Arizona Brain Injury Lawyers

Arizona brain injury lawyers who represent people who have suffered a personal injury or death by negligence, medical malpractice or a defective product. We also represent people treated unfairly by insurance companies resulting in bad faith, breach of contract, and uninsured motorist claims.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention there are 1 million cases of traumatic brain injuries that occur in the U.S. based on the years 1995-1996.  A brain injury constitutes sudden physical damage to the brain.  Brain injuries can occur as the result of the head either hitting an object or an object hitting the head.  A brain injury can either result in a closed head injury or an open head injury.  A closed head injury causes brain injury, but there are no outward physical signs of damage.  Opposed to that an open head injury also causes a brain injury but the skull is visibly pierced, for example by a gun wound.  The leading cause of brain injuries are from motor vehicle accidents, but other common accidents include falls, violent crimes, sports injuries, and child abuse. 

Some brain injuries are not always diagnosed and detected properly, especially in the case of a closed head injury because there is no outward damage.  Some CT scans will show that there are proper brain functioning despite existing brain injuries.  Symptoms from a brain injury may not show up until much after the accident, delaying diagnoses even further and causing increased damage.  A neurologist is able to determine through an evaluation and assessment if a brain damage does exist, but often times a neurologist will only see patients with serious head injuries that has either not been identified by the regular physician, or is not assumed because the accident was a closed head injury. 

A brain injury can result in long lasting cognitive and communication problems.  The younger the individual is, the better the chances are for progression.  The severity of the effects depends on the areas of the brain injured and the extent of the brain injury.  The brain injury will most likely be the worst directly following the accident because of the swelling and contusions, or bruising.  Swelling and bruising will affect brain functioning but once it subsides the areas of the brain that were altered will return to normal.

It is hard to determine the amount of damage and the resulting problems that will come from a brain injury within the first weeks after the accident.  There are certain brain injuries that result in long-term and permanent problems and some that will heal.  If there has been brain damage to the focal area, for instance, improvements can be made if the other areas of the brain can learn to compensate and take over the lost brain functioning from the brain injury but the brain damage may be long lasting.

The earlier the brain injury has been treated for cognitive and communication problems that arise, the better the chances for regaining lost brain functioning are.  Of the 1 million cases of brain injury during one year, 230,000 of the patients were hospitalized and survived while 50,000 people died.  Most of the brain injury survivors suffered moderate to mild injuries.  Most affected is the brainstem due to swelling that causes pressure and affects consciousnesses or wakefulness.  Some moderate brain injuries will lead to a coma.  Many of these brain injury patients will need to undergo therapy and long-term rehabilitation based on the severity of the injury.