South Carolina Brain Injury Attorneys

Traumatic brain injury, often referred to as TBI, transpires when the brain is damaged due to a collision or external impact. The Centers for Disease Control or CDC states that in the United States, there are more than 1.7 million injuries each year involving a traumatic brain injury. Over 50,000 of these traumatic brain injuries are lethal, and roughly 80,000 more result in life-altering disabilities.

The symptoms of TBI can be subtle and the injury is usually internal. Each year in South Carolina alone, traumatic brain injury is responsible for 11,500 visits to the emergency room, 2,800 hospital discharges, and more than 1,100 fatalities.

If you were involved in a car, motorcycle, truck, slip and fall or workplace accident and suffered serious brain injury as a result, you may be entitled to recover compensation and maximum benefits. We at Kassel McVey can help you protect your best interests so that you can get on the road to recovery as soon as possible.

Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injury

The causes of traumatic brain injury are diverse. In 2013, the primary cause of traumatic brain injury in were falls. According to the CDC, falls accounted for 47 percent of all TBI-related hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and fatalities in the United States.

Many traumatic brain injuries are also caused by impact from crashes (car accidents, truck wrecks, motorcycle crashes, and pedestrian accidents), falls and any other kind of accident resulting in a head injury. Other events that can result in traumatic brain injuries are sports accidents, domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse and misuse of firearms.

Consequences of TBI

TBI is often left undiagnosed and untreated. After a car accident, a patient can be sent home from the emergency room without anyone being aware that a serious brain injury has occurred internally. Signs of a more serious problem can begin to surface days or even months later.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 3.2 million adults and children across the United States live with a permanent disability caused by traumatic brain injury.

Common consequences of traumatic brain injury may be a combination of any of the following:

• Headaches and sharp pain in the forehead or temples
• Memory loss
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty hearing
• Sensitivity to noises
• Vertigo and dizziness
• Fatigue
• Blurred vision
• Loss of balance
• Loss of motor skills
• Failing to find the right words for familiar objects
• Anxiety and depression
• Loss of self-esteem

In more severe cases, traumatic brain injury may result in loss of bladder control, heart attacks, epilepsy, seizures, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and death.

Types of Head Injuries

Head injuries that result in damage to the brain can be classified into two: Closed head injuries and open head injuries.

With a closed head injury, the brain suffers impact without the skull opening. It can occur in car accidents or in sports accidents, specifically when the individual experiences a sudden jerking motion that causes the brain to be thrown against the skull. After a closed head injury, damage can either occur in specific areas of the brain or throughout the brain.

In an open or penetrating head injury, an actual object pierces the brain. A classic example of such is a gunshot wound to the head, though open head injury can result from car accidents as well. Damage from an open head injury are often localized, and are therefore limited to a particular area of the brain.

While open head injuries seem more alarming, closed head injuries can be just as serious. This is because brain cells are put under extreme pressure since the swelling brain has nowhere to expand beyond the skull. Either way, brain injuries can be debilitating, and can severely affect an individual’s way of life.

How We Can Help

We at Kassel McVey understand the complicated medical, emotional, and legal issues brought about by traumatic brain injury accidents. We can help you receive the medical care you need, and see to it that you obtain sufficient compensation to cover rehabilitation and therapy, lost wages, lost earnings capacity, pain and suffering and more.

Traumatic brain injury accidents are typically complex in nature. We can help you build your case by retaining investigators, workplace injury specialists, and accident reconstruction experts as needed to help build your claim.

Insurance companies can be difficult to deal with, and are notorious for protecting their own well-being and best interests. We have the experienced to successfully negotiate with even the biggest insurance companies and ensure your rights are protected.

Brain injuries bring about a great deal of financial challenges. We will see to it that you are fully and fairly compensated for any and all economic and non-economic damages such as lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium, and emotional distress and more.

We want to help you through this difficult time. Contact Kassel McVey at today (803) 256-4242 today for a free case evaluation.