Do you have a brain injury accident case?

This is not really geared towards the obvious brain injury accident cases where the person is admitted to ICU and/or is in a coma. The discussion here is focused on the “regular” cases where we need to be on the lookout for some real problems suffered by our clients. These injuries most defiantly can arise from a “standard” car accident (MVA) or fall down cases where clients may or may not hit their head. Usually, the property damage in an MVA must be significant ($4k+) to justify the risks and costs of a TBI/Brain damage evaluation. And keep in mind, these injuries are not necessarily obvious the day after the accident. Sometimes (often in fact) it takes a while for the injury to manifest itself. That’s ok.

First of all, nomenclature in brain damage cases is rudimentary. For example, “mild brain damage” can mean anything from hardly any effect to being in a coma. So at our office, we use the term “brain damage”, without the adjective. We should forget using our regular doctors for ordering specialized tests and use more appropriate doctors who focus on brain injuries. And we should defiantly forget using “Neuro Psy Testing” – the science here is junk, and to “is open to interpretation”.

What is “brain damage” TBI?

When the axons (long slender projection of a nerve cell) are damaged it results in that person being different. Family and friends will notice it. Their mood is different; their affect is different; they are forgetful; they’re not the same. Emergency rooms will NEVER pick up on this.

The mechanics of the injury are NOT such that the client’s head must have “struck” something in the vehicle, although that’s obvious. If the mechanics are that the head was turned or angled or any way conducive to making the brain’s movement inside the skull worse, then that’s a cause too.

A DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging) is an MRI with fluid that is observed as it is flowing through the brain. The MRI is not a video but multiple pictures that will show fluid as it moves. The radiologist is looking for “leaking” from the axons. So here’s the rub: 70% of the time the DTI will not show the leaking when, in fact, there is leaking. 30% of the time it will catch it. This is why you really don’t want your treating doctor to order the DTI. Let your brain damage specialist do it.

What should we be looking for?

How’s your memory? Do you have swiss cheese memory, meaning do you remember some parts and not other parts. So do you remember what happened after the accident? Do you remember everything that happened at the ER? Since the accident, be it days, weeks, months or years, do you have that swiss cheese memory? Any periods of amnesia?

Additional Info & Downloads

Treating Docs/Experts for TBI
Some of the doctors we’ve seen treat and evaluate people in the North Florida Area: