Head Injury Claims

Traumatic brain injury

A Traumatic Brain Injury is an injury to the brain caused by the head being shaken violently or being hit by something.

British hospitals treat one million patients each year with a head injury. Road traffic accidents account for some 40 to 50% of all head injuries which also account for 1% of deaths and 15 to 20% of deaths in the 5 to 35 year old age groups. Some 60% of deaths in road traffic accidents occur as a result of head injury.

The British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine defines the scale of head injuries as :-

• Mild - unconscious for fifteen minutes or less
• Moderate - unconscious for between fifteen minutes and six hours
• Severe - unconscious for six hours or longer

Symptoms commonly associated with the different scale of head injuries include :-

Mild

• nausea
• headaches
• dizziness
• impaired concentration
• memory problems
• extreme tiredness
Moderate
• tiredness
• headaches
• dizziness
• thinking difficulties
• attention problems
• memory problems
• difficulty with organizing daily tasks
• concentration problems
• irritability

Severe

Those who have suffered a severe head injury will be in a coma for six hours or longer, are usually hospitalized and often have severe difficulties including :

• loss of power in arms and legs
• speech impairments
• personality and memory changes
• behavioural problems
• balance difficulties
• epilepsy

After moderate head injuries 63% of patients remain disabled a year post accident and after severe injuries the figure rises to 85% of whom only 15% return to work within five years. Only some 45% of those suffering even minor injuries recover within a year and 79% of such individuals suffer severe headaches, 59% have memory problems and 34% remain unemployed three months post injury.

The types of head injury

Closed

The most common type with no open wound. This may occur, for example, when a car is hit from behind and the occupant's head is rocked backwards and forwards and rotated.

Open

The skull is opened and the brain exposed and damaged.

Crushing

The head is caught between two hard objects such as the wheel of a car and the road.

A traumatic brain injury can be categorized as a primary (damage occurring at the time of impact) or secondary (injury as a result of neuro-physiological and anatomical changes minutes to days following the primary injury).

The legal position

When negligence is the cause of a traumatic brain injury the victim may be entitled to recover damages from the person responsible to include compensation for the injury, pain and suffering, loss of current and future earnings, private medical expenses, costs of care and the like.

Please contact us for further information.