Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (“MTBI”) is characterized by one or more of the following: loss of consciousness, loss of memory immediately before or after the brain injury, alteration in mental state at the time of the accident, or neurological deficits. In many MTBI cases, a person may seem just fine on the surface, yet may continue to have functional problems. Persons suffering from PCS can experience significant changes in cognition and personality.

Most traumatic brain injuries cause widespread damage to the brain because the brain impacts inside the skull during the impact of an accident or collision. Additionally, diffuse axonal injury occurs when the nerve cells are torn from one another. Localized damage also occurs when the brain impacts against the skull. The brain stem, frontal lobe, and temporal lobes are especially vulnerable because of their location near bony protrusions of the skull.

An estimated 600,000 persons per year in this country suffer from a traumatic brain injury. An often cause are car accidents, including relatively "minor" impact accidents. The most common consequence of a TBI is that you have lower concentration, trouble reading, mental slowness and often sleep disruption. Also, your vision is just “not right," and there is a sudden loss of reading speed and comprehension. Depth perception may also be dramatically worsened. Getting poor sleep because of sore muscles from whiplash injuries makes the effects of any mild brain injury much worse. The difficulty of this type of injury is that you look normal to friends, family and even your doctor but you are a different person.

No test can prove you are injured, none can prove you are not injured. Patients often will have had a "normal" MRI scan of their brain and will have been told they are fine. The MRI, however, cannot show microscopic shearing and tearing in the brain that is thought to be the major mechanism in mild to moderate brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) most often occurs when the head is suddenly accelerated and/or decelerated during an accident of some type. There may or may be a loss of consciousness and there may not even be a blow to the head. A severe whiplash after a car wreck can cause TBI.

Further symptoms of TBI may include major depression and anxiety associated with these symptoms that the TBI causes.

The Brain Injury Lawyers at McAleer Law provide detailed information about brain injury accidents including traumatic brain injury. If you need more information about Brain Injury accidents and injuries, Call McAleer Law at 404-816-7374.