Articles Posted in Brain Injury

Whenever someone receives an injury to the head, it is generally a good idea to determine whether the victim had suffered a concussion or other type to traumatic brain injury. In the old days, a person who was knocked unconscious was often shaken or administered smelling salts, and that would be all the care they received.  Years of medical research has proven that this is not the safest practice.

These days, we often hear about head injury protocols being taken when someone suffers a head injury or impact.  We often see if the person is oriented as to person, place, time, and date.  This is known as being oriented times four to first responders and mental health professionals.  It is in professional sports where we often hear that these protocols are being performed, and we have to wait see if the person suffered a concussion. Continue reading

In the past 10 to 15 years, doctors and researchers have made a lot of progress in treating traumatic brain injury.  One of the main reasons for this was because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Unlike in previous wars in which the United States has been engaged, our military had the technology to get wounded soldiers, sailors, and civilians off the battlefield and to a medical treatment facility, despite grievous injuries.

Much of these medical evacuations from the battlefield were due to the brave and amazing work of United States Air Force Pararescue Jumpers (PJs) and their counterparts in other branches of the military.  In the past, a soldier who suffered a massive head injury was likely given morphine by a medic or hospital corpsman and died on the battlefield. Today, the military is able to get them to a combat support hospital, and then via airlift to a level one trauma center in Germany within a matter of hours.  Continue reading

When we think of serious brain injuries, we often think about soldiers returning home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and about professional athletes. The new movie Concussion, starring Will Smith, focuses on how repeated hard hits to the head can result in serious concussions. Unlike in the past when we didn’t take concussions all that seriously, we not know they can lead to serious and permanent brain damage or death.

However, as doctors are now learning, a patient does not need to suffer a major head injury to get serious brain damage. In some cases, a hard bump on the head that would normally just hurt for a little while could result in a serious brain injury. This is why you should never refuse medical attention if you suffer an injury. You may not know the full extent of the damage, and, if you wait, you may delay getting necessary treatment. You will also make it harder to succeed in a typical personal injury case, because it may be more difficult to prove your injury was a result of the accident that was someone else’s fault. Continue reading

Any personal injury lawsuit filed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts often involves significantly more complexity than other types lawsuits if a plaintiff suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). It doesn’t matter whether the lawsuit is filed under a negligence-based theory or intention torts-based theory, such as assault and battery, because, regardless of causation, proving damages will require extensive medical documentation and expert testimony.

One of the reasons for this is that, despite all doctors have learned about the human brain and traumatic brain injury in the last decade or so, there is still much doctors and researchers do not understand. However, there is no question that there have been tremendous strides in the fields of neurology and neurosurgery, and this is largely due the large number of serious brain injury cases during recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While war and injuries are clearly nothing new, this war marks the first time in our history that the military had the technology to effectively evacuate many of the casualties and get them in an operating room within a matter of minutes or hours. In past wars, such as Vietnam, the wounded soldiers were not evacuated in time and died from their injures. Today, we have many more survivors, but that often means survivors with a traumatic brain injury. Continue reading