While you may often hear that football players, soccer players and other athletes experience concussions, head injuries are not limited to participation in sports.
Most traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, occur as the result of falls or motor vehicle accidents. Even a minor collision can cause TBI, but the symptoms may not appear immediately.
A little background
Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that around 2 million people in America experience traumatic brain injury annually. Of this number, car crashes cause about 286,000 TBI cases each year.
There are two forms of these head injuries: open and closed. In the open form, a foreign object pierces the skull and enters the brain. In the much more common closed form, a blow to the head causes the injury.
If you are the victim of a vehicle crash, you could hit your head on the steering wheel, windshield or dashboard and brain damage could follow. The impact of a collision can push your brain against the inside of your skull, possibly causing nerve tissue to stretch or tear.
A look at symptoms
Symptoms of a brain injury may not become apparent for hours or even days after a traffic accident. At some point, you might experience headaches, blurred vision, fatigue, balance issues, sensitivity to light or problems with concentration, among other issues.
A way forward
If you are in a vehicle crash, even a minor rear-end collision, your next step is to seek prompt medical attention. Keep in mind that many people walk away from minor collisions. You might feel fine, if a bit wobbly, but you could have an underlying injury such as a concussion, or even a more serious form of brain injury.
Although concussion symptoms usually disappear in time, a traumatic brain injury can become a life-changing issue. As the victim of a vehicle accident, you have the right to expect full and fair compensation no matter if treatment concludes within a few weeks or is necessary for the rest of your life.