Personal Injury Lawyer

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost two million people each year suffer some type of brain injury. More than 50,000 of those victims will die because of their injuries. Children, especially those younger than 5 years of age, teens between the ages of 15 and 19, and seniors who are over the age of 65 are the age groups who are especially at risk of brain injury caused by an accident.

How Do Brain Injuries Happen?

Any type of blow to the head can result in injury to the brain, but statistics show that the following are the most common types of accidents which result in brain injuries:

Slip and Fall Accidents: These are the most common types of accident which cause brain injuries, responsible for almost 40 percent of reported brain injuries. Half of all children younger than 14 sustain brain injuries in slip and fall incidents. More than 80 percent of all reported brain injuries in seniors are the result of a slip and fall.

Blunt Trauma: The second most common cause of brain injuries is blunt trauma. This can happen when a victim is hit with an object or they are pushed and their head makes impact with a hard object, such as a sports injury.

Vehicle Accidents: Vehicle accidents are the third most common types of accident that causes injury to the brain, but they are the second leading cause of all fatal brain injury accidents. Car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle, and pedestrian accidents all fall under this category.

Brain Injury Types

There are three different categories of brain injuries:

• Concussion: A concussion can occur when there is any type of sudden movement to the head which causes violent shaking of the brain and makes it bounce around inside the skull. Two-thirds of all brain injuries are classified as concussions.
• Contusion: When there is some type of blunt trauma or blow to the victim’s head, it can cause a contusion which causes bleeding on the brain.
• Coup-Contrecoup: When the brain is injured at the site where impact is made, it can cause the brain to slam into the opposite side of the skull, causing a coup-contrecoup injury.

How quickly a victim recovers and what type of long-term or permanent effects they are left with depends on how severe the brain injury is. The more serious the injury is, the more medical treatments will be required and the longer it will take to recover.

The medical expenses, loss of income, pain, and suffering, and other losses the victim suffers are all damages the at-fault party may be legally responsible for. Contact a law firm today to speak with a brain injury attorney,  like a personal injury lawyer in Trenton, NJ, and find out what legal options you may have.

Call Davis & Brusca, LLC to learn more about personal injury.