The Recovery Process After A Traumatic Brain Injury
No two traumatic brain injuries will be exactly the same, and this is due to the complexity of the brain as an organ. In severe and even moderate traumatic brain injury cases, an injured person may be facing long-term care needs and mounting medical bills. For this reason, it’s always important that a person who has suffered a traumatic brain injury in any type of accident be represented by an experienced southwest Florida personal injury attorney.
The Common Stages Of Recovery
While no two brain injuries will be exactly the same, there are typical stages of recovery one will go through after experiencing one. These stages include:
• Immediate to first few weeks – Immediately following a traumatic brain injury into the first few weeks of recovery, a lot can happen. Swelling, bleeding in the brain, and chemistry changes will affect healthy brain tissue and determine how the remainder of the recovery will go. The injured person may not show many signs of awareness, and they may experience a coma, minimally conscious state, or vegetative state as their brain tries to compensate and fight the effects of the injury.
• After regaining consciousness – After a person has regained consciousness, they may experience some personality changes that are startling to them and their loved ones. They may lose their ability to pay attention or learn effectively, they may show aggression or overexcitement easily. As times goes on, they may experience inconsistent behavior, and ebb and flow from showing signs of their normal selves back to signs that the injury is still taking effect.
• The first six months – After consciousness has been regained, the fastest healing will take place within the first six months after a brain injury. Even with setbacks, it’s during this first six months that improvement will appear steady, slowly but surely showing the brain healing and bringing a loved one back to themselves again.
• Six months to two years – Improvements can be expected to continue through six months to two years, although the fastest will usually take place within that first six month period. Improvement will slow down after two years post-accident, but that doesn’t mean its unheard of. In some cases, improvements may still be made years down the line. It is important to remember that no two recoveries will be exactly alike.
The Long-Term Effects Of Traumatic Brain Injuries
In severe brain injury cases, one can expect to experience long-term effects, and the same goes for moderate brain injuries depending upon the circumstances. Unfortunately, there is no real way to determine what exactly long-term effects may come to be at the time of an accident, or if these long-term effects will be permanent. For instance, after a traumatic brain injury, a person may find that their speech pattern is different or they have difficulty finding the right words to say. With therapy and medical assistance, this could be a long-term effect they recover from years down the line. In other cases, these issues may not be able to be fixed.
Traumatic brain injuries can be long-standing, devastating, and incredibly impactful on a person’s quality of life. When one is facing the recovery process of a traumatic brain injury after an accident, obtaining a settlement to offset medical costs and provide better quality of life is important. With a personal injury attorney skilled in traumatic brain injury cases by your side, you provide yourself with the best possible chance of financial compensation.
