The high impact of a car accident can affect a victim in many ways that they may not realize, especially if their injuries involve a blow to the head. In the confusion of the moment, a victim may have a hard time remembering a head impact, and may think that they survived the experience without harm, only to find days or weeks later that they simply cannot carry on with their personal and professional lives the way they could before the accident.
A traumatic brain injury is a common result of many car accidents, but without a full medical examination, it is easy to miss. If you recently experienced a car accident and suspect that you suffered a traumatic brain injury, be sure to seek out the medical care that you need as soon as possible, to prevent further complications and to protect your rights and best interests.
Temperamental changes
A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, can be surprisingly destructive without proper, timely medical care. Often, these injuries do not affect victims for up to a week or longer, which can make the symptoms even more disorienting when they occur.
Victims of TBIs often struggle to focus on any task in front of them, even tasks they perform regularly. The more the victim struggles to focus, the more irritated they often become. TBIs also often make victims’ personalities much more volatile, causing them to react to frustrations of all kinds in erratic ways.
The sooner that a victim’s employer understands the nature of their injury, the sooner that their employer can accommodate the needs of the victim and avoid blaming them for the sudden shift in behavior.
Communication complications
Another area commonly affected by a TBI is a victim’s ability to understand the text they read or the conversations they have with others. In many cases, a blow to the head disrupts the connections in the brain that help us understand contextual meaning, and victims of brain injuries often struggle to interpret things they read or hear.
Typically, the injury does not affect a victim’s vocabulary, only their ability to understand contextual differences. This can lead to many miscommunications, which frustrates the victim as well as those around them. If a victim’s employer does not have a clear understanding of the severity of their injury, they may quickly lose their job.
These complications don’t stop in the workplace. A victim may suddenly find that their communication with their family and loved ones is also strained, and these may even be the relationships that suffer the most.
Recovering from a car accident takes time, especially when the accident injures a victim’s brain. Be sure to use all the resources and assistance necessary to build a strong legal strategy to protect your rights and ensure that you have the tools and the time to recover from your injuries fully.