Legal Help for Traumatic Brain Injury Cases
Dabbs and Pomtree, Attorneys at Law, have been successful in handling traumatic brain injury cases in Arkansas. These actions have ranged from simple concussions to more permanent closed head injuries.
TRAUMATIC Brain Injury
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain, not of degenerative or congenital nature, caused by an external physical force that may produce a diminished or altered state of consciousness, resulting in an impairment of cognitive abilities physical functioning. It can also result in the disturbance of behavioral or emotional functioning.
ACQUIRED Brain Injury
Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is an injury to the brain which is not hereditary, congenital, or degenerative.
- Millions of Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from brain injury.
- It is estimated that one million people are treated for TBI and released from hospital emergency rooms every year.
- Each year, thousands of Americans experience the onset of long-term disability following TBI.
- More than a thousand people die every year as a result of TBI.
- Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of brain injury.
- Falls are the second leading cause and the leading cause of brain injury in the elderly.
- The risk of TBI is highest among adolescents, young adults, and those older than 75.
- After one brain injury, the risk for a second injury is three times greater; after the second injury, the chance for a third injury is eight times greater.
- The cost of traumatic brain injury in the United States is estimated to be over one billion annually.
The Consequences of brain injury can affect a person cognitively, physically, and emotionally.
COGNITIVE Consequences can include:
- Short-term memory loss
- Long-term memory loss
- Slowed ability to process information
- Trouble concentrating or paying attention for periods
- Difficulty keeping up with a conversation
- Other communication difficulties such as word-finding problems
- Spatial disorientation
- Organizational issues and impaired judgment
- Unable to do more than one thing at a time
PHYSICAL Consequences can include:
- Seizures of all types
- Muscle spasticity
- Double vision or low vision, even blindness
- Loss of smell or taste
- Speech impairments such as slow or slurred speech
- Headaches or migraines
- Fatigue, increased need for sleep; balance problems
- Pain
EMOTIONAL Consequences can include:
- A lack of initiating activities, or once started, difficulty in completing tasks without reminders
- Increased anxiety
- Depression and mood swings
- Denial of deficits
- Impulsive behavior
- More easily agitated
- Egocentric behaviors; difficulty seeing how behaviors can affect others
CLOSED Head Injuries:
When the brain is injured, the essence of the person is affected. Memory, reason, temperament, and personality may all be impaired in strange and inconsistent ways. Traits that were minor idiosyncrasies before may expand into debilitating obstacles.
The effect may be devastating to the victim's relationships, occupation, income, school performance, and overall quality of life. However, he may look just fine physically and may seem normal in casual encounters. To make matters worse, friends, family members, coworkers, and employers may not understand or sympathize with an injury they cannot see.
When a person suffers multiple severe physical injuries, the focus is often on the visible injuries, the cuts, and broken bones. A closed head injury to the brain is one of the most overlooked and sinister outcomes of traumatic injuries. Broken bones can heal, but the unseen damage of a bruised brain may never fully recover.
Contact Dabbs & Pomtree Attorneys at Law
Call us today at
(501) 224-1141 or Toll-Free at
1-888-440-1899 for a free Our phone is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.