Jersey City Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

Being in any kind of accident resulting from someone else’s negligence can leave you with injuries that can vary in severity. Arguably, the most serious types of injuries involve the brain. Whether you received a blow, a puncture, or any other kind of damage to your head, brain injuries can impact your whole life.

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If you’ve been in an accident that wasn’t your fault and suffered these kinds of severe injuries, you can turn to Jersey City traumatic brain injury lawyers at Garces, Grabler & LeBrocq.

Every 23 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a brain injury.

Approximately 214,000 people end up in the hospital in the U.S. every year because of these kinds of injuries.

This not only means significant monetary expense for the victims, but it can also mean pain and suffering and a lower quality of life. But what are brain injuries, and what should you do if you suffer one? Our personal injury attorneys are here to answer your questions.

Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries

A traumatic brain injury is an injury to the brain that occurs as a result of a blow to the head or from penetrative trauma. During the moment of the accident, the brain crashes back and forth, resulting in bruising, bleeding, and the stripping of nerve fibers, which are called axons.

After the impact, the brain swells. This means that it will push against the skull, leading to reduced blood circulation and further bleeding. If the swelling is not managed in time, cells in the brain can die off from a lack of oxygen and nutrients.

Physicians typically group traumatic brain injuries into two main categories: closed and open injuries. Closed injuries are those that do not crack the skull, while open injuries occur when something penetrates the skull or an impact cracks it, leaving the brain exposed.

Within these two groups, there are a few different types of brain injuries a Jersey City attorney could build a claim around.

These are the most common types of brain injuries. Concussions occur when your brain hits your skull due to a sudden force acting upon your head. The force causes the brain to shift, striking the skull. Symptoms of concussions can range from mild to severe, with some people experiencing lifelong consequences.

Contusions are bruises on the brain that typically occur at the same time as concussions. Internal bleeding due to the brain hitting the skull results in blood pooling inside the brain tissue. The damage a contusion causes depends on where it’s located, how large it is, and how long it lasts.

Brain hemorrhages are uncontrolled bleeding within the brain or on its surface. These are focal traumatic brain injuries, meaning they only affect one area of the brain. Brain hemorrhages tend to cause less damage than other kinds of traumatic brain injuries, but they can still be life-threatening if they’re not treated in time.

Hematomas are clumps of blood outside of a blood vessel. They can occur anywhere in your body. When large ones occur in your brain, they can cause serious injuries and even death.

Epidural hematomas are those that occur between the skull and the brain, while subdural hematomas occur in the thin layer of protection that envelops the brain. Intracerebral hematomas occur inside the brain.

These kinds of hematomas often don’t develop until a few days or even weeks after head trauma.

This refers to two separate injuries that happen almost at the same time. The coup injury occurs right on the spot of impact, while the contrecoup happens on the opposite side of the brain. A coup-contrecoup injury usually occurs when the head hits a stationary object, like a steering wheel.

When the head hits the object, the brain moves forward and hits the skull. Then, because of the force of the impact, the brain travels back to hit the opposite side of the skull.

These are some of the most severe types of traumatic brain injuries. They happen when something twists or shakes the brain in the skull. When the brain twists, cerebral tissue slides back and forth, leading to the tearing of axons.

Axonal tearing disrupts the messages that neurons send, leading to loss of function. Most of these kinds of tears are so small not even MRIs can detect them.

These injuries occur when something penetrates the skull and the brain. Bullets can cause these. People who survive these kinds of injuries tend to struggle with seizures.

Second impact syndrome is also called recurrent traumatic brain injury. It happens when you suffer a second traumatic brain injury shortly after the first one. The second one is likely to cause more severe damage.

Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries can present with many types of symptoms, both physical and cognitive.

Some of the physical symptoms include:

  • Blurred or double vision
  • Headaches
  • Seizures
  • Clear fluid draining from ears or nose
  • Unequal eye dilation
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Bad taste in the mouth
  • Dizziness or vertigo
  • Sensitivity to sounds and light
  • Slurred speech
  • Loss of balance
  • Fatigue and drowsiness
  • Hearing problems
  • Weakness in arms, legs, or face

Symptoms like headaches, fatigue, and dizziness tend to develop right after the injury.

Cognitive or mental symptoms of traumatic brain injuries are:

  • Decreased level of consciousness
  • Loss of consciousness
  • Memory problems
  • Concentration problems
  • Trouble with making decisions
  • Confusion or disorientation
  • Changes in sleeping patterns
  • Mood changes
  • Anxiety
  • Depression

A single but severe traumatic brain injury could also result in post-traumatic dementia. It can be progressive and usually leads to issues with understanding and communicating, as well as problems with impulse control.

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Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Car accidents are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries. Concussions are very common if two vehicles collide, and their travel speed plays a huge role. Rear-end collisions can cause whiplash and concussions or more severe types of brain injuries.

A front-end collision can cause a car to stop abruptly while the driver and any passengers continue to move forward. They can hit the windshield or dashboard or have the front of the car crushed against them. All of this forces the brain against the skull. Even side collisions can cause the brain to hit the skull.

Falls are another common cause of traumatic brain injuries. They’re often the main cause of brain injuries in children and older adults. If someone falls from the bed, in the shower, or even while walking across wet floors, they can hit their head hard. A fall could cause concussions, brain hemorrhages, hematomas, and more.

Falling objects can also lead to traumatic brain injuries. Any kind of hard blow to the head has the potential to cause bruising and bleeding. It can occur in construction sites if a worker isn’t paying attention, and it can even happen at a store if heavy items fall on someone’s head.

Malfunctioning products can lead to brain injuries, as well. If a chair breaks, prefabricated stairs are not constructed correctly, or products explode, you could fall or be struck by debris. All of these things can lead to traumatic injuries, and a Jersey City lawyer could work to seek compensation for the losses.

What To Do After a Traumatic Brain Injury

If you’ve been in an accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury, the first thing is to get medical help. It’s essential that you get a professional to examine you and determine the severity of the condition. You can then put together a treatment plan. As you get treatment, ensure that you keep records.

When the accident results from someone else’s negligence, you need to reach out to a brain injury lawyer to help you.

A lawyer can help you get compensation for medical expenses, including future ones. If you’ve suffered a severe traumatic brain injury for which you’ll need therapy and ongoing care, you can also get help paying for that when you file a claim.

Being in an accident that results in a traumatic brain injury usually means at least taking a few days off work. In some instances, this kind of injury could mean not being able to work again.

In either case, having a Jersey City brain injury lawyer helping you makes a difference because they can strive to get you compensation for lost wages. These are damages that reimburse the money you’d have received from your job if you’d not been in the accident.

Lost wages could also include future income you’ll now not be able to get. This is something that can improve your financial health if you have a lasting disability or if you can’t return to your regular work and have to turn to jobs that pay less.

After experiencing a traumatic brain injury, you can also claim non-economic damages, including pain and suffering. You’ve likely experienced significant emotional trauma as a result of the injury, as well as physical pain. If you file a claim, you can get compensation for what you’ve suffered.

If you’ve suffered a disability or are not able to live your life as you did before the accident, you could also be entitled to compensation for having a diminished quality of life.

Why Hire GGL?

A traumatic brain injury can leave you with devastating physical and cognitive issues that make your life more difficult and impact you financially. If this type of injury occurred because someone else was negligent, you could be able to get compensation to help cover the costs of medical care and more.

At Garces, Grabler & LeBrocq, we’ve been helping clients for more than 30 years. With a team of lawyers who only focus on personal injury law, we provide services that you can trust. We’re a no-nonsense firm ready to fight for your rights, and we don’t back away from a fight if it’s in your best interests for us to keep negotiating.

We prepare each case for court so that we can continue defending you if you’re not being treated fairly by insurers or the other parties involved. When dealing with a traumatic brain injury severe enough to cause long-term damage, you need to know a Jersey City attorney will do everything possible to get you the help you deserve.

GGL is one of the only firms in all of New Jersey that offers bilingual representation. Whether you’re in the Spanish or English-speaking communities of New Jersey, we’re here to offer clear and compassionate guidance. You shouldn’t have to give up on a claim because you can’t communicate effectively with your lawyers.

We understand how difficult it can be to wait for news on your personal injury claim. You’re dealing with pain, suffering, and expenses and want the process to be over as quickly as possible. To help with this, we communicate frequently, offering updates when we have them and support when we don’t.

Contact a Jersey City Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney Today

At GGL, you’ll always be treated like family. You don’t have to struggle through all of this on your own. You can get the kind of representation you deserve from experienced and dedicated Jersey City traumatic brain injury lawyers.

Contact Garces, Grabler & LeBrocq to get started. Call 1-866-922-1716 today.