Your A-to-Z Brain Injury Guide
Types of TBIs, Symptoms, Treatments, and How TBI Law Works
Our brains are one of the most complex systems in the universe, but they’re also among the most delicate, which is why traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can be so harmful.
Our brains aren’t like our other organs, which can often withstand a surprising amount of trauma. Instead, brains are easily damaged, and that damage can have major life-altering consequences.
In this comprehensive traumatic brain injury guide, you’ll learn the following:
- How TBIs are defined
- Different types of brain injuries (primary and secondary)
- The most common TBI symptoms
- Basic TBI law (and when to sue for a brain injury in Seattle)
What a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Is
To put it simply, a TBI is trauma or damage to your brain. This can be caused in literally dozens of ways, which means each TBI is somewhat unique.
The same two people can be hit in the head in almost the exact same way and yet have profoundly different injuries to their brains.
TBIs fall into 2 major categories: primary injury and secondary injury.
Primary Brain Injury
A primary injury is the initial injury to your brain. There are 2 types:
- Penetrating (something has pierced your skull and damaged your brain)
- Closed (your skull never got pierced or fractured, but your brain was badly twisted or bashed against the inside of your skull)
Some of the more common types of primary brain injuries include:
- Diffuse axonal injuries (ripping or tearing of nerve fibers, usually resulting in a coma)
- Contusions (bleeding in your brain that might turn into a deadly blood clot)
- Concussions (tiny rips and tears of the microscopic connections throughout your brain)
Primary Brain Injury
A primary injury is the initial injury to your brain. There are 2 types:
- Penetrating (something has pierced your skull and damaged your brain)
- Closed (your skull never got pierced or fractured, but your brain was badly twisted or bashed against the inside of your skull)
Some of the more common types of primary brain injuries include:
- Diffuse axonal injuries (ripping or tearing of nerve fibers, usually resulting in a coma)
- Contusions (bleeding in your brain that might turn into a deadly blood clot)
- Concussions (tiny rips and tears of the microscopic connections throughout your brain)
What Is a Concussion, and How Is It Measured?
A concussion is a TBI caused by a blow to the head that causes your brain to shift inside your skull. In some cases, your brain will smack into your skull. In others, your brain accelerates or twists rapidly within your skull.
Concussions might seem to mean very little in movies, books, and TV shows—characters seem to simply shake them off and move on—but they’re serious traumatic brain injuries that can change your life.
Concussions were once graded in terms of severity using the Glasgow Coma Scale:
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
However, this system was developed in the 1970s, and our understanding of the brain has changed exponentially since then. We now use a far more sophisticated system consisting of 4 “pillars”: CBI-M.
If any of this applies to you, contact us today to set up a free consultation. We’ll discuss your injury, your circumstances, and how we can help.
Defining Different Types of Concussions with CBI-M (Clinical, Biomarker, Imaging, Modifiers)
CBI-M is rapidly becoming the new gold standard for ranking the severity of a concussion. The framework makes it much easier for healthcare providers to prove the extent of their patients’ injuries (and get them the treatment and compensation they deserve).
Other Types of Primary Brain Injuries
Unfortunately, no matter what type of primary brain injury you have, it’s common for more brain injuries to show up later.
These are called secondary brain injuries, and they can appear anywhere from a few hours after the accident to several months later.
If any of this applies to you, contact us today to set up a free consultation. We’ll discuss your injury, your circumstances, and how we can help.
Secondary Brain Injury
After the primary injury, your brain can continue to be harmed, especially if you don’t get treatment right away. Here are a few common types of secondary TBIs:
- Ischemia (your brain stops getting the blood it needs to stay healthy)
- Hypoxia (your brain stops getting the oxygen it needs to stay healthy)
- Cerebral edema (your brain swells, pushing against your skull and causing more damage)
- Infections, like meningitis or brain abscesses
Because many TBIs become apparent weeks or months after your initial injury, we recommend that our clients go to a hospital right away, even if they “just bumped their head a little and feel fine.”
We see examples like this regularly. Here in Seattle, we often see clients who were in e-scooter accidents months previous. At the scene (and for weeks after), they thought they were fine. Their symptoms took months to show up.
Secondary Brain Injury
After the primary injury, your brain can continue to be harmed, especially if you don’t get treatment right away. Here are a few common types of secondary TBIs:
- Ischemia (your brain stops getting the blood it needs to stay healthy)
- Hypoxia (your brain stops getting the oxygen it needs to stay healthy)
- Cerebral edema (your brain swells, pushing against your skull and causing more damage)
- Infections, like meningitis or brain abscesses
Because many TBIs become apparent weeks or months after your initial injury, we recommend that our clients go to a hospital right away, even if they “just bumped their head a little and feel fine.”
We see examples like this regularly. Here in Seattle, we often see clients who were in e-scooter accidents months previous. At the scene (and for weeks after), they thought they were fine. Their symptoms took months to show up.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Symptoms
There are so many potential signs of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that it’s next to impossible to list them all without overwhelming you. In this list, you’ll find only the most common signs of a traumatic brain injury.
How to Sue for a Brain Injury in Seattle
With Our Brain Injury Lawyers on Your Side
It’s likely you were injured at work, in a public place, at someone’s apartment or home, or due to the negligence or ill intent of another person, business, or corporation. In these cases, you’re likely entitled to compensation.
However, when insurance companies and wealthy corporations get involved, they bring the entire might of their legal team with them. You can certainly sue for a brain injury, but you’re going up against professionals who know what they’re doing and specialize in keeping payouts as low as possible.
When you hire Brain Injury Law of Seattle, you’re not just hiring yet another ambulance chaser who will take on any injury case they can find—you’re hiring a specialized team, attorneys who have won awards for their work, attorneys who win. Attorneys whom the other side has heard of. Attorneys the other side really doesn’t want to go up against.
Our reputation alone is often enough to push for fair compensation for our clients.
We don’t say this to brag but to help you understand that you’re hiring the best, a team that is going to put you and your case first, that is going to do everything possible to make sure this accident doesn’t ruin your life any more than it already has.
Here’s what we’ll fight for:
- Medical costs (both present and expected)
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Rehabilitation costs
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Costs of future care
- Loss of earning capacity
We’ve seen insurance companies offer our clients settlements in the low 4 figures before they hired us. When we got involved, their tune changed, and 7-figure offers became the norm.
Contact Brain Injury Law
Call or email us for a free consultation, and find out how we can help you get your life back following a brain injury. We are here to help, answer questions, and educate you about what you have to look forward to. We have the medical and legal knowledge to tell you what you are facing and how you can be helped. We pledge to always tell you like it is so you can make informed decisions about your brain injury and how best to help yourself. This is what we do.