How To Seek Compensation From Traumatic Brain Injuries
By Space Coast Daily // January 4, 2022
Brain injuries are typically a result of outside forces. Some brain injuries can be mild, but traumatic brain injuries are quite serious and are a cause for concern. They usually result from serious car accidents, sports injuries, or heavy machinery accidents. However, there are other causes as well.
One common cause of traumatic brain injuries is malpractice. This brain injury could result from negligence by medical experts. This may be caused by misdiagnosis, surgical errors, and sometimes a premature discharge of patients.
Generally, there are two types of traumatic brain injury.
■ Closed Traumatic Brain Injury: This mostly occurs as a result of intense blows. For example, a person in a car accident who hits their head on the dashboard is likely to have a closed traumatic brain injury.
■ Open Traumatic Brain Injury: This is when a head injury involves an open wound. For example, a gunshot is likely to cause such injury.
Effects of such brain injuries may be immediate, or they may be felt much later. Blood clots, brain swelling, and memory loss are just some of the effects a victim may sustain. Sometimes the effects can be so bad that the affected individual is forced to change their lifestyle.
People suffering from traumatic brain injury may experience paralysis, difficulty thinking or remembering, and problems with social relationships. This may lead to the affected individuals losing their jobs and becoming dependent.
If you’ve sustained a traumatic brain injury and are eligible for general damages, here are the steps you can take to seek compensation.
1. Seek A Medical Assessment
The first important step to take is to seek medical attention. Even if you’ve already seen a doctor following the incident, it would help to ensure you have an accurate diagnosis. You will also need copies of the medical reports as proof of your brain injury and the effects it may have had on your mental or physical well-being.
2. Gather Evidence
Aside from providing documented medical reports, you may have to provide further proof of the injury. You may also be required to prove how the injury has affected your quality of life. For example, if the injury has made you unable to go to work or perform your regular duties, you can present an approved disability claim.
This makes you eligible to be compensated for the loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, disability, and impairment. You may also be entitled to compensation if the injury has caused you to suffer economic losses.
3. Seek Legal Assistance
You need the right representation if you hope to win your case. It would be wise to get a lawyer who’s well-versed in brain injury complexities or a lawyer who specializes in traumatic brain injury cases. Their experiences and expertise make them the perfect choice for the job.
You may want to consider speaking to different lawyers before deciding on the one you want to hire. You should also research the different important questions you should ask them that are relevant to traumatic head injury cases. This way, you do not just choose randomly, but you make an informed decision.
However, while it’s important to choose carefully, you also don’t want to take too long before hiring a lawyer. It would be wise to hire and speak with one as soon as you can. This is so they can speak to witnesses while the accident is still fresh in their memory. Hence, it will help reduce the chances of witnesses giving vague or distorted accounts of the incident. Your lawyer might also need to get a report of the incident from law enforcement before evidence can be tampered with or destroyed.
4. Prepare The Requirements For A Medical Malpractice Claim
If your brain injury was caused by medical malpractice, there are several things you should be able to prove to ensure that you have a solid case. For one, you have to establish that there was a transaction between you and the doctor who performed the malpractice. If you’re suing a doctor who never treated you directly, your case may not be very strong.
You also have to be able to prove other things, such as whether the doctor was actually negligent and whether that carelessness directly caused your injury. For these things, you may want to have a medical expert who’s willing to testify to prove your claims.
Conclusion
A traumatic brain injury can negatively impact your life and your well-being in various ways. Though this may not be a solution to all the problems that result from it, claiming compensation for the injury could help ease your financial burdens. Remember to keep the steps above in mind, as well as ensure that you hire the right lawyer for your case.
