Suffering from a brain injury can change your life quickly, leaving you with changes in your personality, memory problems, difficulty with sight or weakness or other issues. Traumatic brain injuries happen when your brain is bumped, jolted or otherwise suffers a blow that disrupts its normal activity.
There are three levels of injuries that you should know about. These include mild, moderate and severe. Here is a little more about each categorization and what it may mean for your health.
1. Mild brain injuries
Mild brain injuries can include concussions. With a mild injury, you may lose consciousness for a few minutes or not at all. Symptoms like dizziness or vision problems could happen, but they generally resolve in the next few weeks.
2. Moderate brain injuries
Moderate injuries are more likely to knock you unconscious and to make it hard for you to stay awake. The damage to the brain is more significant, which means it may be harder to recover.
3. Acute brain injuries
Severe (acute) brain injuries may place you into a coma or unresponsive state for six hours or longer. Some of the damage may cause lasting, permanent symptoms.
Every year, around 2.5 million people suffer from traumatic brain injuries and their after-effects. Motor vehicle collisions account for around 20% of all brain injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
If you suffer from a brain injury as a result of a traumatic motor vehicle collision caused by another person, remember that you may be in a position to file a claim for compensation. You may need ongoing medical treatment, and the at-fault party may be the one responsible for those fees.