What Causes Brain Injuries?

Every year, Traumatic Brain Injuries kill almost 75,000 Americans, many due to suicide. Regardless of their intensity, these injuries are usually permanent. Dead brain cells never regenerate. At best, doctors contain the damage and physical therapists train uninjured parts of the brain to assume lost functions. The permanent and ongoing nature of these injuries drives up the medical bills to the point that they’re unaffordable in many cases.

A Missouri City brain injury lawyer obtains the financial compensation these families need to pay these bills. This compensation includes not only money for economic losses, such as medical bills, but also money for noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. The dual nature of these damages forces negligent parties to take responsibility for their mistakes. Texas would be an even better place to live if we all lived responsibly.

Car Crashes

Vehicle collisions are the leading cause of TBIs in Texas, and it’s not even close. Car wrecks combine all three major TBI causes, which are:

• Trauma: They call it a “traumatic” brain injury for a reason. Today’s cars and trucks are so big and fast that no safety restraint system, no matter how advanced, can possibly absorb all the force in a high-speed wreck. Hitting an airbag is like running into a pillow-covered brick wall at 60mph. A TBI is almost inevitable.
• Noise: Car crash witnesses usually say that collisions sound like explosions. These sudden, loud noises create shock waves that disrupt brain functions. Noise-related TBIs are among the leading causes of Iraq and Afghanistan War brain injuries. Anyone in the vicinity of an exploding roadside bomb usually absorbed shock waves.
• Motion: The violent motion of a car crash causes the brian to slam repeatedly against the inside of the skull. These multiple, harsh impacts cause a great deal of damage. The brain is a soft, fragile organ that’s not much bigger than a soda glass, and the skull is perhaps the hardest bone in the body.

To obtain compensation, a Missouri City personal injury lawyer typically uses the ordinary negligence doctrine or the negligence per se rule. Ordinary negligence is a lack of care, such as driving while fatigued or intoxicated. Negligence per se is a violation of a safety law, such as speeding or running a red light.

The burden of proof in both kinds of negligence claims is a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not). Evidence in a car crash claim usually includes the police report, witness statements, and medical bills.

This evidence is often lacking in fatal car crash cases. For example, if the victim dies at the scene, there’s usually no medical bills. Therefore, to establish the severity of the crash, attorneys usually partner with accident reconstruction professionals.

Falls and Assaults

We’ll group these two categories together because they cause about the same number of brain injuries and the liability issues are similar. Falls cause motion-related head injuries. Assaults often cause trauma-related head injuries. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, another physical brain injury, is common in these cases as well, especially assault cases.

Legally, property owners are responsible for most injuries which occur on their property, such as falls and assaults, even if a third party, like a mugger, was involved.

We mentioned the duty of care above. If the victim was an invitee (permission to visit and benefit to the owner), basically the same duty of care applies. Owners must promptly address fall injury hazards, like uneven walkways, and negligent security hazards, such as broken security gates.

Liability only attaches if the owner knew, or should have known, about the injury-causing hazard. The same standard of evidence (a preponderance of the proof) applies in these cases.

Work With a Thorough Harris County Attorney

Injury victims are entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Missouri City, contact the Henrietta Ezeoke Law Firm. Virtual, home, and hospital visits are available.

Source:

cdc.gov/traumatic-brain-injury/data-research/index.html