When someone is involved in a serious car, truck or motorcycle accident, brain injury is a very real possibility. TBI often involves damage to different areas of the brain that generates long-term disabilities and in some cases, death. The complexity of brain anatomy makes TBI difficult to diagnose and repair. Due to this, if you are in a motorcycle accident in Ohio, you need to make sure you have a brain scan done immediately and continue to follow through with more scans as TBI tends to be progressive. Make sure to contact an Ohio brain injury lawyer as soon as possible to see if you qualify for a personal injury settlement.
What You Should Know About Traumatic Brain Injuries
Dealing with a brain injury lawsuit can be complicated. Reach out to the Chester Law Group for a consultation.
There are a number of factors involved when one suffers from a brain injury. How serious your brain injury becomes depends on the direction, intensity, and duration of all the forces involved during your accident. This means that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is caused by brain damage that occurred due to the changes in acceleration one suffers from when they are in a car accident. Anything from coup-contrecoup, rotational, and angular to translational forces could lead to a forceful head movement where the brain is smashed against the skull. The physics of TBI mechanisms are listed below in terms of direction of impact and head rotations.
Coup-contrecoup Force
Brain damage, hematomas and/or contusions can occur directly under the position of impact or they can occur on the opposite side of impact. The brain actually ricochets inside the skull. Remember that the brain is floating in fluid and can move around inside somewhat. Medically, this is called a coup-contrecoup mechanism.
Coup means the brain crashed against the same side of the skull in the impact and contrecoup means the brain crashed on the opposite side of the skull in the impact. If your head is hit by a moving object, then you will experience a coup injury or same-side injury. If your head is moving and you are hit by a stationary object, you will experience contrecoup or opposite side injury.
In vehicle accidents, it is common for your head to crash forward and then go backwards in your skull, leading to coup-contrecoup. This motion has an arch to it such that your head will bend forward, backward or from side to side. With sudden acceleration/deceleration, you can produce rotational or shear forces that affect the brain without impact In this case, the brainstem (your neck) is damaged no matter the direction of change. This causes the brain stem to press against the spinal column and leads to concussions and hematomas in the brain.
Angular Force
Angular changes in head movement or an angular impact causes an interaction between the head and neck, causing them to twist. If this occurs with a high velocity acceleration and short duration, blood vessels at the surface of the brain will become injured. If angular changes occur with high velocity acceleration and long duration, you end up with fiber tract damage (axon bundles)
Transitional Force
Pure translational acceleration occurs when the head moves in a straight line due to changes in acceleration. Remember that the brain is floating in fluid, so it keeps moving in a straight line and crashes into the skull which causes focal injuries at the site of the brain crash as well as internal hematomas.
Rotational Force
Rotational accelerations (moving the head left and right) cause concussions, brain stem damage, and diffuse axonal injury on the surface of the brain and deep within.
Combinations of all the above impacts and changes in direction or acceleration produce every type of head injury. Many serious motorcycle accidents include all the physical mechanisms producing serious brain injury.
Can an Ohio Brain Injury Lawyer Help My Case?
If you have been seriously hurt in a truck or motorcycle accident and experienced a traumatic brain injury, you may be entitled to financial compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, and lost wages. These types of accidents often involve long-term medical care and severe pain so you need to consider the cost of continued medical care and loss of your ability to earn wages in the future.
Your brain injury lawyer will be able to to provide the direction you need to be properly compensated. The Chester Law Group is a personal injury law firm experienced in truck and motorcycle accidents involving spinal and brain injuries and can guide you through a personal injury settlement. It is important that you consult with an Ohio brain injury lawyer before you attend a Defense Medical Exam (DME) with your doctor. If you already have an exam planned, do not ask your doctor for any advice. Your personal injury lawyer will advise you every step of the way. Call the attorneys at Chester Law Group today at (800)218-4243 to get the help you want from people that you can trust.