Severe Brain Injury Information for Families

Severe Brain Injury Information for Families: What is Brain Injury?

The more severe brain injury information for families I can provide the better prepared you will be when dealing with your loved one that has suffered brain injury. Included in my severe brain injury information for families is some very technical terms but I will try to make this as easy to understand as possible.

A brain injury refers to the injury to the brain where there is a traumatic damage to the brain, typically as a result of external mechanical forces.  The term TBI, stands for Traumatic Brain Injury. The terms head injury and closed head injury are also often used synonymously with brain injury or TBI.

There may be a period of loss of consciousness immediately following a brain injury, which may last seconds or as long as months. In the case of extended loss of consciousness, it is typically called “coma.”

In cases of severe brain injury the patient usually receives damage or bruising to multiple parts of the brain. While often called diffuse damage, technically this is multi-focal damage.   An “open head injury” occurs when there has been a breach of the skull, such as with a gunshot wound or where there is an object which penetrates the skull into the brain. This type of head injury is more likely to damage a specific area of the brain.

So called “mild brain injury” (MTBI) may happen with no loss of consciousness (LOC) and with  only a dazed or confused state. Persons with mild brain injury may experience symptoms and impairments surprisingly comparable in nature and severity with those who have good recoveries from a severe brain or coma injury.

When severe brain injury as a result of the wrongdoing of someone, we believe that it is imperative that the family or survivor hire an attorney who is experienced with brain injury cases.  All that we do at the Brain Injury Law Group, S.C. is represent the survivors of brain injury. An experienced TBI lawyer not only makes a difference in terms of the compensation recovered, but may make a real difference in the extent of recovery from such injuries.  Diagnosis and rehabilitation are not automatic, even with the most severe brain injuries.  A brain injury lawyer who is also your advocate, may make a difference from the first days after injury.

For more on the difference a brain injury lawyer can make after a severe brain injury, click here.

Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

NEXT: Definition of Brain Injury