Symptoms of a Brain Bleed After Hitting Your Head

After seemingly minor head trauma, accident victims often minimize their symptoms to avoid emergency room visits. Many patients initially diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) never lose consciousness and, as a result, assume they don’t need advanced medical testing or treatment. This is a mistake.

Even seemingly mild brain trauma can result in potentially fatal complications, as the mild TBI designation relates only to the initial presentation of symptoms and not your overall prognosis. TBIs that medical professionals deem mild can still result in serious and lasting effects and complications. If you are diagnosed with any type of TBI, remain on watch for any symptoms, complications, or lingering effects.

Intracranial hematomas (brain bruising and bleeding) may occur after hitting your head. The force of the impact often ruptures the brain’s delicate blood vessels, causing blood to fill the intracranial space. Without anywhere else to go, the blood compresses the brain, killing brain cells by cutting off their blood-oxygen supply. Patients may suffer from internal brain bleeding without any external injuries, lost consciousness, or skull damage. Recognizing the symptoms of brain bleeding after hitting your head could save your life.

Please note: Brauns Law Accident Injury Lawyers PC is licensed to practice injury law in the state of Georgia. If you need legal assistance for another geographical area, please contact your state’s legal bar association.

Most Common Events Leading to Brain Bleeding

The majority of traumatically acquired brain injuries occur during falls, recreational sporting events, and motor vehicle accidents. Recognizing the most common events triggering brain injuries can help patients and their loved ones identify potential brain bleeds. If you suffered from head trauma after one of the following incidents, you might demand financial compensation from negligent parties and liable insurers.

Falling Accidents

Falls contribute to nearly half of all traumatic brain injuries in the United States. In fact, falls cause 80 percent of all head trauma suffered by Americans over 65. Children also disproportionately experience fall-related head injuries.

The most common falls leading to brain bleeds include:

Sometimes, claimants suffer from primary and secondary head trauma after falls. Getting hit with doors or otherwise hitting your head may lead to lost consciousness and a secondary impact. These traumas may combine to cause sudden brain hemorrhages. Some claimants don’t even recognize the second trauma after the initial impact. Falls often affect vulnerable individuals, such as older Americans and children, due to negligent supervision and poor property management. A brain injury attorney may help parents and caretakers hold care facilities, schools, and nurses accountable in such cases.

Motor Vehicle Collisions

Some of the most serious head injuries occur following car and truck accidents. From pedestrian impacts to head-on collisions, car crashes often result in brain bleeds. These bleeds may occur after passengers’ heads directly impact windshields, dashboards, and headrests or from airbag deployment. However, traumatic brain injuries from car accidents commonly result from the crash force.

Seatbelts save lives by stopping the occupant’s forward momentum following a crash. The crash force often throws the occupant’s head forward before seat belts snap it backward, causing the brain to impact the skull internally. This skull impact often causes brain contusions by damaging the impact area’s blood vessels. These injuries do not manifest with outward trauma, such as bumps and bruises. Instead, the damage occurs internally.

People involved in direct-impact or high-speed car crashes should always have a doctor check for potential brain bleeds and related trauma, even without external symptoms. Doing so generally requires an emergency room visit and possible hospital admission, but attorneys could help claimants recover these damages from motor vehicle insurers and negligent drivers. Injured vehicle occupants should focus on preventing more serious brain injuries immediately following car accidents and let attorneys worry about demanding reimbursement.

Recreational Sports

Football players, boxers, equestrians, and cyclists most commonly suffer from recreational head trauma. Even with helmets, head impacts could propel the brain into the skull. This trauma often triggers brain bleeds that slowly cause brain swelling and internal damage. If you or a loved one have any brain injury symptoms following a sports-related accident, including being struck by balls or pucks, consider monitoring for intracranial hematomas.

Assaults

Domestic violence and child abuse can lead to life-altering brain injuries. Blows to the head or thrown objects can cause brain bruising and related bleeding. Young children cannot explain their symptoms, and sometimes parents miss signs of internal hemorrhaging.

Survivors of domestic violence, street assaults, or childhood abuse should consider demanding compensation for brain trauma. Brain injury attorneys might help claimants recover money from abusers and even property insurers in such cases.

Striking and Construction Accidents

Falling materials from construction sites, flying roadway debris, and household accidents also contribute to brain trauma. Eligible claimants might seek compensation from property owners, worker’s compensation insurers, and even liable state entities in such cases. Further, claimants might recover damages from the designers and distributors of dangerous products that caused the head trauma.

Even without lost consciousness, always consider seeking medical help following head trauma. Minor bumps can result in seemingly invisible brain bleeds that develop into brain hemorrhages and permanent brain damage. Brain injury attorneys could help claimants recover money for their medical damages, including necessary medical monitoring and emergency treatment, in appropriate cases.

Recognizing Symptoms of Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries

Most people miss brain bleeds linked to mild and moderate brain trauma. After a bump on the head or diagnosis of a concussion, patients often assume they’re recovering normally. As such, they can mistake signs of brain bleeding for typical post-concussion symptoms.

These can include:

Many of these symptoms overlap with the symptoms of brain bleeds.

Understanding and Recognizing Brain Bleeding and Contusions

Brain hemorrhages (bleeding) after accidents are not uncommon. Intracranial bleeding can occur between the brain and skull, brain layers, or between the brain and its membranes. The initial trauma generally irritates and damages blood vessels in the brain, causing cerebral edema (swelling). This swelling may then compress and damage additional blood vessels resulting in further bleeding. The blood can also pool into hematomas, reducing blood flow and killing brain cells. Strokes occur when the bleeding involves a major brain artery and subsequent blockage.

Patients often develop symptoms of brain bleeds suddenly. The most common symptoms of brain bleeding include:

Many traumatic brain injuries cause immediate brain trauma and swelling, meaning TBI symptoms and brain bleeding often overlap. Traumatic brain injuries that initially seem mild generally result in slower bleeds that increase pressure over time. If patients go home and their symptoms suddenly worsen, they may be having a traumatic stroke. Sharp and painful headaches, along with confusion, are often the first signs of brain bleeding. However, the symptoms often depend on the bleed’s location. If you recently suffered from brain trauma and begin experiencing different or worsening symptoms, seek emergency medical help immediately.

Diagnosing and Treating Brain Hemorrhaging After Traumatic Accidents

Doctors sometimes miss certain internal brain bleeds after an accident. Brain swelling can impact initial diagnostic testing, or medical professionals may not perform all necessary tests. Brain bleeds are emergencies necessitating immediate medical intervention. Doctors can typically find these bleeds with CT scans, MRIs, or a brain magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA). Brain bleeds may also cause optic nerve swelling, a condition that doctors may see with a quick eye exam. It’s important to tell your doctor about any recent head trauma, even seemingly minor bumps.

Treating brain hemorrhaging depends on the severity of the bleed and available medical resources. Some patients need emergency surgery to relieve pressure on the brain, allowing it to swell and cauterize the broken blood vessels.

Quick surgical intervention during strokes can also prevent irreversible brain damage or death. If patients immediately recognize the signs of strokes, including facial palsy, doctors can administer thrombolytic drugs to break up blood clots.

Depending on the location of the bleed, doctors can sometimes remove the hematoma with advanced endovascular procedures. Specialized stroke and brain injury centers may insert a tube through patients’ major arteries and subsequently guide repair devices to the brain bleeds. These specialized coils can typically stop major bleeding, prevent further bleeds, and even repair vessel damage.

In milder cases, doctors may treat brain bleeds with medications. Steroids can quickly reduce brain swelling during the natural healing process, and patients may take pain and anti-seizure medication to control symptoms. As with every brain bleed, immediate intervention can mean the difference between complete recovery and serious disability or death. Brain cells begin dying within four minutes as they lose their vital oxygen supply. The quicker doctors restore the brain’s natural blood supply and prevent further swelling, the more likely patients will fully recover from brain bleeds.

Recovering Compensation for Disabling Brain Bleeds

Claimants diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries may develop long-term disabilities. Depending on the damaged area, patients may develop physical, cognitive, and emotional conditions impacting their lives and careers. These often include movement challenges and neurological damage, seizures, speech difficulties, loss of fine motor skills, vision and sensor problems, memory loss, and confusion. Many patients also experience personality changes, mood swings, difficulty focusing at work, depression, or anxiety.

Most patients require extensive physical and cognitive rehabilitation following serious brain bleeds. They may also need specialized nursing care, medications, and occupational therapy. Many people can no longer perform essential work functions, enjoy previous recreational activities, or contribute to household duties.

All these factors add to the extreme financial difficulties and family stress often experienced by injured claimants. By connecting with a local brain injury attorney early in the recovery process, savvy claimants may focus on their recovery instead of their bills.

If another person’s careless conduct contributed to your traumatic brain injury and related brain hemorrhage, you might recover monetary damages. These damages may include compensation for the original injury (such as emergency room expenses following the accident) and subsequent brain bleeding related to the initial trauma.

With the help of local brain injury counsel, claimants and their families might recover money for:

While demanding compensation for these past and future needs may reduce financial stress, claimants frequently struggle with brain trauma’s non-economic impact. These direct but incalculable losses often include frustration, depression, and lost enjoyment of life. No amount of money can compensate families for their loved one’s sudden changed personality or communication difficulties. However, claimants may demand damages for these losses. These non-economic financial awards may help claimants develop new hobbies, take specialized family vacations, and otherwise rebuild their social and personal lives after traumatic brain injuries.

Cost and Benefits of Retaining a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

Claimants should discuss their legal rights with a lawyer following their initial recovery. Brain injury attorneys generally offer free case consultations and delayed fee representation agreements. Most brain injury lawyers do not require financial retainers or charge by the hour. Instead, they typically accept viable brain injury cases on a contingency fee basis and even front the money for necessary legal fees and costs. This structure means claimants can benefit from having legal representation without worrying about additional bills or paying if the attorney cannot recover damages.

Over 90 percent of all viable brain injury cases settle with liable insurance companies. However, claimants seldom recover more than nominal compensation without private counsel. Insurers typically only settle cases fairly after attorneys provide detailed records linking your financial losses to accident-related injuries or threaten to file complex brain injury litigation.

Claimants can generally recover damages for any condition linked directly to the initial trauma, including delayed brain hemorrhaging. Do not let insurers deny you a fair settlement if a brain bleed caused secondary injuries. Consider discussing your case with a local brain injury attorney following an acquired traumatic brain injury and subsequent brain hemorrhaging.