Some of the most difficult injuries to sustain on the job are traumatic brain injuries or TBIs. Even without a visible wound, TBIs can take a real toll on a person’s health. What can make these injuries especially insidious is that you may not necessarily know that they’ve occurred. Certainly, if someone is in a car accident, or falls from a great height, then yes, they could have a TBI. But all too often, these injuries can come about when a person just trips and falls at work. They could even try to return to their job, not realizing the severity of what just happened. When you suffer a TBI, a workers’ compensation attorney in Los Angeles from our firm can help you to get the compensation that you deserve.
Traumatic Brain Injuries Explained
Most of these injuries are either “closed head injuries” or “open head injuries.” An “open head injury” is one in which the injured person’s skull is penetrated. While those can be devastating, so too can a closed brain injury. It’s important to keep in mind that no two brain injuries are alike. A seemingly small closed head injury could lead to significant impairment, while what looks like a genuinely gnarly open head injury could be recovered from entirely in a period of time. These injuries absolutely require medical assistance.
That’s just one more reason that it’s so important to reach out to a medical professional when you’re hurt on the job. These injuries tend to be the ones that some people tend to avoid getting medical assistance for because they believe that the injury isn’t that severe. “After all,” they might reason, “I just tripped and fell down. I don’t want to seem like a malingerer, I want to be seen as a great employee and get right back to work.” While that can-do attitude serves you well in a multitude of facets connected to your job, here it can actively harm your health. If you’ve been injured at work and hurt your head, then the best thing you can do is to receive medical help as quickly as possible.
Brain Injuries and the Aftermath
Just like the injury itself, the aftermath of the brain injury is different for every person. Some experience a loss of consciousness at the moment of injury, which lasts for a moment and then they’re OK. Others, unfortunately, experience a loss of consciousness that goes for much longer. One common aftereffect is called “Post-Traumatic Amnesia,” or “PTA.” This is the “what happened? Where am I?” kind of amnesia that you might have seen on TV or in the movies. Other symptoms include increased irritability or even aggression.
The healing process for the brain is not like the healing process for the rest of our bodies. When you cut your arm or leg, the body heals itself. The wound scabs over, it closes, the skin grows back, etc. Perhaps it leaves a scar, but the healing process is just that: a healing process. The brain doesn’t work in the same fashion. Your brain’s neurons can’t fix or mend themselves. They don’t regenerate like that. What this means is, unfortunately, when the brain is damaged, it could remain that way. That’s just one more factor that makes these injuries so potentially difficult to recover from.
A Workers Compensation Attorney in Los Angeles
We’ve helped so many clients over the years to get the compensation that they deserve for these traumatic brain injuries. Often, when someone suffers one of these injuries on the job, they are not, unfortunately, able to return to the job they had previously. So, we can do everything in our power to make sure that you get the rehabilitation and the training to do a different job. If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury at work and are ready to get your due compensation, call us at (818) 975-3080.
