Get Emergency Care if You Suspect a Brain Injury

One of the most serious injuries that can occur in a traffic collision is a brain injury. It can happen if you hit your head on the window or dashboard. It can happen if your brain spins too quickly in the skull. Sometimes, no blunt-force trauma happens at all, but your brain actually impacts the inside of the skull and begins to swell.

Brain injuries can be devastating, even with quick treatment and response. That’s why it’s so important for you to get medical care as rapidly as possible after a collision. Reducing pressure and swelling in the brain is essential when you’re trying to minimize brain cell death.

With a serious head injury, you may show many symptoms such as:

• Vomiting
• Bleeding from the ears
• Trouble speaking
• Cerebrospinal fluid leaking from the nose or ear
• Difficulty swallowing
• Numbness in the body
• Paralysis
• Dizziness
• Trouble staying conscious
• Nausea
• Trouble thinking or concentrating

These symptoms may get better as your brain injury improves, but some may need medical intervention. At the hospital, your medical provider will look at your brain through imaging scans and other tests so that they can see how severe the injury is and if a surgery is needed. You may be given medications to reduce swelling and inflammation as your brain begins to heal. There may also be medications to help reduce fluid build-up in the body, which can put extra pressure on the brain.

After a serious injury like this, it may be appropriate to seek compensation. Some of the compensation you may want to seek includes:

• Current medical expenses
• Future medical expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Permanent disability
• Future lost wages
• Current lost wages

You may want to look into your legal options if you choose to pursue a claim against the driver who hit you.