Issaquah Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney
The NFL knows all about traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how to cover it up. But sometimes it doesn’t take a national powerhouse organization to cover up a TBI case. Injured individuals themselves often miss the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury: difficulty with memory, word-finding, recognition of people & things, headaches, nausea, confusion, and irritability. These can all be easily ignored or written off. The observations of family, friends, and co-workers can be instrumental in assisting with recognizing the symptoms and seeking treatment. The attorneys at ILG can be instrumental in ensuring you are compensated not just for the injury itself and the treatment received, but for future care, treatment and support.
Getting prompt medical attention and an accurate diagnosis are vital when it comes to treating a TBI. Timely treatment can help prevent too much function from being lost initially and also prevent a brain injury from progressing to the point where it causes coma or death. If you’ve been injured in an accident where you hit your head or suffered a violent shaking of the head, such as in a slip and fall, a rear-end collision or other car accident, or a fall from a ladder or scaffold at a construction site, see a doctor right away for a thorough examination complete with all appropriate diagnostic tests. For an accident that occurred in Seattle or King County, call Injury Law Group NW in Washington for assistance getting proper medical care and holding any negligent parties responsible for the harm they have caused.
Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries in Washington
Traumatic brain injuries can come about in a number of ways, including sports injuries and shootings or other acts of violence, but the leading causes of TBI in Washington state are traffic accidents and falls, which together make up almost half of all TBIs.
Car Accidents
In any forceful collision, vehicle occupants are liable to hit their hard on a hard surface in the cabin’s interior, such as the windshield or side window, steering wheel or dashboard. Unrestrained occupants might also get ejected from the vehicle and suffer a serious TBI after striking the road or some object outside the vehicle.
TBIs can also occur even if the victim’s head doesn’t strike any external surface. Instead, a violent collision can cause the head to whip back and forth at great speed, causing the brain to strike the interior of the skull. This kind of TBI can cause a subdural hematoma, contusions, bleeding on the brain, hemorrhagic stroke or dangerous swelling of the brain. This type of TBI is known as a closed head injury, and there might not be any external signs on the skull that the brain has been damaged.
The risk of TBI from a whiplash injury is an important reason to see a doctor promptly after any auto accident, including even a rear-end collision that happened at relatively low speeds. The forces acting on the body inside the vehicle can be much stronger than the forces absorbed by the vehicle which are built to withstand an impact and might not show much damage. Because of this fact, insurance adjusters might say the accident wasn’t serious, when in reality it could lead to a serious or fatal brain injury.
Falls
Although not common, a slip/trip and fall can cause a TBI, especially if the person fell down stairs or was not able to break their fall with their hands and suffered a particularly severe impact with a hard surface. More commonly, TBIs from fall injuries happen due to a fall from heights on a construction worksite. Ladder falls and scaffold falls are the leading cause of injury and death for construction workers, aside from vehicle accidents related to the job. Construction workers also suffer TBIs when they get hit in the head from falling, flying or swinging objects on a construction site. On top of workers’ compensation benefits, injured construction workers can bring negligence claims against third parties who cause the injury, such as employees of a subcontractor who are injured by another subcontractor or the negligence of the general contractor, property owner, or a vendor delivering materials, erecting a scaffold, or setting up crane operations on-site.
Get the Help You Need After a Traumatic Brain Injury in Washington or King County
At Injury Law Group NW, we want nothing more than to see that you are properly taken care of by your health care providers, insurance companies, and the parties responsible for causing you harm. We are your voice when you feel like you are not being heard, and we are your force at the negotiating table or in the courtroom when you need to recover significant compensation to deal with the damages inflicted on you through no fault of your own.
If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in a King County car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian accident, slip/trip and fall or construction accident, call Injury Law Group NW in Washington for a free consultation with a team of dedicated and successful personal injury attorneys.
