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Common Misconceptions About Traumatic Brain Injuries from Car Crashes

By Daniel E DAngelo Esq on April 18, 2016

Brain Gear Image One of the most important jobs for an attorney who represents car crash victims is proving a client’s injuries suffered in the collision. A car crash victim’s injuries are diagnosed by a qualified doctor or other medical provider, but ultimately we as the attorney are given the task to convince the insurance company, a judge, and/or a jury, of our client’s injuries. Some injuries are more complicated than others to diagnose and prove. Most people can easily spot a bruise or a laceration, or possibly a broken bone, but what about a brain injury? Do you think that you could you tell if a stranger or someone you know had a brain injury? What signs would you look for? How could you tell if someone is having difficulty focusing, reading, or doing simple math due to a brain injury?

As defined by brain injury attorneys from http://www.braininjurylawyersorangecounty.com/, a brain injury caused by a car crash is known to as a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A concussion is also known as a TBI. The brain basically controls everything you do, such as your sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch; your body temperature, your blood pressure, your breathing, and your heart rate; your ability to move any part of your body; and your ability to think, dream, reason, and experience emotions. Because the brain is so complex, so are traumatic brain injuries. A brain injury may result in many different types of problems such as movement problems, sensory problems, speech problems, emotional problems, and/or cognitive problems. These problems may range in severity level too. Thus, no one brain injury will likely present the same.

If brain injuries are so complex and usually difficult to spot, even for doctors who do not specialize in brain injuries, what misconceptions are there about traumatic brain injuries?

According to Thomas J. Guilmette’s and Michael F. Puglia’s research The public’s misconceptions about traumatic brain injury: a follow up survey, published in the Archives of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 19, Issue 2, March 2004, pages 183 – 189, the general public’s misconceptions about traumatic brain injuries means attorneys and their clients face a much tougher task than you may think in order to prove their brain injury. According to their survey, there are some significant misconceptions to overcome, such as:

  • 28% believed that a concussion is harmless and never results in long-term problems or brain damage. A concussion can have significant effects on a person that can last a lifetime, and even though a concussion is typically categorized as a mild TBI, the effects can be severe.
  • 36% said false to the statement that whiplash injuries to the neck can cause brain damage even if there is no direct blow to the head. This statement is actually true. You do not need to hit your head to suffer a brain injury and a whiplash type injury (which is typically caused when the neck is flexed forward and/or backward or side to side beyond its normal range very quickly and causes injury). The brain is in fluid inside your skull, and when the head moves so does your brain, and when your head moves forward and backward or side to side quickly it can injury your brain. Think of it like shaking a tomato floating in liquid inside a glass jar. When moved quickly the tomato will hit the sides of the jar. That is what happens to your brain inside your skull.
  • 66% believed it was true that the only sure way to tell if someone has suffered brain damage from a head injury is by an X-ray of the brain. This is a false statement.  Typically brain injuries are not diagnosed with imaging but other tests administered by a neuropsychologist. X-Rays are very unlikely to show a brain injury unless there is an object embedded in the brain. Even MRIs are not so good at showing certain types of brain injuries and many injuries need very specialized imaging like DTI and SWI to show up on an image, and it can be difficult to find places that do these types of specialized imaging studies so not many people including doctors know about them.
  • 36% of those surveyed believed it is easy to tell if a person has brain damage from a head injury by the way a person looks or acts. It is often impossible to tell if a person has suffered a TBI just by looking at them as you read above a TBI can affect many different areas and motor skills an untrained professional could see immediately are not always part of the constellation of areas impacted.
  • 42% believed that a second blow to the head can improve memory functioning. This is false. With the multiple concussion problem (CTE) involving NFL players in the news more, hopefully this misconception is decreasing.
  • 23% believed that brain damage from a head injury is less severe if a person is intoxicated (drunk) at the time of the injury than if they were sober at the time of the injury. This is obviously false but unfortunately not so obvious to some of those surveyed.
  • 59% believed that most people with severe head injuries are eventually able to return to their previous jobs. Although all brain injuries are significant there are different categories based on other factors that categorize them as mild, moderate, and severe brain injuries.
  • 40% of those surveyed said it was true that most people who get a head injury in a car accident and then sue the other driver are probably doing it for the money and are not hurt that badly.

Why is it so important to know about these misconceptions? As attorneys, we know these misunderstandings can affect our clients in several ways. One, it can have a negative affect on their medical treatment and recovery from their injuries if a brain injury goes undiagnosed and untreated, and we know from experience and this study that not all doctors are well informed enough to identify brain injuries. Two, these misconceptions can have significant negative affect on brain injured clients because their friends, family, and co-workers may judge them inappropriately based on these misconceptions, causing them additional problems assimilating back into their life and work. Third, knowing about these kinds of misconceptions helps us better prepare our clients’ claims by knowing what evidence we need so we can prove our clients’ brain injuries and overcome these misconceptions.

If you or someone you know has suffered injuries in a car crash, including a brain injury, please contact us. We have experience working with clients who have suffered a brain injury and know how to help.  Reach out today!