Snellings Law PLLC Attorneys are
Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyers
Driven To Help
We are here to assist
Traumatic Brain Injuries (“TBI”) can be one of the most challenging injuries to face as a personal injury victim. As traumatic brain injury lawyers, many times we see injury victims move through their entire treatment plan without their traumatic brain injury ever being diagnosed. Unlike broken bones, lacerations, bruising, and other visible injuries, traumatic brain injuries are much more difficult to identify.
Emergency room physicians may look for severe brain injuries, such as a skull fractures and brain bleeds, which could be fatal, but they will not typically dig deeper as that is not necessarily their job. Oftentimes, victims will follow-up with a primary care physician or another specialist who is not necessarily looking for signs and symptoms of a traumatic brain injury and will miss it. Similarly, our clients will often be suffering from traumatic brain injury symptoms but not even they relate them to the car accident. They may just think they have a headache, their confusion and difficulty concentrating is related to the medications they are taking, or their sensitivity to light or noise is just related to their headaches.
What Is A Traumatic Brain Injury?
Typically, a traumatic brain injury occurs when a portion of the brain strikes the interior of the skull. There does not have to be a skull fracture, bruising, or bleeding. In fact, the head doesn’t even need to strike a stationary object in order for the brain to strike the inside of the skull. The sudden movement of the head in one or multiple directions can cause the brain to move and contact the skull, think shaken baby syndrome. To see various definitions of traumatic brain injuries, see our blog on What is a TBI?
Diagnosing A Traumatic Brain Injury
In order to diagnose a traumatic brain injury, doctors and healthcare providers use different tests. The initial tests usually include a combination of the Glasgow Coma Score, checking pupil reactivity, standardized tests, and imaging. Providers can also perform neuropsychological testing to determine how someone’s brain is functioning. There is no singular go-to test to determine whether someone has suffered a traumatic brain injury if the imaging does not verify it. Doctors end up relying upon results of several tests as well as the symptoms reported by the patient. Oftentimes, doctors will classify brain injuries as mild, moderate, or Severe. For more information on how traumatic brain injuries are diagnosed, please see our blog on this topic.
We Understand Traumatic Brain Injuries
As traumatic brain injury lawyers, when we sit down to meet with a new client, we will take our time to go through each and every symptom they are experiencing. We will also go through a traumatic brain injury checklist with them to identify any potential issues. Our number one goal is to make sure each of our clients are fully diagnosed and treated so that they can fully heal and return to their best self. We also work with our clients, loved ones, friends, and providers to make sure we have the full picture of just how these injuries have affected our clients’ lives so that we can fully evaluate their claims and work to obtain full value for our clients.
Traumatic brain injury attorney Scott Snellings, sits on the board for Brain Injury Network of Dallas.