Head Injury Attorney in Louisiana

If you or someone you love has been the victim of a personal injury accident in Louisiana and received a head wound due to someone else’s negligence, you could be eligible for compensation for your injuries. Head and brain injuries ranging from relatively mild contusions, all the way to traumatic brain injuries (TBI), are tragically common after accidents. If you suspect you’re the victim of a head injury, see a doctor to diagnose you, then call Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys for a free consultation as to your legal options.

Remember: head injuries are serious in their own rights, and they often lead to more serious brain injuries. If you’ve received a head injury from an accident, be sure to see a medical professional right away.

3 Types of Head Injury

Head injuries can range from bruises, cuts, scrapes, and other minor injuries, to a fractured skull, concussions, and traumatic brain injury. After hitting your head during a car wreck, truck wreck, slip and fall, or other personal injury accident, your injury will generally take one of three categories: traumatic brain injury, open head injury, or closed head injury.

It can be hard to gauge the severity of a head injury, even long after the accident has occurred. Sometimes, people who have been majorly impacted by a brain injury don’t exhibit any physical signs, even in an MRI scan.

The injuries you experience after a blow to the head generally take one of the following forms:

The Most Common Type of Head Injury: Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious head injury caused by a blow to the head, whiplash, or other hard collisions. Traumatic brain injuries can be caused by a number of accidents, including traffic accidents like car wrecks, truck accidents, and motorcycle wrecks, as well as others such as workplace injuries, slips and falls, and more. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main causes of TBI are

• Falls (28%)
• Motor vehicle crashes (20%)
• Collisions with other objects (19%)
• Assaults (11%)

The CDC further reports that around 2.8 million people suffer TBIs each year in the United States, and of those, 55,000 people die. If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury, you need a traumatic brain injury lawyer to help you get the compensation you deserve.

Open Head Injury

When an object breaks the skull and enters the brain, the injury is referred to as an open head injury. These are generally caused by high-speed collisions, such as car crashes, falling objects, or gunshot wounds.

Open head injuries are serious and can be fatal. They can result in long hospital stays and require extensive rehabilitation and treatment. Victims can experience traumatic brain injuries, a shortened lifespan, and chronic headaches and other pain. 

Many times, the victim’s life is permanently altered, and they may be unable to continue working, or require assistance for basic tasks. In some cases, the victim’s injury can even lead to their death.

Closed Head Injury

While closed head injuries tend to be less serious than open head injuries, they can be harder to diagnose and treat. Patients are sometimes not even aware of their injuries, even when experiencing side effects. This is one of the main reasons that you should see a doctor after an accident, even if you think you’re unaffected. And if you have been seriously injured, you need to speak with an experience closed head injury attorney as soon as possible. 

Closed head injuries can cause serious medical conditions, including:

• Subdural hematoma, when blood collects between the brain’s surface and its covering
• Epidural hematoma, when blood collects between the skull and the brain
• Intracerebral hemorrhage, or a brain bleed
• Increased intracranial pressure, which can result from excess fluid or swelling inside the skull

Because closed head injuries can be hard to diagnose and treat, it’s vitally important that you seek medical help after any accident where you hit your head. Even if you don’t have any outward signs or symptoms of a head injury, you could have internal head trauma that will only get worse with time, unless it’s properly treated.

It’s also important to see a doctor after your accident in order to build a better personal injury claim. The doctor you see will provide evidence of your injuries, and can even serve as an expert witness in court, which will better prove your damages and enable you to recover them from the liable party.

Skull Fractures

When the bones of the cranium break, a skull fracture results. Skull fractures are generally classed into one of the following types:

• Closed fractures, or simple fractures, involve a broken cranial bone, but leave the skin covering the fracture intact.
• Open fractures, or compound fractures, break the skin, exposing the skull.
• Depressed fractures cause the skull to fall into the brain cavity.
• Basal fractures occur in the floor of the skull, around the eyes, ears, nose, or at the base of the skull at the top of the spine.

Skull fractures are further classified as linear fractures, which are straight lines, and comminuted fractures, which are broken into three or more sections.

Infant Skull Fractures

Tragically, infants are commonly victims of skull fractures. With their softer and more vulnerable skulls, they can experience fractures while giving birth during a difficult labor, or when the doctor or another medical professional makes a mistake.

Infant skull fractures can cause symptoms ranging from mild to debilitating. Babies might cry, be irritable or lethargic, or experience head swelling and seizures. Skull fractures can also cause lifelong disability, so it’s important to talk with a doctor if you think your baby has a skull fracture. If your baby’s head injury was due to someone’s negligence, be sure to contact a child injury lawyer in Louisiana to get the help you need!

Symptoms of Head Trauma

After suffering a blow to the head, you could experience a number of different symptoms depending on the severity of your injury, your health, and other factors. If you experience one or more of the following symptoms after a head injury, seek medical attention:

• Blurred vision
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Concentration problems
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Irritability
• Lethargy or fatigue
• Loss of consciousness
• Nausea or vomiting
• Sensitivity to light and noise
• Short-term memory loss
• Slurred speech
• Weakness or lack of feeling in one location or side of the body
• Seizures or convulsions

Frequent Causes of Head Injuries in Louisiana

The most common causes of Louisiana head injuries include

• Workplace injuries: especially due to the high number of industrial and manufacturing jobs in our state, workers are at high risk for head injuries if the proper precautions aren’t taken.
• Traffic accidents: due to the high speeds and forces involved, head injuries are very common during car accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents.
• Playing sports: Contact sports, such as football, rugby, and others, can cause concussions and other brain injuries. These can be especially serious for young people, which is one reason why the state legislature passed the Louisiana Youth Concussion Act in 2011.

Damages You Could Be Eligible for After a Head Injury

After suffering a head injury, you could experience pain, lose your ability to work, or require assistance to continue your lifestyle. A head injury lawsuit or settlement can help you recover costs associated with your injury by receiving personal injury damages:

• Special damages, or economic damages, are those quantifiable costs arising from the injury, including
  • Wages you’ve lost due to your inability to work
  • Loss of future earning capacity due to your injury
  • The past and future costs of your medical treatment
  • Costs of repairing or replacing damaged property
  • If the victim died as a result of their injury, their family can file a wrongful death claim to recover funeral, burial, and related costs
• General damages are also called non-economic damages, which means they’re not easily quantifiable:
  • Your pain and suffering
  • Mental anguish you’ve suffered due to your injuries
  • Loss of your enjoyment of life
  • Emotional distress
  • If the victim died, the family can claim loss of consortium and companionship and related damages

Get Help from a Head Injury Lawyer in Louisiana

After a brain injury, you could be experiencing mounting medical bills, an inability to work, and little hope for the future. You deserve remuneration for the pain and suffering you’ve been through, and you need a team of tireless advocates to help you find your just compensation.

Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys is a Louisiana law firm specializing in personal injury law. We have recovered over $3 Billion for our clients in our decades of practice, and we can help you too. Give us a call at 888.501.7888 today for a free consultation as to your legal options.