Head and Brain Injury Claims

Each year over a million people visit hospital with a head injury. Around 135,000 of those have to be admitted to hospital because of the severity of their injury.

If you have suffered from a personal head injury, this can usually mean that your brain has been damaged in some way. Despite the protective bone surrounding the skull, the brain surface can get torn and bruised as it collides with the skull, and blood vessels and nerves can rip.

These injuries cause bleeding, swelling or fluid build-up in the head, putting pressure on the brain and sometimes causing severe brain damage.

Symptoms of a severe head injury

A severe head injury, if not correctly treated, can cause serious damage to the brain. The symptoms of a severe head injury can include the following.

• A lasting headache which worsens, or is still present over six hours following the injury.
• Extreme difficulty in staying awake, or still being sleepy several hours after the injury.
• Two or more bouts of vomiting.
• Unconsciousness, either for a short or extended period of time.
• Unequal pupil size.
• Straw coloured or blood stained fluid coming from the nose or ears. This is cerebrospinal fluid which normally surrounds the brain.
• Severe dizziness or loss of balance.
• Confusion or strange behaviour.
• Problems with memory.
• Bleeding from the scalp that cannot be quickly stopped.
• Not being able to use part of the body, such as weakness in an arm or leg.
• Difficulty seeing or double vision.
• Slurred speech.
• Unusual breathing patterns.
• Ringing or deafness in one or both ears.
• Having a seizure or fit (when your body suddenly moves uncontrollably).

Road traffic accidents, assault, trips and slips, the workplace and the home…

Many of those who drive will one day encounter a road traffic accident. The consequences of this can be minute or of extreme severity. Road traffic accidents are one of the most common causes of head injuries in the UK. This includes accidents involving lots of vehicles, pedestrian accidents and accidents involving cyclists. Serious road traffic accidents can often cause severe head injury and brain damage.

Other causes of head injuries include accidents at home, sports-related injuries, industrial accidents (such as falls at work, forklift truck injuries), and criminal assault.

Effects of a head injury

Severe head injuries can cause serious complications. This is mainly because a serious injury to the head can potentially damage the brain, sometimes permanently. In particularly severe cases, a serious head injury can even result in death.

There are many other complications and ways in which you can be affected by suffering from a serious head injury. These include physical, hormonal, sensory, cognitive and emotional effects, as well as the possibility of developing infections, leading to diseases such as meningitis, a potentially fatal condition.

• Physical effects:
  Physical effects of brain damage include weakness, stiffness, loss of coordination, and paralysis.
• Hormonal effects:
  Some people who have moderate and severe head injuries damage the working of the pituitary gland. This may lead to the low production of hormones, such as testosterone, which can cause erectile dysfunction (impotence).
• Sensory effects:
  You may notice that your senses are affected following a head injury. For example, you may have ringing in your ears, blind spots, double vision, or a bitter taste in your mouth.
• Cognitive effects:
  Following a head injury, your ability to think, reason, process information, and solve problems may be affected. You may also experience problems with your memory, particularly your short-term memory, and have difficulty with your speech and communication skills.
• Emotional or behavioural effects:
  After a severe head injury, you may experience changes to your feelings and behaviour. For example, you may have feelings of restlessness, irritation, anger, selfishness, or stubbornness. You may also have a tendency to laugh or cry more than before the injury.

Suffering from a major head injury not only has long term physical effects, but affects your everyday life. The contents of the above effects mean that your head injury can effectively alter your life forever, with effects that alter your personality, abilities and talents. After receiving a head injury, it is likely that you are not able to drive until your condition improves. This could mean, for many, that you are unable to work as regularly, or even at all. A head injury will always be a traumatic time for those suffering, but if the injury was not your own fault, it makes the injury that bit more distressing and discomforting.

If your skull was fractured in the head injury, this will usually heal naturally by itself. However, the healing process can take many months, again, having a large impact on your everyday life and welfare.

Treating severe head injury

After suffering from a severe head injury you must always be treated in hospital. This is to help minimise the risk of you developing further complications. Appropriate treatment is giving depending on the circumstances, once your doctor has diagnosed the severity of the injury.

If you have any external cuts or grazes to your head, they should be cleaned and treated in order to prevent further bleeding or infection. Similarly, deep or large cuts may require stitching.

It is important that once fully treated and discharged from hospital, that you have plenty of rest, avoid stressful situations and demanding activities, such as sport. Also, returning to work should be postponed, and driving should be avoided until you feel fully recovered. Once again, the aftermath of a head injury alters your normal daily routine and despite generous and sufficient amounts of treatment to your head injury, the damage will impinge upon your usual lifestyle.

Your head injury not only brings along with it physical complications, but mental ones too. It is necessary that you consistently check-up with your GP in order to check you are coping emotionally and mentally with your injury. As with any illness or injury, the results are psychological and physical.

Recovering from your head injury

After the affliction of a head injury, it is vital that you ensure a full recovery. There numerous different health professionals who will help you with your recovery following your personal injury. The treatment you receive will depend on how your head injury has affected you. Some of the treatments and health professionals you may see may include the following:

• Physiotherapy - if you are experiencing physical problems following your injury, such as weakness, stiffness and poor co-ordination, then you will normally be referred to a physiotherapist. A physiotherapist uses a variety of treatments such as massage, exercise and hydrotherapy (special exercises in warm, shallow water) to help you recover physically.
• Occupational therapy - if you are struggling with everyday tasks and activities following your injury, either at work or at home, then an occupational therapist will provide you with practical support to help make those tasks easier. The aim of occupational therapy is to get you to live as independently as possible.
• Speech therapy - sometimes a head injury can affect your speech, and you may struggle to communicate in the same way as you did before your injury. A speech therapist will help you to regain your communications skills.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy - after a severe head injury, you may have trouble adjusting back into every day life. Cognitive behavioural therapy helps to change the way you think about things so that you can deal with problems and difficulties more positively and effectively.
• Psychotherapy - this is a type of therapy which involves talking to a psychiatrist. Your psychiatrist will help you to talk through your worries and problems, so that you can better understand and deal with your thoughts and feelings.

Claim Compensation

A large number of the thousands of people admitted to hospital each year with head injuries following an accident are able to make a claim for compensation. The effects of even a relatively minor injury can lead to symptoms that severely affect everyday activities for many months, while many who have suffered severe or even moderate head injuries remain disabled after a year or more after their accident.

If you have suffered a head injury in an accident on the road or at work or even through the criminal actions of another person it is important to seek the advice of a solicitor who is experienced in the handling of head injury claims.

Macks Solicitors expert and complete approach to head injury claims means that, not only will we work on your behalf to get the best possible settlement for your pain and suffering and any losses incurred at the time, but we will seek damages for any long term impact your injury will have on your life.

If you would like advice without obligation from an experienced, qualified solicitor contact Macks Solicitors on Freephone 0800 652 4321.