Are your emotions running high from a head or neck injury spiraling out of control weeks or months after an accident? A victim or their close family members can sustain two types of brain injury during life, traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury. Doctors don’t place progressive illnesses and conditions at birth into these two brain injury classifications.
Although acquired brain injury (ABI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) may sound similar, they have their differences regarding an injury to the brain and how it’s treated over their life. Both acquired brain injury and traumatic brain injury can tear your life apart.
This report by our top-rated Los Angeles brain injury attorney, Michael Ehline, is intended to help individuals and their families. Are you in need of medical and legal support resources? Our caring, bold representatives have a proven track record of assisting people to receive large financial compensation awards.
Read more about our excellent legal services and how we can help with a free case review. You and the rest of your immediate family may be eligible to receive compensation. Our partners will work with medical professionals who have the ability to identify, ascertain and explain critical information to get your thinking right after a difficult head injury from an internal or outside force.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the main cause of death in patients 25 years of age and under, responsible for one-third of trauma fatalities. Many of us come across traumatic brain injury more often than ABI since these are highly common. Traumatic brain injury usually occurs due to an external force to the cribriform plate behind the nose area and often happens after accidents or blows to the head. Any head injury due to an external force alters brain function or brain pathology and is often referred to as a traumatic brain injury. It can be classified as open head or closed-head injury, so there is a difference.
For example, a concussion that can happen from a fall falls under the traumatic brain injury definition. Still, if there is a fracture, doctors define it as an open head injury. However, a traumatic brain injury is not only a blow to the head.
These types of brain injuries can include brain penetration due to a sharp or piercing object at the injury site (also an open head injury.). In the United States, survival after bullets shot by firearms and suicide contributes to the traumatic brain injury count.
Some of the causes of individual traumatic brain injuries in the United States include the following:
- Car accidents
- Falls/slips
- Youth Sports injuries (especially team contact sports like football or a one-on-one sport like boxing.)
- Firearm-related suicides or penetrating gunshot wounds
- Shaken baby syndrome (blood clots, internal bleeding, or brain damage from violent shaking of children over a prolonged period, etc. These brain injuries are not hereditary or induced by birth trauma.)
- Illicit drug use toxins and metabolites block oxygen.
Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries
After receiving traumatic brain injuries from an external force, victims may start to exhibit the following symptoms over the next few days:
- Memory loss or confusion
- Loss of consciousness or coma
- Loss of vision, sensory loss, and other breathing neurological deficiencies
- Degraded mental state
- Vomiting
- Death.
Although acquired and traumatic brain injuries may sound similar and have the same symptoms, they differ depending on how the patients were damaged and whether a spinal cord injury or other body parts are harmed. So, how is an acquired brain injury any different than a traumatic brain injury to a person?
Acquired Brain Injury
According to the Brain Injury Association of America, ABI head injuries are fostered by an internal occurrence and is not a result of a congenital, degenerative, or induced through a congenital disability. It’s not hereditary, or even degenerative, for that matter. But ABI head injuries can be acquired through brain swelling from a brain tumor, aneurysm, or infections. Doctors agree it can be induced through birth trauma.
ABI can be from any post-birth damage to the brain. Symptoms or losses of function flow from the brain area affected. A doctor should be able to tell you whether factors like physical seizures or internal bruising will lead to permanent damage.
Common causes of ABI include:
- Alcohol or drug use, as these substances, can poison the body and lead to brain disease.
- Toxins from HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, various cancers, multiple sclerosis (MS), and Parkinson’s disease.
Anoxis stands for lack of oxygen.
- Think near drowning, a blood infection, high blood pressure sustained from stress or a blow to the head in a vehicle crash, sporting incidents, MMA fights, slip, trip, and fall, or a mild stroke from harmful drugs with difficulty in rehabilitation.
There Are Two Types of Serious Injury ABI
They are called:
- Anoxic brain injury
- Hypoxic brain injury.
Anoxic Brain Pathology
ABI occurs due to complete oxygen deprivation in the brain.
ABI is further divided and defined into three different injuries, and these are as follows:
- Anoxic anoxia: This injury occurs when zero oxygen is supplied to the brain.
- Anemic anoxia: This type of ABI occurs when the blood supply to the brain does not contain enough oxygen.
- Toxic anoxia: Also known as cytotoxic anoxia, toxic anoxia occurs when chemicals or any toxic substances stop the brain from absorbing oxygen from the blood even when oxygen is abundant inside the bloodstream.
Hypoxic Brain Injuries
On the other hand, common hypoxic brain injury causes partial oxygen deprivation, meaning that the brain is not receiving enough oxygen to maintain normal brain function. Both can result in widespread damage to the brain based on the diagnosis, prognosis, and other evidence.
Some of the examples of acquired brain injuries include strokes, toxic substance exposure, toxic substance abuse, inappropriate use or abuse of medication, tumors, aneurysms, meningitis, and non-fatal drowning accidents.
A blood clot is also one of the causes of acquired brain injuries. There is often a misconception that Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s fall under the umbrella of ABI. But that is not true since ABI does not include such degenerative diseases.
Although dividing people into different groups and treatment categories, it remains ubiquitous in the medical profession to treat all brain injuries as acquired brain injuries. A TBI, or brain injury resulting from a stroke, may fall under acquired brain injury.
A skull fracture may cause both injuries and attendant nerve damage. They affect the brain cells and brain tissue stemming down the spinal cord via the cranial nerves.
However, classification is essential when it comes to filing a lawsuit. The type of brain injury affects the lawsuit and determines the kind of evidence you would need for the case to move forward.
Proving Brain Injury Damages
To file a brain injury lawsuit against a negligent party, it remains essential to establish the kind of brain injury, whether it is an ABI or TBI. Reach out to an experienced brain injury attorney to help you file a claim for your brain injury or file a lawsuit.
Should You Hire a Brain Injury Attorney?
In the case of ABI and some TBI cases where there is no indication or signs of external bruises, evaluating the extent of the damage to the brain can be challenging. This situation is why healthcare professionals advise people to keep track of symptoms. This is because symptoms can take time to appear, depending on the long-term effects and severity of the injury.
You may want to consider filing a claim for your brain injury with third-party insurance all by yourself. However, brain injuries are more complicated than other types of personal injury. Any mistakes in the claims form, the claims process, or providing evidence can prolong the individual injury case.
According to the California statute of limitations, accident victims have two years to file claims against the negligent party after an accident after suffering an accident.
Insurance Company Gamesmanship?
An insurance company will most likely deny or refuse your claims if you file them without the help of an experienced personal injury attorney. Delaying tactics from the insurer can further add to the stress as the medical bills pile on without any hope of recovery. Letting an experienced personal injury attorney with resources deal with the insurer and communicate the severity of the injuries is best.
This is someone who can judge the claim and estimate whether it will result in maximum compensation for your caregiver, severe emotional loss, physical pain, or some other financial suffering.
Need Legal Help? Discover More About TBI and ABI Law Today
Ehline Law is a premier personal injury law firm with more than 15 law offices across California. We offer a free consultation session where our legal expert reviews the client’s personal injury case and addresses the problems one by one. We will give you our ear to go over the events at no cost to you so you can present your side.
During the free case evaluation, our injury attorney will swiftly advise you on your legal options and the following steps to take. We will explain everything if you want to call us and talk about your personal injury case or visit our office for a one-on-one session with a legal expert.
Our compassionate, caring lawyer understand how stressful a severe injury can be on the victim and their families. Our attorneys are world-famous for raising CTE awareness and are available any time of the day.
We can support, guide you, and provide you with the best customer service, legal representation, and advice in California. Contact us about forming an attorney-client relationship by us using our 24-hour phone number at (213) 596-9642. Schedule a free consultation today with a caring, compassionate brain injury lawyer. Tell us your important story!
