What are the Types of Brain Injuries (TBI)?

The two types of brain injury TBI are 1) traumatic injury and 2) non-traumatic injury.

Brad Nakase, Attorney

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How to recognize a traumatic brain injury?

The identification of a brain injury is considered difficult and is often not diagnosed initially. For instance, many patients do not have visible physical or concerning signs in mild TBI and that’s why it has been termed a “silent epidemic.” A person with a brain injury can often have disabling psychological, cognitive or behavioral impairments that are quite often misdiagnosed or even unnoticed for a long period of time. That’s why it is imperative to identify concussions (even mild ones) and other TBIs after an accident.

How does a TBI occur?

Your brain is an extremely important yet fragile part of your body. A hit to your head can cause some serious damage to your brain. As a result of an accident or a hit to your head, there is a sudden acceleration of your brain inside your skull which causes an injury. In one such injury called Coup-contrecoup injury (aka acceleration/deceleration injury), the brain bounces back and forth against the hard skull. In high speed, the impact of brain is violent enough to cause bruising and swelling of the brain tissues. As the areas of varying density in the brain moves due to sudden brain movement, those areas slide over each other at different speeds and it causes the axons stretch and tear from the cell body. According to researchers, brain damage is associated to with a protein called Tau – a super important element in brain cells that help organize intracellular transport and stabilize cell structure. In a nutshell, if the impact is stronger, the severity of brain injury will be more and likewise.

What Are Different Types of Brain Injuries?

You can get detailed information on different types of brain injuries from the official website of Brain Injury Association of America. [i] Here we can give you an overview of types of brain injuries:

Contusion – A direct impact on the skull can cause internal bleeding, which might need surgery.

Concussion – It is the most common type of brain injury and it occurs as a result of any kind of force to the head.

Coup-contrecoup injury – This is the type of brain injury in which contusion appears on both sides (site of the impact and the complete opposite side) of the head. It means that the impact of the force was great enough to cause damage to both sides.

Anoxic Brain Injury – In anoxic brain injury, the cells inside the brain begins to die due to complete absence of oxygen.

Hypoxic Brain Injury – In hypoxic brain injury, the brain receives some oxygen, but it is not enough


How a TBIs, Concussions, and Contusions Are Diagnosed?

If you notice that you or your family member has suffered a head injury, then you should never take it lightly. After all, we’re talking about the brain here and it should always be taken seriously. First of all, you need to look for following symptoms:

  • A headache that isn’t going away and keeps getting worse
  • Dizziness that isn’t getting better
  • Vomiting or nausea
  • Slurred speech or difficulty in understanding
  • Decreased concentration level and numbness
  • Becoming agitated and restless
  • Finding it difficult to recognize surrounding

Emergency Signs for Children

  • Vomiting
  • Listlessness
  • Loss of balance
  • He/she wouldn’t stop crying
  • He/she isn’t eating or drinking anything
  • Or he/she has signs you’ve read above

Once you or someone close to you is taken to the hospital, the health care providers will assess the physical injuries, level of consciousness as well as the functioning of brain and nerves with the help of a few tests. Some of the common tests are:

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) – This test focuses on three functioning areas of a person: the ability to open eyes, to move, and to speak. The health care provider will rate the person’s response based on these three functioning areas. If the final score is 13 then it is a mild TBI. A final score between 9 and 12 indicates moderate TBI and the score of 8 or lower indicates a severe TBI. [ii]

Speech and Language Tests – These tests are conducted by a speech and language pathologist. The tests include evaluating the speech and language skills of a person, including the evaluation of strength and coordination of speech controlling muscles. The pathologist will also consider other evaluations such as difficulty in swallowing and social communication skills.

Imaging Tests – There can be a Computerized tomography (CT) scan, Intracranial Pressure (ICP) monitoring, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In most cases, a CT scan or an MRI helps diagnose TBI.

Recovering From the Brain Injury

It is important to understand that the recovery can take weeks, years or even lifetime. Therefore, it is best to follow your doctor’s orders under any circumstances. Your doctor knows best what needs to be done to avoid the injury from causing long-term effects. Taking the medications that are approved by your doctor can help prevent major long-term health problems such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, etc.

Your doctor will also recommend rehabilitation programs. Some people suffering from a TBI neglect the importance of taking rehabilitative programs, but you or your loved one should definitely take them.


Your Brain Injury is Diagnosed and Confirmed, Now What?

To recover from a brain injury, doctors’ fees, medication and rehabilitation programs can actually put a lot of financial burden on you and your family. And let’s not forget that you or your family member is already battling with the pain and restlessness. If your brain injury occurred from a car accident or workplace injury, then don’t waste any time in contacting your CA personal injury lawyer.

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Car Accident Back Pain, Symptoms, and Compensation

A sudden and intense impact from a car accident causes damage to the back muscle and surrounding tissue, commonly causing lower back pain. Compensation for a back injury averages $9000 for no spine injury to $250,000 for spine injuries.

What should you do after a car accident?

After you've been involved in a car accident and realize you sustained injuries, report to the police immediately and request medical attention. If you were not injured in the car accident, safely check that other persons in the car are safe and call 911 if necessary and inform them there is an injury.

Average Settlement for Car Accident Back and Neck Injury

The average settlement for car accident back and neck injury ranges from $50,000 to over $1 million. The amount depends on where you live, medical bills, the length of injury, and the extent of your back and neck injury.

Back pain after a car accident: Common injuries

A high-speed car accident that causes a spinal fracture or vertebrae sprain can lead to permanent and painful nerve damage. Likewise, A car accident resulting in a minor back injury left untreated can progress into a degenerative or chronic spinal condition.

Back Injury From Car Accident

Common injuries from car accidents include soft tissue injuries such as sprains, strains and spine injuries such as fractures and herniated discs.

What is the average settlement for a back injury in a car accident?

The average settlement for a back injury in a car accident ranges from $11,000 to over $1 million depending on four factors: 1) Was the injury soft tissue? If yes, the average settlement is $12,000; 2) Was there a spine injury? If yes, the average settlement is $70,000; 3) Was or is surgery required? If yes, the average settlement is $275,000, 4) Is there a permanent disability? If yes, the average settlement can exceed $1 million.

What causes most semi-truck accidents?

The number cause of semi-truck accidents is driver fatigue; a driver cannot legally drive more than 12 hours per day in 24 hour period.

Tractor Trailer Injury Lawsuit

If a tractor trailer seriously injures a victim, an injury lawsuit often results in a money settlement exceeding $1 million.

Rear-end collision settlements California

Unless there is a serious injury, the average settlement for a minor rear-end collision is $12,000 to $22,000. The average rear-end collision settlement resulting in serious injury is $60,000 to $25,000.

What is eggshell plaintiff theory?

The Eggshell Skull doctrine is a common law rule that makes a negligent defendant liable for a plaintiff’s unforeseeable injury because of the plaintiff’s preexisting fragile health condition.

Car Accident Spine Injury

A car accident may cause a serious spine injury when a victim was rear-ended. Spine injury settlement amounts depend on the severity of the spine injury and medical bills.

Brain Injury Prognosis

An estimated fifty percent of patients with traumatic brain injury go through more decline in their cognition within five years of sustaining injury.

How much should I settle for a herniated disc?

A herniated disk is a serious injury that causes lifetime pain if left medically untreated. Because a herniated disc is a big deal, the average settlement is $80,000 to $280,000, depending on if there was surgery.

Sex with Teacher

For years, students, teachers, and lecturers have entered into romantic relationships and dated, despite the risks. In fact, ‘dating my teacher’ is one of the Google searches with millions of results online. However, minor student sex with the teacher often ends up in the minor suing the teacher and winning over $1 million in damages.

Teacher Has Sex with Students

The modern meme for teachers having sex with their students is sex teachers (sex-ed teachers). Teachers having sex with students is uncommon. Students who had sex with their teachers won millions of dollars in lawsuits. 

Compensation for Back Injury

For back injury settlements for strains and sprains, the average settlement is between $15,000 and $45,000. The average settlement for a back injury accident that require or resulted in surgery ranges from $45,000 to $350,000.
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