical or mobility equipment
Long-term care facilities
Loss of earnings from missed work, or lost future income if your brain injury results in permanent disabilities that prevent you from returning to your old job
Emotional trauma and physical pain from the accident and your injury
Loss of enjoyment or quality of life due to reduced life expectancy or due to disabilities interfering with your ability to perform daily tasks or participate in activities you previously enjoyed

Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury

The symptoms that a person who has suffered a traumatic brain injury experiences may vary depending on the type and severity of the injury. Symptoms that can occur in mild TBIs include:

Momentary loss of consciousness
Feeling disoriented or dazed
Confusion and memory or concentration problems
Dizziness
Abrupt mood changes or swings
Newly developed depression or anxiety
Sleeping problems, including difficulty falling asleep or sleeping longer than normal

Headache
Nausea and vomiting
Fatigue
Drowsiness
Speech issues
Sensitivity to sound and/or light
Changes to senses, including vision problems, ringing in the ears, or a bad taste in the mouth

Symptoms of a more severe TBI can include:

Loss of consciousness that lasts for an extended period of time or falling into a coma.
Slurred speech
Profound confusion
Unusual behaviors, including combativeness or loss of inhibitions
Persistent headaches

Persistent nausea and vomiting
Seizures
Dilation of the pupils
Draining of clear fluids from the ears or nose
Balance and coordination issues
Weakness or numbness in hands and feet

Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injuries

Treatment for a mild brain injury may be limited to rest, along with taking over-the-counter pain relievers to help with headaches and pain. A person who has suffered a mild TBI should still be monitored for several days after the injury for persistent or worsening symptoms, which may indicate a more serious injury.

Moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries typically require direct medical intervention. Immediate emergency treatment for a TBI is aimed at ensuring the brain has sufficient blood and oxygen flow and at preventing further injury. Treatment options immediately following a serious TBI can include:

Medications, such as drugs aimed at reducing fluid buildup or swelling around the brain, anti-seizure medications, or drugs used to induce a coma to reduce the brain’s activity and blood flow

Surgery, which may be performed to remove blood clots, stop bleeding in the brain, treat skull fractures, or relieve pressure in the brain

After a serious TBI has been stabilized, an injury victim’s treatment shifts to rehabilitation to help the person improve motor and speech skills and regain independence and the ability to perform daily activities.

Common Types of Brain Injury

Common types of brain injuries that a person can suffer in an accident include:

Concussion

Traumatic brain injury, in which brain tissues are damaged due to physical trauma or force applied to the head or brain

Aneurysm, an injury that involves the walls of a blood vessel in the brain weakening and swelling, damaging the surrounding tissues

Hemorrhage, or a brain bleed, which can be caused either by a blow to the head or by a ruptured aneurysm

Encephalitis, inflammation of brain tissue usually caused by infection

Hydrocephalus, or a buildup of fluid inside the skull that can put pressure on and damage the brain

Anoxic/hypoxic brain injury, or damage to brain tissues caused by a decrease or loss of oxygen flow to the brain

Coup-contrecoup injury, which impacts both the side of the brain where the impact occurred and the opposite side