A brain injury often causes significant long-term effects on an individual. What this looks like varies from person to person but there are common symptoms with a high rate of occurrence. The guide below explores all of the long-term impacts a brain injury may have on well-being and physical capacity and what to do if it happens to you or a loved one.
The Long-Term Possibilities Affecting Consciousness
Sometimes, a TBI can lead to a patient being put into a coma by their medical team. This may be a protective procedure to control the internal damage or something that happens as a direct result of the injury. There is also the chance that a victim enters into a completely vegetative state which means they are alive but unable to respond to anything apart from a few small, sporadic movements.
Physical Considerations
If no coma is necessary, or a person can stay conscious post-accident, then there are other physical effects that will take place.
Nerve Damage
When nerve damage happens, several things may happen thereafter. Anything from anosmia to dysphagia plus plenty in between may occur, and here’s a list of the most common things.
- Prolonged dizzy spells
- Hearing defects
- Vision problems
- Paralysis
- Insomnia
Headaches
Headaches can range from minor and infrequent to full-blow migraines that happen on a daily basis. The scale is important, but continued headaches in any capacity are debilitating for anyone. They could continue for months, or years after the accident takes place.
Strokes
Sometimes, when a patient takes a hit to their head and a brain injury occurs, they are at risk of having a stroke (major or minor). This is because the injury itself can affect blood vessels in the brain. There are both big and small blood vessels leading to and present within the brain, and if any one of them sustains damages during the accident then there is a significant risk of a stroke occurring.
Seizures
Some people begin having seizures in post-injury life. Seizures can impact your ability to look after yourself, engage with work or studies, make it impossible to drive independently and do a whole range of other things.
Coginitive Complications
Aside from the physical and conscious consequences, there is a strong chance that cognitive complications come into play as well. These vary in both severity and function, but the most common are explored below.
Memory
A brain injury acts in strange ways, one of which is how it may alter your capacity to remember information. This may be minor, short-term memory loss, but it could also be large-scale amnesia where patients forget whole pieces of their life or significant relationships.
Impaired Judgment
The part of the brain that helps you make decisions is likely to be affected as well. For an individual, this means their recovery will be extremely difficult. An impaired judgment makes it extremely hard to live life safely and it also means making choices around medical care may be called into question.
Executive Function
General executive function issues can include any effect from how you organize daily tasks to the ability to solve problems. Executive function also dictates how well you engage with things like self-care agendas, and this is yet another thing that may be severely affected.
Communication
A major thing that happens time and time again is that a TBI patient loses the ability to communicate in some way. It could be severe in that they forget how to speak altogether, or they may just lose a few words and the capacity to form coherent sentences.
Long-Term Emotional Difficulties
A significant number of emotional changes may take place. These include the ability to process and regulate, severe mood swings, increased irritability, a complete loss of empathy skills, and general restlessness. There is no set pattern for how any individual is affected, and the longevity of these emotional damages is entirely fluid in that someone may experience months of emotional turbulence, and others could be facing a lifetime in this changed state of mind.
We understand that post-brain injury, things can look quite different. You may be dealing with a number of challenges that just were not there before the accident took place. This can lead to a range of emotions and frustrations, and you are well within your rights to feel this way. The key is to keep moving forward, and if you need help in figuring out the next steps, speak to our lawyers today for professional, neutral advice.
Anyone facing the consequences of a brain injury can visit our office here:
536 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133.
If visiting in person is too difficult, call now for a free consultation on (415) 352-6264 instead.