Richmond TBI Lawyer
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can have a distressing, life-long effect on those who suffer them, as well as their friends and family. If your TBI was the result of another person’s negligent behavior, you may be entitled to compensation. For more information, call a traumatic brain injury attorney in Virginia at Tronfeld West & Durrett.
Our personal injury attorneys have over 40 years of experience helping injured Virginians recover the compensation they need and deserve. Give us a call today: 804-358-6741.
For answers to your questions about a traumatic brain injury in Richmond, call:
800-321-6741
What Is A Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury can result when an individual receives a violent blow or jolt to the head or body or when an object pierces the head and goes through brain tissue. A traumatic brain injury affects how the brain works and is a major cause of death and disability in the United States.
While a mild brain injury may temporarily adversely affect your brain cells, more serious TBIs—those that result in severe bruising, torn tissues, bleeding, or other physical damage to the brain—can have long-term complications or death.
Family members may have difficulty dealing with mood swings and changes in the personality of their loved ones. Traumatic brain injuries can result in a lifetime of medical interventions and rehabilitative therapy, the necessity of full-time care, an inability to return to work, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury, you need serious help, and you need it quickly.
The Tronfeld West & Durrett Richmond, traumatic brain injury lawyers, are highly respected in the industry and are ready to help you through this difficult time in the best way possible.
How Does A Traumatic Brain Injury Occur?
These injuries occur when an object strikes — or passes through — your head so forcefully that it causes severe or permanent damage to your brain.
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading cause of TBIs between 2006 and 2010 was falls. The second leading cause was being hit by an object and a close third was car accidents.
What Symptoms Should I Be Looking For?
In many cases, you may be unaware that you are suffering from a head injury. This is because some symptoms might not show up for days or even weeks. Here are a few signs to be on the lookout for:
- You feel dizzy or lightheaded
- Headaches
- Memory loss
- Blurred vision
- Confusion
- Slurred speech
- You feel depressed
- Unexpected changes to your personality
- Numb or tingling body parts
- Partial or complete paralysis
Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Have Life-Long Effects
Nearly 5.3 million victims of TBIs are forced to live with some sort of disability as a result of their trauma, reports the Brain Trauma Foundation.
Depending on the severity of the TBI (mild, moderate, or severe), you or your loved one may be facing many different effects including:
- Seizures or some other type of sensory impairment
- Partial or full paralysis, which can affect your ability to drive, feed yourself, or do any of the other daily functions that have become a part of your life
- Memory loss
- Confusion on how to do simple tasks
- Unexpected changes to your personality, which can strain your relationships with your friends and family
- Mood swings
- Anxiety
- Depression
All of these side effects can have negative effects on your ability to work and make enough money to provide for yourself, which is why it is so important to make sure you get the compensation you deserve.
Without proper help and guidance, you could be left without a way to pay for your injuries and other losses.
Concussions vs. Traumatic Brain Injury
While a concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury, it is generally a much less severe head injury. A concussion results when the is hit or the body sustains a hit that causes the head and brain to whip violently forward, then backward. Such sudden movements can result in compression or twisting of the brain causing chemical changes that can alter the brain’s chemical balance and damage brain cells.
Concussions, unlike more severe traumatic brain injuries, are not usually life-threatening. However, the after-effects of a concussion can be very serious. Some people who have had more than one concussion can develop CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). Those who receive many hits to the head—like boxers and football players—are at a much greater risk of CTE, resulting in memory loss, dementia, aggression, depression, impaired judgment, and confusion.
Some of these symptoms are similar to those experienced by individuals who have had a more severe Traumatic Brain Injury. So, while mild concussions are not generally considered a serious TBI, those who experience multiple concussions throughout their lives are more likely to develop CTE, while a more severe concussion can result in a TBI. It can be extremely difficult to live with a TBI, as it can alter the cognitive functions of the victim and can even result in huge changes to the individual’s basic personality. Those with severe TBI may require a caretaker for months, years, or even the remainder of their lives.
Traumatic Brain Injury Statistics
The Brain Injury Association of America estimates that 2.4 million people in the United States suffer a traumatic brain injury every year. The two highest causes of traumatic brain injuries are falls (at 35.2%), followed by motor vehicle accidents at (17.3%). A car accident, playground fall, or similar “freak accident” can happen in a split second, but the ongoing cognitive issues of a head injury can affect your life for years. An overwhelming 3.17 million Americans currently live with disabilities related to a traumatic brain injury.
According to the Brain Injury Association of Virginia, it’s hard to accurately assess the number of traumatic brain injuries in the United States due to the fact that many TBIs are only treated in the ER, Urgent Care, or through primary care physicians, while many more go untreated altogether. This means that there are many more TBIs than we have statistics on. Males are almost two times as likely to be hospitalized and three times more likely to die from a TBI than females. If you or a loved one suffers from the repercussions of a severe head injury or severe brain injury related to an accident or product liability, you might be eligible to receive compensation to help pay for medical expenses and other losses.
Recovering Compensation For Your Traumatic Brain Injury
Regardless of how you or your loved one sustained the brain injury, if you are able to prove that another party was at fault, you may be entitled to compensation.
To prove fault, you must establish:
- The other party had a duty to keep you from undue harm (e.g., property owners have a duty to keep their property free of hazards, drivers have a duty to operate a heavy vehicle carefully, etc.)
- The other party breached this duty. (e.g., the at-fault party ran a red light and caused a collision with your car)
- You would not have suffered your head injury but for the negligent actions of the other driver. (e.g., you would not have suffered your TBI but for the negligent driver running the light and slamming into your motorbike)
- You sustained actual damages from the accident (e.g., medical bills, lost wages, etc.)
If you are able to prove another party was at fault for the accident that caused your head or brain injury, you can recover compensation for both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages Include:
Medical bills
According to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Traumatic Brain Injury Model System, the lifetime care costs (e.g., hospital costs, in-home care costs, etc.) of a TBI can range anywhere from $85,000 to $3 million.
In addition to medical bills and potential lifetime in-home care, you may need to complete renovations on your home or vehicle to accommodate your disability.
Lost Wages
Depending on the severity of your TBI, you may need to take time off work for recovery or be unable to return to work full time or at all.
If you are unable to care for yourself, you may need a full time caretaker or one of your family members may need to quit her job or take time off work to care for you.
This inability to work may cause you and your family to change your entire lifestyle.
Noneconomic Damages Include:
Pain and Suffering
A TBI places stress on all members of the family. You may be able to recover compensation for the pain and suffering that you and your family members are dealing with.
Loss of Quality of Life
In addition to causing a lot of pain and suffering, your injury may have caused a loss of quality of life. If you can prove that your brain injury caused a loss of quality of life (e.g., you are depressed, you cannot do the same things you did before, etc.), you may be entitled to compensation.
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How Do I Get Started with a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer?
After a severe injury, your body needs to take some time to rest and recover. As you are trying to heal, the last thing your brain needs to worry about is the stress of paying medical bills and talking to insurance adjusters. An experienced Richmond traumatic brain injury lawyer from the Tronfeld West & Durrett team can answer your questions and help you determine if your case is worth pursuing. We have years of experience with head and brain injury lawsuits in Virginia.
We will walk you through the process of dealing with insurance adjusters and any other parties involved. We fight to make sure you get the monetary help and compensation you deserve to get your life back on the right track. Rest assured you will be in the best of hands with one of our local attorneys.
Fighting an insurance company while you and your family are attempting to stay on your feet can be nearly impossible. Do not do it alone.
While we know there is no way for us to heal your pain, the attorneys at Tronfeld West & Durrett are dedicated to helping get you compensation that fairly reflects your losses.
We are local Virginia personal injury lawyers who care about the people in our community. We care about you and your family and getting you what you need.
Call Tronfeld West & Durrett today for a free consultation. Our number is 804-358-6741. Not in the Virginia area? You can call us toll-free at 800-321-6741.
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