Protecting the head is something that many people do automatically. Football players and motorcyclists wear helmets. Construction workers wear hardhats. It is easy to understand why this is when you think about the scope of life impacts that can occur when a person has a brain injury.
Some brain injuries are classified as traumatic. Even some injuries that might seem minor, such as concussions, fall into this category. If you have suffered a hit to the head or a violent shaking of your head, you should make sure that you familiarize yourself with some basic information about traumatic brain injuries.
How significant of an issue is a traumatic brain injury?
Approximately 2.5 million visits to the emergency room are made each year due to a traumatic brain injury. More than 282,000 people are hospitalized for these injuries each year. While TBIs don’t discriminate based on any factors, they are more common in men than women. If you look at them by age, the elderly are the age group most likely to suffer from a traumatic brain injury. Children are also at an increased risk of TBI.
How can these injuries happen?
These brain injuries happen for a variety of reasons. Falls are the most common, but they can happen because of motor vehicle accidents, assaults and other events. When it comes to almost every age group, falls are the most common cause of TBIs that require hospitalization. The exception to this is people 15 to 44, who are more likely to be hospitalized for a TBI from a motor vehicle accident than any other cause.
What can victims of these injuries do?
If you think that you might have suffered from a TBI, you need to get medical care. There is a chance that the signs of a brain injury won’t show up at the time of the accident. This makes them fairly dangerous since you might not realize the severity of the situation.
Once you do get medical care and have that part of the injury handled, you might decide that you are going to seek compensation for the injury. This consideration is possible if the cause of the accident was someone else’s fault. It might help to cover your medical expenses and other costs related to the accident.