Why Choose Simmons and Fletcher for Your Houston Brain Injury Case?
At Simmons & Fletcher, we have individual attorneys who have been rated by Super Lawyers, board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and named among the top 40 under 40 National Trial Lawyers. While we take pride in the accomplishments of each of our personal injury lawyers, we take even more pride in the care, compassion, and charity that’s instilled into our work with each and every client we serve.
If you want a top Houston traumatic brain injury attorney with a commitment to protecting your rights, livelihood, and well-being, you’ve come to the right place. Our firm has a long history of supporting the people within our community, and we’d love the opportunity to support you during this challenging time. Contact an experienced Houston brain injury lawyer today for a free case evaluation—we charge you no fees or expenses unless we make a recovery for you.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are severe, and often catastrophic injuries to the head caused by an outside force. Most often, this force is a direct blow or contact to the head—like a physical altercation or assault or an accidental fall against a hard surface, for instance. In rarer cases, however, a TBI may be caused by lateral forces (like whiplash) or rotational forces (like a rollover motor vehicle accident).
Regardless of the exact cause, most TBIs result from the internal movement of the brain within the skull. These injuries are more common than you might think, and many mild traumatic brain injuries go undiagnosed by injured parties and medical professionals. However, TBIs are still very prevalent in Texas. more than 144,000 Texans suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year and about 13,500 Texas residents suffered a TBI-related death between 2016-2018.
What Are the Different Types of Brain Injuries?
The human skull protects our brain from daily damage, but external forces can sometimes severely impact our brain and lead to a traumatic brain injury (TBI). While the different types of brain injuries may range from mild to severe, some of the most common ones include:
- Concussions;
- Contusions;
- Hemorrhaging;
- Skull fractures;
- Blood clots;
- Lacerations;
- Diffuse axonal injury (stretching and tearing the brain’s Axons).
What Are the Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries?
Traumatic brain injuries can happen any time that an external object shakes, pierces, or otherwise impacts your head. While a wide range of accidents can lead to brain injury, some of the most common causes of TBI include:
- Car accidents;
- Truck accidents;
- Motorcycle accidents;
- Bicycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents;
- Slip and fall accidents;
- Sports injuries;
- Physical assaults;
- Workplace accidents;
- Construction accidents;
- Defective products.
While TBI accidents can result from a number of different causes, the injured party almost always requires extensive or ongoing medical care. At Simmons & Fletcher, our approach to Houston injury cases involves taking legal matters off of your plate so that you can focus on rest, healing, and rehabilitation.
What Are the Symptoms and Long-Term Effects of Brain Injuries?
Brain and head injuries can range from mild to severe, with their symptoms varying from person to person. Some brain injury symptoms present immediately but diminish over time, while others have long-term effects.
Some of the short-term symptoms of a brain injury include:
- Loss of consciousness;
- Confusion or disorientation;
- Headaches;
- Blurred vision;
- Tinnitus (ringing in the ears with no obvious cause);
- Changes in sleep schedule;
- Mood swings;
- Memory gaps;
- Anxiety and depression.
Most of these mild symptoms will heal over time with treatment and rest. In some cases, however, symptoms may persist and present as a moderate or severe brain injury. The injured party may be diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Long-term effects may include:
- Migraine headaches;
- Limited hand-eye coordination;
- Speech problems;
- Insomnia;
- Memory lapses;
- Anger management issues;
- Cognitive challenges with memory, reasoning, impulse control, and concentration;
- Higher risk of blood clots, infections, and hydrocephalus;
- Higher risk of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
What Are the Treatment Options for Traumatic Brain Injuries?
When it comes to more mild brain injuries, some rest and active monitoring of symptoms may be just what the doctor ordered. For more moderate or severe brain injuries, however, more extensive TBI treatment may be necessary.
After experiencing a traumatic brain injury, seek emergency care immediately. It’s crucial for a doctor to examine your injuries as many head injuries can feel mild but cause significant medical problems later on. Your doctor will give you instructions on further treatment, and they may prescribe you medication to prevent seizures and reduce swelling around the brain. In more severe cases that involve a brain bleed or fractured skull, these injuries may require surgical intervention.
If your medical provider does recommend long-term brain injury rehabilitation, it may involve physical therapy, cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and/or psychiatric counseling.
How Can You Prove a Brain Injury Case in Texas?
To find legal proof for a TBI case in Texas, your experienced and knowledgeable brain injury law firm in Houston will gather relevant evidence in your case, such as medical records and expert witness testimony. Depending on the circumstances of your case, your attorney may also create an accident reconstruction to understand exactly how the injury occurred and if any other parties are legally at fault.
TBI case evidence for proving a brain injury must also prove a failure to uphold duty of care. Essentially, your injury must have been the direct result of someone else’s negligence, and that person must have owed you a reasonable duty of care. When assembling the evidence for your brain injury settlement, our team will investigate all involved parties to determine—and hopefully prove—negligence.
What Compensation Can You Receive as a Brain Injury Victim?
Every case is different, so it’s difficult to give an honest answer to how much compensation you can collect after a traumatic brain injury. However, we can guarantee that our resourceful personal injury attorneys will work diligently to get you the most just compensation possible. In a brain injury lawsuit, you may entitled to TBI compensation for damages such as:
- Present and future medical expenses;
- Lost wages;
- Loss of future income;
- Disability;
- Home and vehicle modifications;
- Emotional pain and suffering;
- Mental anguish.
Tragically, brain injury accidents sometimes result in fatalities. If a loved one has lost their life due to a TBI, our thoughts and hearts are sincerely with you. If a brain injury settlement involves wrongful death, you and your family may be able to file a personal injury claim for additional damages like funeral costs, burial expenses, and loss of consortium.
Unfortunately, insurance companies may attempt to settle your brain injury case for much less than what it’s worth (or what you deserve). Before speaking with any insurance companies or defense attorneys, contact a personal injury attorney from Simmons & Fletcher, P.C. at (713) 932-0777 to get a free consultation and a complete understanding of your legal rights. Our team of dedicated, empathetic, and experienced Christian trial lawyers are looking forward to hearing your story.
FAQ's
How Long Do I Have to File a Texas Brain Injury Claim?
The statute of limitations for personal injury cases in Texas is 2 years from the date of the accident for adults. There are exceptions for certain claims of minors and medical malpractice, but the general rule is to get your injury case filed as soon as possible, within the two-year statute of limitations. There is no exception for serious brain injuries.
What is a Coup-Contrecoup Brain Injury?
A coup-contrecoup injury is a type of traumatic brain injury made up of cerebral contusions and traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage that occur on opposite sides of the brain due to the acceleration and deceleration of the skull separate from the brain following an impact. When a person experiences a hard impact, the skull lunges forward at a faster rate than the brain within the skull. As the inner part of the skull impacts the brain, bruising, bleeding, and swelling of the brain tissue may occur. This is the Coup injury. Now the skull and the brain are accelerating forward until the head either impacts another object and stops or slows. However, the brain does not slow at the same speed, so it collides with the inner skull on the side opposite the original coup impact. The second impact is the contrecoup.
What is a Diffuse Axonal Injury?
A diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is a type of traumatic brain injury where the axons (long connective fibers of the brain) are sheared as the brain shifts and rotates inside a person’s skull during blunt force trauma. DAI severs communication between brain nerves. Patients suffering this injury may present with minimal symptoms or they may be in a comatose or vegetative state. It is possible but not common for those with severe DAI presenting as coma to regain consciousness. Those who do will likely have an altered quality of life. The most common cause of diffuse axonal injury is high-speed motor vehicle collisions.
Can You Suffer a Brain Injury from a Low-Impact Car Accident?
Yes. Even in a low-speed collision, a person can suffer a mild traumatic brain injury. Particularly in read-end collisions, the whiplash effect of the head being knocked suddenly backward into the headrest and then thrown forward often into an airbag or worse, the steering wheel, can result in a coup contrecoup type brain injury.
Furthermore, one can smash their face into the steering wheel producing a skull or orbital fracture that results in bone material pushing back into the brain.
What is a Mild Traumatic Brain (MTBI) Injury?
A mild traumatic brain injury is defined as a traumatically induced physiological disruption of rain function. It can be characterized by loss of consciousness (less than 30 minutes), loss of memory, altered mental state (e.g. feeling dazed, confused), and/or focal neurological deficit(s).
Can Mild Traumatic Brain Injury be Treated?
Only a qualified neuropsychologist can truly answer this question for any particular brain injury case. Often, however, the treatment is simply teaching a patient to learn to do things differently than they did them before. For example, one with memory issues can learn to keep notes and make lists as reminders. Therapeutic strategies and lifestyle changes have proven successful for many brain injury patients, enabling them to return to a functional way of life.
What is a Concussion?
A concussion is a mild form of TBI. Medical professionals may also use terms like “minor head injury”, “minor head trauma”, “closed head injury”, or “mild TBI” interchangeably when diagnosing these injuries. 15% of people with a concussion continue to have brain injury symptoms over a year later. For these people, the symptoms may never go away.
What is Post-Traumatic Brain Injury?
Post-traumatic brain injury typically refers to a brain injury that begins as the result of a specific traumatic event. Rather than a single event, some doctors view post-traumatic brain injury as a worsening condition triggered by trauma. Once incurred, it behaves like a disease, influenced by external factors, evolving over time.
What is Post-Concussion Syndrome?
Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) is a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that may develop after a person is diagnosed with a concussion. Types of signs and symptoms can include persistent headaches, dizziness, light and noise sensitivity, blurred visions, nausea and vomiting, mood swings, anxiety, and depression. These are commonly thought of as the hidden symptoms of a concussion becuase many people ignore them initially thinking it will just pass. PCS can also be associated with post-traumatic hypopituitarism, though this is much more likely to be found in people with moderate or severe TBI.
What is a Brain Injury Functional Evaluation Program?
A Brain Injury Functional Evaluation Program uses detailed patient history and functional assessments to measure the impact of a cognitive deficit on an individual’s daily life — from daily functional abilities to long-term effects such as reduced education and future job prospects.
What is a Cognitive Rehabilitation Program?
A cognitive rehabilitation program is designed to help a person with TBI to acquire new skills or retrain existing skills to compensate for cognitive deficits caused by the injury. It usually starts with a functional capacity evaluation, based on which medical professionals set rehabilitation goals.
