MTBI (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury)

The human brain still baffles scientists. Consisting of 86 billion nerve cells creating one quadrillion connections, even minor brain trauma can damage billions of essential neurons. Patients diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI)—commonly presenting with nausea, confusion, and headaches—may still suffer from potentially long-term or fatal complications after the initial diagnosis.

People often misconstrue a minor concussion’s seriousness, as medical professionals only use the “mild” designation when categorizing the patient’s initial symptoms. Any level of brain trauma, including mild injuries, often involves brain cell damage with lasting complications. Claimants diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries should diligently monitor themselves for serious secondary conditions and worsening symptoms after the initial injury.

Diagnosing and Categorizing Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries occur when an outside force disturbs brain function by damaging brain cells. Once medical professionals diagnose patients with traumatic brain injuries, they categorize the injuries as mild, moderate, or severe. These fluid categorizations depend on patients’ articulated symptoms, and the categories may overlap.

Symptoms of diagnosed mild traumatic brain injuries generally include:

Occasionally, patients with MTBI suffer from seizures, persistent migraines, meningitis, and vertigo. Claimants with persistent MTBI symptoms lasting more than a few weeks may have developed secondary conditions.

Patients in high-risk professions generally must avoid all activity following the initial trauma, as subsequent traumatic brain injuries might have fatal consequences. Sometimes symptoms worsen as the brain swells, causing additional damage resulting in serious brain trauma.

Doctors may diagnose claimants who lost consciousness for over an hour with moderate brain trauma, but these patients may completely recover within a few days. However, patients diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries could continue suffering from debilitating symptoms without associated blackouts.

The damaged lobe often dictates the nature and severity of brain injury symptoms, and mild brain trauma does not reflect the patient’s overall prognosis. It simply implies the patient did not initially suffer from life-threatening brain trauma.

Most Common Causes of Mild Head Trauma in the United States

Understanding the most common events triggering brain trauma can help claimants recognize the above symptoms of traumatic brain injuries more quickly. While not every accident results in diagnosed head trauma, the following incidents frequently cause mild brain injuries.

Falls

Falls, including slip and falls and elevation accidents, account for nearly half of all TBIs in the United States. Children and adults over 65 more commonly suffer from fall-related brain trauma. Tripping and slipping accidents can propel claimants backward, preventing them from breaking their falls before their heads strike hard surfaces. This impact often causes trauma to the brain’s occipital lobe and brainstem, affecting vision and life-sustaining functions. Falls may also cause frontal lobe damage, including concussions and brain swelling, if impact force propels the brain into the skull.

Car Crashes

Motor vehicle crashes are the second leading cause of brain injuries and the leading cause of fatal brain trauma among adults. The force of high-speed car and truck accidents can rapidly propel the brain forward and then backward within the skull. This momentum often damages delicate blood vessels and nerves, causing brain contusions and swelling. Many car accident victims lose consciousness immediately following car crashes, which indicates they sustained at least mild traumatic brain injuries.

Motorcycle, Cycling, and Horseback Riding Accidents

Helmets save lives by preventing severe and fatal brain trauma, but even protected claimants can still sustain traumatic brain injuries following motorcycle, bicycle, or horseback riding accidents. The absence of skull damage does not mean the claimant didn’t sustain serious internal brain trauma during the fall. Doctors may consider these conditions mild traumatic brain injuries only because the helmet prevented disabling brain trauma. Even hitting your head while wearing protective gear can cause life-altering medical complications stemming from MTBI.

Recreational Sporting Accidents

While falls and car accidents often cause moderate to severe brain trauma, contact sports accidents frequently cause multiple mild brain traumas. One mild concussion on the football field can result in fatal Second Impact Syndrome (SSI) after another mild head injury. Professional athletes in contact sports may also develop Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and early-onset dementia from multiple mild brain traumas. If the patient experienced even minor dizziness, confusion, and lost consciousness after a sporting accident, this indicates mild brain trauma necessitating medical intervention.

Striking Accidents

Baseballs, hockey pucks, construction materials, and roadway debris frequently cause mild brain trauma. These items may also crack or penetrate the skull, resulting in open traumatic brain injuries. Even hairline skull fractures can cause blood vessel damage leading to swelling and brain bleeds. These conditions may compress the brain’s blood supply, resulting in oxygen deprivation. Because the brain needs to burn oxygen continuously, important cells begin dying after only four minutes without sufficient blood flow.

Assaults and Child Abuse

Direct assaults often result in lost consciousness and associated brain trauma. Infants and young children are especially susceptible to mild brain injuries during their developmental years. Shaken Baby Syndrome—a type of acquired traumatic brain injury—occurs when abusive caretakers violently shake the child back and forth. The child’s weak neck muscles and heavy head combine to cause substantial brain trauma as the child’s brain internally impacts the skull. Multiple mild abusive episodes can correlate to serious cognitive and developmental conditions.

Brain injury attorneys might help injured claimants recover financial compensation if an accident or assault caused mild brain trauma and resulting complications. Drivers, nursing homes, babysitters, school districts, or property owners might all bear liability for negligently inflicted head trauma.

Serious Secondary Conditions Associated with MTBI

Many patients present symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury following accidental head trauma. These claimants often report pain, dizziness, nausea, blurry vision, and possible lost consciousness. Doctors may keep concussion patients overnight for observation, but most patients return home following mild traumatic brain injuries. Anytime patients suffer from concussions—the most common form of mild brain trauma—they should monitor for the following complications occasionally associated with MTBI.

Hydrocephalus (Brain Swelling)

This condition manifests when internal brain fluids build-up following head trauma. Hydrocephalus can occur when a sudden force damages the brain cavity, causing gradual fluid build-up and related swelling. This internal pressure affects the brain’s oxygen supply and overall function. Symptoms of hydrocephalus following head trauma include:

Patients diagnosed with mild brain injuries should not experience worsening symptoms. This condition necessitates emergency medical care to relieve pressure and prevent brain cell death.

Post-Concussion Syndrome

Most patients recover from mild concussions within a few weeks. Some patients with mild to moderate TBI may also experience headaches, difficulty concentrating, and dizziness a few months after the accident. When injured claimants continue experiencing concussion-related symptoms beyond their expended recovery date, they may have developed persistent post-concussive syndrome. This syndrome may persist for months or years after the mild trauma. Because claimants often suffer from difficulty focusing, driving, sleeping, and working due to post-concussion syndrome, this may increase their financial losses stemming from the accident.

Second Impact Syndrome (SIS)

This rare but fatal condition may occur when patients experience two mild concussions within ten days. Studies indicate that the brain releases certain chemicals while healing from the initial trauma that may trigger rapid swelling when the second concussion occurs. Athletes have the highest risk of developing SIS, which normally kills patients within a few minutes or results in comas and brain death.

Mild traumatic brain injury patients risk suffering from SSI because many stop experiencing concussion-related symptoms during the healing process. This false recovery means patients feel fine before the brain completes the healing process, leading them to take additional risks. This quick recovery does not typically occur with moderate and severe TBI patients, who often receive stricter recovery instructions and more careful monitoring. Professional athletes must abide by certain concussion protocols, even when they report feeling fine, to prevent SIS.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)

This degenerative brain condition rose to prominence after experts posthumously diagnosed 94 percent of former professional football players and 86 percent of former college players with CTE. CTE occurs when individuals experience multiple mild concussions during their lifetimes.

The condition may manifest years or decades after retirement, and many patients diagnosed with CTE experienced the following symptoms:

Successive mild concussions may lead to CTE and related conditions, including early-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Cerebral Edema (Brain Bruising)

Even mild concussions can result in potentially fatal brain swelling. When the brain strikes the skull, it often bruises like other soft tissues. This bruising occurs when the impact force breaks the small blood vessels supplying the brain. The damage may also cause major vessels to burst, resulting in brain swelling, pressure, and oxygen deprivation. Untreated cerebral edemas have devastating consequences. Patients may suffer from a hypoxic or anoxic brain injury resulting in permanent cognitive disabilities, comas, vegetative states, or even death.

Recovering Compensation After Concussions

Brain injuries, even mild ones, are serious conditions. Claimants injured at work – in construction accidents, workplace falls, or car crashes – must generally file worker’s compensation insurance claims to recover damages. Parents and legal guardians might also bring negligence litigation against caregivers, including school districts and babysitting services, for concussions resulting from negligent supervision. Because children have softer skulls and weaker necks, even mild trauma can have devastating consequences.

Concerned adult children should speak with their parents about filing nursing home neglect claims if falls or other negligence caused head trauma. These cases often involve negligence and medical malpractice claims, which local brain injury attorneys may help litigate. Claimants injured in slip and fall accidents or car crashes might also benefit from speaking with brain injury counsel. Accident lawyers may demand injury compensation, including medical bills, lost wages, and mental suffering damages, from liable auto and property insurers.

Damages Available in Viable Brain Injury Cases

Regardless of how doctors label head trauma, all traumatic brain injuries can have lasting consequences. Even mild concussions may result in post-concussion syndrome, causing thousands of dollars in lost income and treatment expenses. Many injured claimants struggle to concentrate or solve work-related problems, costing them their jobs, benefits, and promotions.

Dedicated brain injury lawyers may help claimants recover financial damages for negligently inflicted concussions.

These damages could include past and future economic losses such as:

Because even mild head trauma can cause sudden personality changes—including depression, anxiety, impulsivity, and aggression—claimants might also experience social and familial difficulties.

In most states, spouses and certain dependents may demand special lost companionship damages after devastating brain trauma. These claims may help spouses recover money for their lost income, additional household responsibilities, any relationship difficulties related to the brain trauma.

Benefits of Retaining Brain Injury Counsel

Most actionable concussion cases settle with liable insurers within applicable policy limits. This settlement process often involves negotiations with worker’s compensation, medical malpractice, property, or car insurance companies. Having a brain injury attorney on your side can drastically increase your chance of recovering a fair brain injury settlement.

Insurance adjusters rarely, if ever, make reasonable settlement offers to unrepresented claimants. Instead, they may convince claimants to accept lowball offers and waive their rights to recover damages for complications arising from concussions. Claimants should not settle mild brain injury cases before speaking with local counsel.

Secondary conditions and complications, including post-concussion syndrome, infections, brain swelling, and early-onset dementia, might stem from negligently inflicted mild brain injuries. Brain injury lawyers often work with medical experts to discuss your prognoses and anticipated financial needs before making and fighting for fair insurance settlements. Contact Brauns Law Accident Injury Lawyers, PC to learn more about your legal options.