Brain injuries and accident compensation
When life takes an unexpected turn through a brain injury, the impact reaches far beyond the initial trauma. Across Australia, more than 600,000 people are living with acquired brain injuries – those that occur after birth – creating ripple effects through families and communities. What’s particularly striking is that two-thirds of these injuries happen before age 25, with men accounting for three-quarters of all cases. Understanding these statistics helps us recognise just how widespread and life-changing brain injuries can be.
Types of Brain Damage and Severity
Every traumatic brain injury can be classified as a head injury. The medical profession have identified two types of brain injuries which are traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury. Both interfere with the brain’s normal functioning.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Is the result of an external force, like one suffered after a car crash or from a blow to the scalp which causes the brain to move inside the skull or damages the skull. The movement may be slight within the scalp but this can cause irreversible damage to the brain.
Acquired Brain Injury
Occurs at a cellular level. It is most often associated with pressure on the brain. This could come from a tumor. Or it could result from neurological illness, as in the case of a stroke.
Brain injuries can significantly impact on quality of life.
The Effects of Brain Damage
Living with a brain injury can have a significant impact on daily life. As the charity Headway reveals, the effects can generally be categorised into the following areas:
- Emotional and behavioural
- Coma and reduced awareness
- Difficulty with communication
- Hormonal imbalances
- Cognitive
- Post-traumatic amnesia
Dealing with these symptoms isn’t just difficult for the individual, but also those around them. This is why ABI sufferers decide to seek injury compensation, which can help alleviate some of the financial pressure of living with the condition.
Different Types of Brain Injury
There are a number of different types of ABI a person can face. The Australian charity Synapse explains a traumatic head injury is one caused by an external force, resulting in either an open or closed injury. The former is used to describe damage where the skull and brain tissue has been penetrated, while the latter is when the brain has not been exposed.
In either situation, the damage is likely to be assessed using a range of sophisticated technologies. These range from MRI to CT scans, inter-cranial pressure monitoring to X-radiation.
Depending on the severity of the injury, the Glasgow Coma Scale may be used. This measures a person’s consciousness on a range of three to 15, with the lower the number, the more unconscious they are.
Brain Damage Accidents
Unfortunately, hospitals deal with brain injuries every day resulting from often avoidable accidents. The most common head injuries and brain damage are the results of serious car accidents and other motor vehicle and pedestrian related accidents, falls, accidental collision related impacts, and violent assaults.
Coping with the Impact of a Brain Injury
Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows nearly 97 per cent of people with an ABI had either severe or profound limitations in their core activity. This means many sufferers need lifetime care, which can come at a considerable cost, especially given that many people are so young. Lifetime care includes highly specialised equipment, rehabilitation costs and financial support.
Getting in touch with a compensation lawyer with expertise in head injury and brain damage compensation is advantageous. Here at PK Simpson, we have helped many brain injury sufferers receive the payout they deserve. While the money won’t reverse the effects of the condition, it will ease some of the financial pressure associated with receiving day-to-day care and greatly help loved ones and dependents.