Understanding How a Car Collision May Result in a Traumatic Brain Injury

When your head is violently shaken or makes contact with a hard surface (e.g., dashboard), you may develop a brain injury. Such injuries occur even when you have airbags. This injury occurs because your soft brain tissue has moved around and crashed against your skull. Doing so can result in tissue damage, bruising, and bleeding. These will then affect how your brain functions and possibly even cause your brain to swell, putting your life at risk.

Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury

While some symptoms may last months, others can be permanent or debilitating. What’s most frightening is that sometimes there aren’t even any symptoms. So, you may feel fine only to develop life-threatening symptoms in hours. This risk is why it’s so important to seek help when you’re in a car collision, especially if your head was thrown around or you may have hit against some, even an airbag.

Some of the symptoms you need to be especially concerned about include:

• Sleep disturbances
• Fatigue
• Loss of consciousness
• Speech difficulties (e.g., slurred speech)
• Cognitive challenges
• Memory loss
• Changes in personality
• Depression, irritability, and anxiety
• Nausea and vomiting
• Seizures and convulsions
• Loss of sensory perception
• Balance problems
• Headaches
• Sensitivity to light and noise
• Weakness or numbness in parts of the body
• Confusion and agitation

Healing From a Car Collision

Once you’ve been diagnosed with a brain injury, there will be various treatment options available depending upon the specifics of your injury. Typically, you’ll need to remain in the hospital for a while so that they can monitor and treat you. Sometimes patients have swelling and will need surgery to relieve pressure on their brain. However, if you only have a mild injury, you’ll typically only need pain medication, continued monitoring, and rest.

Long-term recovery from a brain injury can be grueling. You may need to undergo physical and occupational therapy to recover your motor and cognitive function so that you can live safely on your own. Sometimes other professionals are also necessary (e.g., psychiatrists) to deal with the many significant life changes that may occur because of the injury you received in the accident.

As you can imagine, the cost of this injury can be high. This cost will go even higher if you develop any complications (e.g., blood clots) along the way. Unfortunately, car insurance only considers your immediate needs. Unfortunately, your income may be affected for the rest of your life. When this happens, you’ll need a lifetime of significant medical treatment.

Recuperating Financially From Your Car Collision

Unfortunately, you never know when a car collision will occur. There’s no way to plan for its life-altering results. However, if your car accident results in a brain injury Blenner Law Group in Palm Harbor, St Petersburg, FL, is here for you.

As a resident in this area, Attorney Walt Blenner understands how carelessly some people drive. Attorney Blenner also understands the intricacies of the law and how to get his clients the results they deserve. The next time you’re in an accident, reach out and employ his help on your behalf.

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Once you walk away from the accident, you find yourself wondering what you should do. What’s the next step you should take? The whole thing is frustrating you because you don’t know how to handle the situation.

One of the first things you should do after an auto accident is to hire a lawyer. You may feel this isn’t necessary, but you can never be too sure about this. Here are a few things to help you determine if this is indeed a necessity.

Deciding Whether You Need a Lawyer

There are numerous reasons why you should talk to a lawyer after an auto accident. Regardless of how major or minor you thought it was, dealing with the aftermath can still feel overwhelming. Of course, this is only one of the many reasons why you should retain legal help. Here are a few other factors you should also consider.

Your auto accident may not be all that “minor” after all.

Since your auto accident seems relatively minor, you may not think that you need a lawyer. However, it may not be as minor as you think. Vehicle repairs are surprisingly expensive, especially if your car has damage underneath it.

You may even think that you’re uninjured only to start having issues in the following days or weeks to come. When either of these things happens, you’ll want to have a lawyer help you get all the compensation you deserve.

Costs associated with your accident will add up quickly.

There are other expenses you must also take into consideration here. For instance, you may need a rental car while your vehicle is in the repair shop. During this time you may need to miss work. These are additional costs that you may not think about now, but a lawyer may be able to recover them for you in the future.

It’s challenging to deal with auto insurance companies.

Florida has a “no fault” auto insurance law. This law means you must deal with your own insurance company when you’re trying to recover losses after an auto accident. This law also states that all drivers must carry personal injury protection (PIP).

Unless you suffer from a “significant” or “permanent” injury, you must file a PIP claim under your policy. So, while you may think that your insurance would be liable to pay for your damages regardless of the amount securing this payment can be pretty challenging.

You may have additional claims outside of the one with your auto insurance.

Your losses from the auto accident may exceed your PIP coverage even if you think it’s a minor accident. If this happens, you’ll need to seek other financial compensation besides your auto insurance. Now is when you should contact a lawyer who can pursue any available claims on your behalf.

Although the type of claim you can file will depend on the circumstances surrounding the accident, some of the “third party” claims that are commonly filed include claims against:

• Other driver’s employer if they were driving a work vehicle
• An establishment that served the drunk driver too much alcohol
• Vehicle’s manufacturer, dealership, or repair shop
• Government agency or road construction contractor

You only have one opportunity to protect your legal rights.

You don’t want to wait too long to hire a lawyer. At the same time, you don’t want to rush into a settlement without ensuring the protection of your legal rights. These are just a few examples of the mistakes that will prevent you from receiving financial compensation.

Deciding You Do Need a Lawyer

After reading through this information, you may come to the decision that you require legal help. While this is a great thing to acknowledge, you may now wonder whom you should turn to for this representation. We want you to know that we’re here for you at Blenner Law Group in Pinellas County.

Over the years, I’ve helped many clients such as yourself deal with an auto accident. I understand that you have a lot to handle and probably don’t even know where to begin. With my help, we can get all of these things taken care of so you’re back on your feet quickly. All you have to do is contact my office to get started.

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