One of the worst possible outcomes of any Tucson accident is that you or a loved one suffers a traumatic brain injury. In the best-case scenario, you can eventually get better and make a full recovery. However, many traumatic brain injuries can be permanent, robbing you of many life functions. If your traumatic brain injury was someone else’s fault, you may have the right to seek financial compensation. You will need this money, as the costs of an accident and brain injury can mount quickly.
Brain injuries are complex conditions with a wide range of losses, so you want an experienced Tucson traumatic brain injury attorney handling your claim.
If you or a loved one is suffering from head trauma, contact a Tucson traumatic brain injury lawyer. A seasoned injury attorney could inform you of your rights are help you navigate the legal process.
Different Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries
While TBIs have one uniform name, different types of injuries fall under this umbrella.
Here are some of the different kinds of TBIs:
- Hematoma – This is a blood clot on the brain. When the blood pools under the skull, it could cause permanent injury.
- Contusion – This is a brain bruise, which does not heal as quickly as bruises to the rest of your body, if it even heals at all.
- Intracerebral Hemorrhage – This is bleeding within your brain tissue.
- Diffuse Injuries – These are injuries that do not appear on a CT scan through a lesion, but they can still be serious.
- Diffuse Axonal Injury – The harming of nerve cells within the brain that leads to a loss of function.
- Ischemia – A decrease in blood supply to certain parts of the brain can cause damage.
- Skull Fractures – A piece of fractured bone can damage the brain tissue.
Most people know about and have heard of concussions, which are a common type of brain injury. These are serious injuries. The effects of a concussion can stay with you for a very long time, especially if you have had one previously. Some people may never fully recover from a concussion, suffering side effects years later. You should never ignore any signs of a potential concussion, as it may not get better on its own and can have lasting effects.
For a free legal consultation with a traumatic brain injury lawyer serving Tucson, call 866-499-8989
Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Accompany Other Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries are far more common than you might think, and they can even result from other conditions. For example, one of the most common car accident injuries is whiplash, which is when your head snaps forward because your neck moves differently than the rest of your body in an accident. With whiplash, your brain moves inside your head violently, and it can result in bruising and concussions. You do not have to suffer direct trauma to have a TBI, as even violent shaking of your head can damage your brain tissue.
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Common Causes and Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Any type of trauma to the brain could cause a TBI. These types of injuries are also common when someone has fallen. They may hit their head in the fall and suffer a severe injury. Nearly half of TBI-related hospitalizations come from falls. These could happen in a premises liability case, where you have slipped on someone else’s property.
Other accidents that could cause a TBI include:
- Car accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Truck accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Slip and falls
- Physical assaults
- Medical malpractice cases
- Sports injuries
Some TBIs are not immediately recognizable. After an accident, victims may have symptoms such as nausea, loss of consciousness, drowsiness, headache, dizziness, and blurred vision. Injured parties may also experience significant changes in mood, coordination issues, and difficulty sleeping.
Severe head trauma might cause numbness, seizures, repeated vomiting, persistent headaches, fluid drainage from the ears and nose, and blood vessel damage. Someone suffering from a TBI may even go into a coma.
Regardless of the symptoms, it is crucial to seek medical attention after sustaining a blow to the head. Without proper treatment, a mild injury may become permanent. A skilled local attorney could assess the cause and severity of the injured party’s TBI to develop a strong case.
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Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injuries may be apparent at the time of the accident. The damage to your brain could be so serious that you start to feel symptoms right away.
Some short-term signs of a serious TBI include:
- Loss of consciousness
- Convulsions or seizures
- Weakness or numbness in fingers and toes
- Slurred speech
- Coma
However, some injuries take time to develop or notice. If there is swelling in your brain, it may cause damage over time. Some people may not realize in the days after the accident that they have suffered a TBI. In the meantime, the injury could be getting worse.
The failure to get medical treatment promptly may be something that could jeopardize your claim. This is why you need to see a doctor if you have not yet done so already. Besides, the longer that your TBI goes without treatment, the worse the damage to your brain may become.
Establishing Negligence in a Head Injury Case
The success of a traumatic brain injury case often depends on the plaintiff’s ability to establish the negligence of another party. If the victim is partially at fault, they may receive a reduced damages award or no compensation at all.
The legal concept of comparative negligence states that the plaintiff in a personal injury case can have their damages reduced by the percentage of fault they bear for the accident. For example, if the injured party in a car accident requests $10,000 in damages and is found 20 percent responsible for the wreck, they might only receive $8,000. A traumatic brain injury attorney in the area could help plaintiffs determine what compensation may be available in their case.
Statute of Limitations in Tucson
Typically, plaintiffs have two years from the date of the accident to file an injury claim. If the case involves a government entity, however, injured parties have much less time to file. Under the Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated § 12-821, anyone who wishes to bring forth a case against a public entity or employee must do so within one year of the accident.
Those who fail to meet these deadlines could be barred from collecting damages. It is crucial to get in touch with a TBI lawyer as soon as possible after the accident.
Long-Term Symptoms of a TBI
Signs of a TBI that could plague you over the long term include:
- Irritability
- Loss of memory
- Difficulty concentrating
- Headaches
- Confusion
- Cognitive impairments
All of these could make it difficult to live your life. Many people suffer permanent injuries from TBIs that could keep them from working or enjoying the hobbies that they once did, and therapy and rehabilitation may only help so much. You may find that the life that you had before your injury is gone. If you are caring for a loved one with a TBI, you will devote a large part of your time to them, and you may also be suffering from the effects of their injuries. Either way, the costs of these injuries are steep for families.
Two Ways to Treat TBIs
Some patients may benefit from TBI treatment. Over time, they could regain some lost function. Other patients will suffer permanent damage that they need to live with for the long term.
There are two ways to treat TBIs.
- Surgery – In the immediate aftermath of the injury, a doctor may perform a surgical procedure to relieve some of the pressure on the brain. They could remove the hematoma or contusion to alleviate the brain bleed. This surgery must happen quickly. Otherwise, prolonged bleeding could cause permanent brain damage.
- Non-surgical procedures – In the immediate aftermath of a TBI, there are very few non-surgical outcomes that could help the matter except for time to recover and monitoring the condition. In the days after the injury, the patient would likely receive extensive therapy to hopefully regain as much of the function as possible that they lost. However, some brain injuries can be permanent. Depending on where they impacted your brain, the impact can be lasting and severe.
TBIs Can Cause Accident Fatalities
TBIs do not just result in injuries. They are a leading cause of death in this country. In 2019, an average of 166 people per day died of a TBI. These comprise about 30 percent of the injury-related deaths in this U.S. TBIs kill because they increase pressure in the brain. This could cause brain activity to cease if they are severe enough.
The Costs of TBIs
All told, the cost of treating a TBI can range from $85,000 to $3 million, depending on the severity of the injury.
The costs associated with the care of a TBI could include:
- The cost of a rehabilitation facility (which reaches into the thousands of dollars per day)
- Medical equipment to help you with limited capacity and mobility
- Home health care and medical aids
- Ongoing physical and occupational therapy
- Ongoing mental health care to help you cope with the effects of the TBI
Neurological care can be very expensive. Tests and procedures for TBIs require some of the latest care techniques, and doctors and hospitals could charge an arm and a leg for them. You may be facing steep medical bills, just for your out-of-pocket costs alone.
The Hidden Costs of Traumatic Brain Injuries
In addition, there are other costs that you can bear, financial and otherwise. It goes without saying that a lasting TBI would harm your ability to return to work. Either you might have to do less than you did before, or you may not be able to work at all. Lost wages can be a very large part of your claim, especially when you will lose many years of work in the future. In addition, someone else may need to take time off from work to care for your injury. All of this is compensable in a TBI claim.
TBIs can also cause extreme stress for an accident victim. A TBI can literally change your emotions, and it can cause anxiety and depression and change the way that you feel about life. A TBI can lead to loss of enjoyment of life, and beyond the financial costs, your life may never be the same again. All of this could lead to a large injury settlement or jury verdict for pain and suffering if you prove that someone else was responsible for your injuries.
How to Prove a Tucson Traumatic Brain Injury Claim
Proving a traumatic brain injury case requires you to show that someone else was legally responsible for the accident or condition that caused your injuries. This requires physical proof of your accident and what happened.
The legal test that applies is whether someone else was negligent and their negligence led to your TBI.
This factual test requires a four-part showing:
- The defendant owed you a duty of care
- The defendant breached the duty of care by acting unreasonably under the circumstances
- You suffered an injury
- You would not have suffered the injury had it not been for the acts and omissions of the other party
Negligence demands that you have proof of what the other party did or did not do, which requires evidence. Gathering evidence is one of many ways that a lawyer can help in your case. They can then present evidence to insurance companies or a jury to prove liability for your injuries.
How Your Attorney Can Prove Your Damages
Equally important is that you have someone who can prove the damages that you deserve. A TBI will require proof not just of the brain injury, but also of its severity and lasting effects on your life.
Your lawyer can work with medical experts to help explain and quantify the damages that stem from your TBI. The diagnosis that appears on your medical records takes on an even greater meaning when someone can explain what it means for your life.
Make Sure You Get Enough Money for Your Case
When it comes to TBIs, one of the most important things is to obtain enough money to cover the long-term costs of your injury. TBIs can mean a lifetime of care. It may be difficult to know today what your injury could cost in the future. This is why you need an attorney who can work with experts to value your future care expenses and the impacts of the injury. A TBI case is about far more than just preparing and submitting a claim, and there is a multi-disciplinary approach to these cases.
Remember that you must demonstrate your entitlement not just to damages in the first place, but also to every dollar that you claim. The burden of proof is on you to prove what you should receive. An insurance company will not give you the benefit of the doubt, nor will a jury do any guesswork on your behalf.
How We Can Help Your Tucson TBI Case
When you hire a traumatic brain injury attorney, they could:
Doug Zanes, Tucson Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
Get to the bottom of your case and explain your legal options to you and your family
- Investigate the accident that injured you and gather evidence that could help prove your claim
- Consult with medical and economic experts to determine the value of your case
- Handle the administrative details of your claim, assembling what will go to the insurance company, and speaking about your case with them
- Assess any settlement offer made to you to see if it fairly compensates you
- Negotiate with the insurance company, making counteroffers if you reject a settlement offer
- File a lawsuit with the court if the insurance company denies your claim or will not make you a reasonable settlement offer
There is no risk to you to hire an attorney. We will not ask you to write us a large check upfront to retain our services. In fact, we will not ask you for any money at all. We only receive payment after your case and only we help you recover compensation. Then, our fees are a percentage of your settlement or jury award.
Make an Appointment with a Tucson Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney
Pursuing a legal case after sustaining a head injury can be difficult, especially if you are still recovering. If you have sustained damages in an accident, contact a Tucson traumatic brain injury lawyer as soon as you can.
You need a Tucson Traumatic brain injury attorney to take on the insurance company that would otherwise deny you the financial compensation that you legally deserve after your accident. You need Zanes Law Injury Lawyers on your side, so contact us today at (520) 777-7777.
Tucson Office
4580 E Grant Rd #101
Tucson, AZ 85712
(520) 777-7777
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