Answering Questions and Providing Needed Information to New Yorkers Living With Brain Injury
Every year, some 1.7 million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), also called acquired brain injuries (ABIs), occur when a violent impact damages the brain or an object pierces the skull. Many forms of TBI are nonlife threatening, such as mild concussions. Still, even minor traumatic brain injuries can have serious effects, and severe TBIs cause more than 50,000 deaths and almost 100,000 long-term disabilities annually.
Millions have had their lives permanently altered by acquired brain injuries. In New York state alone, each year TBIs are responsible for an average of almost 75,000 emergency room visits and 18,000 hospitalizations. For anyone whose life has been touched by a traumatic brain injury, it can be beneficial to know more about TBIs and the possible legal remedies available to victims and their families.
Causes and Risk Factors for Acquired Brain Injury in New York
Nationwide, by far the most common cause of serious traumatic brain injuries is transportation accidents (the victim may either be riding in an automobile or struck as a pedestrian). Falls and violence (including both assaults and unintentional violent acts, such as the accidental discharge of a firearm or being struck by an object) are responsible for 28 percent and 20 percent of TBIs, respectively.
Men suffer TBIs at twice the rate of women, and also have a higher TBI mortality rate, indicating that males are more likely to be affected by a severe brain injury. Those ages 15 to 24 are at the highest risk for traumatic brain injury, although adults over the age of 60 also face a heightened risk.
Unique regional threats mean that New Yorkers are more susceptible to acquired brain injuries from certain sources. For New Yorkers ages 0 to 14 and 45 plus, falls are the most prevalent cause of TBIs. Those ages 15 to 44, on the other hand, are most likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury as the occupant of a motor vehicle in a car accident. Other especially common causes of TBIs in New York include traffic accidents as a pedestrian, being struck by or against an object, and assault-related injuries.
As previously mentioned, males are generally more likely to suffer a TBI from all types of sources. However, New York men have a particularly high risk of an ABI resulting from assault. For female New Yorkers, intentional assaults are the second most common cause of TBI hospitalization for infants under one year old, but assaults do not even rank in the top three causes for all other age groups. For males in New York, however, assaults are the most common cause of TBIs that require hospitalization in the 25 to 44 age division, and assault-related injuries are responsible for the most TBI emergency department visits for men in the same age group.
Legal Claims and Damages for TBI
Traumatic brain injury can manifest in a startling variety of symptoms. Some of the most common include:
- Confusion
- Coma
- Memory problems
- Shortened attention span
- Paralysis
- Problems with balance and coordination
- Changes to hearing, vision, taste, smell or touch
- Speech impediments
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Social difficulties
- Fatigue
- Irritability, anxiety or depression
- Seizures
With proper care, some symptoms may improve over time for certain patients. But, some TBI sufferers are not so lucky, and must face a lifetime of rehabilitative efforts.
Obviously, a TBI can have a lasting and meaningful impact on a victim's life. When a TBI has been caused by the negligence of another, the person who caused the harm (or, in many instances, his or her employer) may be held responsible monetarily for resulting damages by the victim.
Liability for a traumatic brain injury generally arises when the breach of a duty (such as the duty to ensure safety on the road by obeying traffic laws) causes some harm to a third party. The amount of monetary compensation the injured third party may be entitled to collect from the negligent actor depends largely on the extent of the injuries suffered. Typically, damages for a TBI injury can include compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, wages lost due to an inability to work, permanent disability and disfigurement, loss of intimate personal relationships and, in some instances, punitive damages.
If a TBI resulted in the death of a loved one, surviving family members may be entitled to damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. Damages for wrongful death include compensation for pecuniary losses to family members, such as future financial assistance and support the victim would have provided, forgone domestic services, the loss of a parent's guidance, as well as immediate expenses directly arising from the injury, like medical and funeral costs. In New York, however, wrongful death damages do not include compensation for harm that would have only been recoverable by the victim had he or she survived (pain and suffering damages, for example).
Discuss Traumatic Brain Injury with a New York Attorney
Even a seemingly mild concussion can turn out to be a significant health event in the victim's life. If you or someone you love has suffered any kind of traumatic brain injury, ensure that you receive the compensation you need and the parties responsible are held accountable. Contact a New York personal injury lawyer today.
