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Significant Risk and Potentially Life-Altering Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury resulting from someone other party’s negligence, recklessness, or intentional conduct has the potential for truly life-altering consequences. Medical and rehabilitative care and treatment for a TBI goes “hand-in-hand” with ensuring that an injured person has capable, experienced, committed legal representation.

An overview of the more commonplace causes of a traumatic brain injury helps to underscore the importance of not only protecting the health of a TBI victim but the vital necessity of retaining a suitable personal injury lawyer or medical malpractice attorney, like a member of the Eldessouky Law legal team at 714-409-8991.

Causes of Traumatic Brain Injury

In the United States, traumatic brain injuries caused by the actions (or inactions) of someone else generally are classified in three different categories:

Negligent conduct (like failing to clean up a floor hazard at a market)
Reckless conduct (like driving while intoxicated)
Intentional conduct (like an assault)

There are seven more commonplace causes of traumatic brain injury. These are:

Motor Vehicle Collisions

Accidents involving passenger vehicles of all types, buses, and motorcycles represent some of the most frequent causes of traumatic brain injuries in the United States. This category of TBIs also includes people riding bicycles and pedestrians who are involved in collisions with motor vehicles.

A motor vehicle accident traumatic brain injury illustrates the manner in which an experienced personal injury attorney proves the key elements of this type of case. In order to prevail on a claim, four elements of negligence must be satisfied:

Duty of care
Breach of duty care
Breach caused the accident and injuries
A person sustained actual injuries

A driver has a legal duty to operate a motor vehicle in a reasonably safe manner. Engaging in conduct like speeding, running through a red light, texting while driving all represent examples of that duty of care being breached.

For the purposes of understanding how the elements necessary to prove negligence must be met, assume that one of the “breaches” resulted in the driver of the vehicle in question colliding with someone else. Finally, the victim of the collision must suffer tangible injuries, damages or losses. They cannot be speculative, something that might or might not develop at some vague time in the future.

These legal principles are best applied by a seasoned personal injury attorney from Eldessouky Law that you can reach by calling us at 714-409-8991.

Falls

Falls represent another primary category of accident that many times results in a traumatic brain injury. This includes everything from falls that happen in a residence to slip and fall incidents that occur in places of business and other locations.

Slips and falls truly are a leading cause of TBIs in the United States. And these oftentimes are the result of the negligence of someone else, like a store owner. Slip and fall accidents oftentimes necessitate a consideration of yet another legal doctrine, this one known as premises liability.

According to this doctrine, a merchant or other person or entity with property or facilities open to other people must maintain those premises in a reasonably safe condition. If there is a hazard on the premises (like spilled milk in the aisle of a grocery store, for example), the party in control of the property must rectify the danger in a reasonable period of time.

This is yet another example of a legal doctrine that is best understood and applied by a skilled personal injury lawyer.

Workplace Accidents

Yet another underlying cause of traumatic brain injuries is workplace accidents. A workplace accident that results in a TBI includes everything from falls from high places to workers being crushed by equipment and many other destructive incidents. Depending on the relationship between the worker and the entity responsible for the workplace, a worker with a TBI may be able to pursue a workers’ compensation claim or a personal injury lawsuit.

Recreational and Sports Injuries

Recreational activities and different sports can also result in traumatic brain injuries. An issue can arise as to whether another party beyond the victim of a TBI is responsible for the injury. TBIs of this nature tend to be one of two different types. First, there are sports related TBIs that are the result of repetitive injuries that develop into a more severe traumatic brain injury over time. Second, there are sports related TBIs that are the result of a single, very traumatic incident.

Violence

Violence represents yet another cause of traumatic brain injury. This includes assaults as well as being shot by a gun or victimized by some other type of weapon capable of causing traumatic injury. Domestic violence and shaken baby syndrome are examples of actions that can cause traumatic brain injury that also are classified as criminal.

A person who perpetrates some type of violent act on another can both be criminally prosecuted and subjected to a civil lawsuit for the conduct that gave rise to a TBI. Bear in mind that what are known as the “legal standards” for conviction of a crime (beyond a reasonable doubt) and for judgment in a civil lawsuit (preponderance of the evidence) are different. The criminal standard is a much more significant burden than what is necessary to demonstrate in order to “win” a civil lawsuit. Thus, it definitely is possible that a person might not end up convicted in criminal court of conduct that resulted in a victim sustaining a TBI but still be deemed liable or responsible for those actions and liable for the resulting injuries.

Combat Accidents

The U.S. Veterans Administration Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reports that there were almost 414,000 traumatic brain injuries among United States servicemembers between the years 2000 and 2019. Over 185,000 veterans that currently utilize the VA hospital system for their primary healthcare have been diagnosed as suffering from at least one TBI.

The most commonplace cause of traumatic brain injuries among veterans serving the United States is exposure to explosions. This includes being in an explosion blast zone. It also includes repeated exposure to the reverberations and aftershocks of more distant blasts.

Medical Error

A medical error associated with the care or treatment of a patient potentially can provide a situation in which a traumatic brain injury occurs. With that said, a majority of brain injury cases arising from some type of medical malpractice are the result of oxygen deprivation and not some type of trauma.

The prime example of a situation in which a traumatic brain injury arises from medical malpractice involves the labor, delivery, and birth process. With alarming regularity, a newborn infant suffers a traumatic brain injury as the result of improper application or use of forceps or a delivery vacuum. In some cases, these birth-related traumatic brain injuries can have truly debilitating, disabling consequences that result in a lifetime impairment.

The Compensation You Deserve After a Traumatic Brain Injury

If you or a loved one suffer a traumatic brain injury as the result of someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or even intentional conduct, justice for your losses can never be fully complete. The best that can be done is to obtain financial recompense in an amount that appropriately compensates you for your injuries, damages, and losses.

Computing financial compensation is a challenging task. The surest way of successfully obtaining the money you deserve following an accident that resulted in a TBI is to retain the services of a skilled, tenacious, experienced brain injury lawyer.

Possible compensation for a traumatic brain injury depends upon the facts and circumstances of the accident or incident giving rise to the brain damage. Compensation is also dependent upon the nature and extent of the brain injury itself. With this understood, common examples of losses for which compensation is sought in a brain injury claim or lawsuit include:

Medical bills and expenses
Pain and suffering
Mental anguish and emotional distress
Short-term disability
Long-term disability
Permanent disability
Lost wages

In a claim or case involving a brain injury, financial compensation is paid not only for existing or current losses but also those that are reasonably expected to occur into the future. The reality is that injuries, damages, and losses associated with a brain injury can persist for what may prove to be an extended period of time. Examples of these types of ongoing and reasonably foreseeable damages include:

Medical care and treatment, including rehabilitation
Lost wages
Pain and suffering
Mental anguish and emotional distress
Disability

In some cases, a brain injury attorney may be able to seek what are known as punitive damages in a TBI lawsuit. Punitive damages are additional financial compensation. Punitive damages successfully can be sought when the actions of the party that cause the accident or incident that caused a brain injury are considered particularly reckless. Punitive damages are designed not only to provide additional money to an injured individual but to serve as a form of punishment for particularly egregious conduct.

The Death of Loved One: Fatal Brain Injuries

As mentioned previously, thousands of people die each year as the result of a brain injury, 50,000 such cases attributed to trauma of some sort. If you’ve lost a family member as the result of a brain injury, there are some important facts you need to bear in mind.

Close family members, like spouses or children (as well as some other relatives depending on
the facts and circumstances of a person’s death) have the legal right to pursue what is known as a brain injury wrongful death case. An experienced brain injury lawyer can explain to you the legalities of pursuing a wrongful death claim and lawsuit.

Depending on the specific facts surrounding a family member’s death, compensation may be available for a number of losses that include:

Medical bills
Funeral and burial expenses
Lost companionship
Lost income or lost support
Mental anguish and emotional distress
Pain and suffering (endured by the deceased family member)

As is the case with a brain injury personal injury lawsuit, in some instances a claim may be made for punitive damages. Punitive damages may be available in a wrongful death case if the conduct of the party that caused the brain injury is deemed to be particularly egregious or reckless.

Our Legal Team on Your Side

As mentioned previously, if you or a loved one have sustained a traumatic brain injury as the result of the negligence, recklessness, or intentional conduct of some other party, the legal team at Eldessouky Law is on your side. You can reach our firm any time that is convenient for you by calling 714-409-8991. There is no charge and no obligation for a case evaluation with Eldessouky Law personal injury attorney.