Common InjuriesTraumatic Brain Injury Lawyers

Bowie and Annapolis concussion lawyer George Patterson has handled dozens of personal injury cases involving concussions. Concussions otherwise known as Traumatic Brain Injuries (“TBI”) are often caused in car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents and pedestrian accidents. Concussions may be caused by a direct impact, but also by sudden acceleration or deceleration. These are the forces that are seen in motor vehicle accidents. This article is not meant as a substitute for medical or legal advice for cases involving traumatic brain injuries. The article highlights information from a personal injury lawyer that has litigated head injury cases and cross-examined experts that treat and diagnose traumatic brain injuries.

Emergency room doctors are concerned with unstable or life threatening injuries. If you are alert and a CT scan has failed to show a bleed in the brain you will most likely be discharged by the emergency room doctors. Being cleared for discharge does not mean that you did not and are not suffering from a brain injury that is also known as a concussion. Medical care handled by a chiropractor, orthopedic doctor or primary care physician probably is an indication that you are not being fully evaluated and treated for post-concussive symptoms. It is very common to see medical records of people that suffered a concussion with little to no documentation of their post-concussive symptoms contained in their medical records. Insurance companies will not compensate victims of concussions when the injury is not documented. The compensation offered will be based on the documentation.

Bowie concussion lawyer George Patterson has lectured nationally to trial lawyers about the best approaches to pursuing personal injury cases involving concussions or traumatic brain injuries.

Traumatic brain injuries or concussions produce a variety of symptoms. The concussion lawyers at Patterson Law routinely assist clients that suffered traumatic brain injuries. If you have any of these symptoms following an accident they should immediately be reported to your doctor:

• Tinnitus – Ringing in the ears
• Headaches
• Sensitivity to light
• Sensitivity to sound
• Vomiting
• Nausea
• Slurred speech
• Loss of coordination
• Difficulty finding words
• Sleep problems
• Depression
• Lethargy
• Difficulty concentrating
• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Changes in mood like irritability
• Difficulty with identifying, processing, understanding or describing emotions
• Dilated pupils

This is not an exhaustive list and most people with traumatic brain injuries will have only some of these complaints. Concussions that do not fully resolve often leave accident victims with serious problems and difficulties that negatively impact their personal and professional lives. Traumatic brain injury cases are vigorously contested by insurance companies because the victims of serious concussions often appear “normal” and fully functional to jurors as well as many insurance defense lawyers. Concussion lawyer George Patterson has litigated traumatic brain injury cases involving very intelligent and successful people. These people have tested above average in many intelligence tests after the concussion but have had extreme difficulties with complicated tasks that were critical to their careers. Another difficulty that victims of concussions sometimes have is the ability to process emotional information that is critical to their personal relationships. Testing is available that can identify these deficits that may be difficult for a casual acquaintance to detect.

The NFL created a concussion protocol to make sure that concussions were diagnosed and the players were given proper care and time to heal. There are head injury clinics in the Maryland area that market their services to athletes that have suffered head injuries. These clinics offer a quick assessment and treatment recommendations for those that have suffered a brain injury. Neurologists are medical doctors that are trained to treat brain injuries. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to arrange for an examination with a neurologist soon after a concussion. A visit to a head injury clinic is effective to document your symptoms and provide quick medical guidance while you wait for an appointment with a neurologist.

Concussion lawyer George Patterson has noticed the acceptance of permanent brain injuries by jurors has increased with the publicity about traumatic brain injuries from football.

The Prince George’s concussion lawyers have handled dozens of injury cases involving traumatic brain injuries or concussions. A traumatic brain injury is often, but not always marked by a loss of consciousness. The victim of the concussion may have a complete loss of memory for a period of seconds before the accident and typically a longer complete loss of memory following the impact. Proving a loss of consciousness is often difficult because the victim may not realize that he lost consciousness. Lawyers for insurance companies will frequently point to the absence of a documented loss of consciousness as an indication that a traumatic brain injury did not occur.

Traumatic brain injuries are classified as being mild, moderate or severe. The classifications are made depending on the length of amnesia after the accident, the duration of the loss of consciousness and a Glasgow Coma Scale score (GCS). The Glasgow Coma Scale is used to assess the severity of a head injury often by first responders and then by personnel at the emergency room or shock trauma centers. The score runs from 3 to 15 based on verbal, motor and eye opening reactions to different types of stimuli. A normal GCS does not equate to finding that the person is free from a concussion. In most car accident cases where a concussion is diagnosed the patient usually has a normal GCS. Lawyers for the insurance companies will frequently point to a normal GCS as an indication that the patient did not suffer a head injury.

Once a head injury is diagnosed or suspected the person is often given a CT scan to determine if there is bleeding or swelling in the brain from an injury. A normal CT scan does not equate with a finding that the person did not suffer a traumatic brain injury in the accident. Again, the lawyers for the insurance company will argue that a normal CT scan is an indication that the victim did not suffer a traumatic brain injury.

Our concussion lawyers are skilled at identifying the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury in the medical records and obtaining fair settlements or verdicts for head injury victims.