Often enough, being an unfortunate victim of a traumatic brain injury can result in a large amount of damage to an individual’s life. In a lot of past cases having a traumatic brain injury could cause long term or permanent, physical, emotional and mental troubles that people do not understand such as; the victims employers, family members and friends which result in leaving the victim under a lot of stress. Also brain injuries can result in long term medical, financial and emotional damage to the victim’s family who may even become their sole caregiver. If you or a loved one has been a victim of brain injury because of someone else’s negligence you should contact your Hamilton personal injury lawyer immediately.

Not only do brain injury victims suffer from pain and suffering, but they all suffer from lost wages as well as a lot of important expenses. In the past many survivors of traumatic brain injury are younger adults that could never return to their work. Although brain injuries could often be mild, a victim that had severe brain injury can experience psychological effects like long term depression, prolonged anxiety, lost of social interaction, slow or no improvement and need daily assistance.

Types

Brain injuries can be anywhere from mild, moderate or severe. Mild brain injuries can result in loss of consciousness and a small change in mental state. A moderate brain injury can involve impact to the head or violent shaking. The victim could lose consciousness for minutes or even hours and could even remain confused for days or weeks. Now severe brain injuries can result from a penetrating blow to the head and result in permanent brain damage or even sometimes death.

Traumatic and acquired are two categories brain injuries fall under. A traumatic brain injury may occur from an external force where an acquired brain injury could result from an internal source such as a stroke or an external one. Traumatic brain injuries can include anything from concussions, contusions and penetration. Anoxic or hypoxic are categorized as an acquired brain injury.

How They Occur

Nearly 50% of fatal brain injuries are a form of some drug or alcohol abuse. 28% of traumatic brain injuries are caused by vehicle accidents and 50% of brain injuries are so severe that they require hospitalization. Sport and physical activity injuries represent another 20% of injuries and another 10% of brain trauma is caused from assaults and violence. The other 45% of brain injury can be caused from a wide variety of other unfortunate accidents.

Statistics

• As a rough estimate, 2 million head injuries occur every year. However, 1.5 million of those injuries are not fatal and do not require any hospitalization.
• Each year over 55, 000 victims die from a traumatic brain injury.
• Males are twice as likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury and are more likely to die from the injuries rather than women.
• The highest statistical risk of brain injury involves people ages from 15 to 24.