Mild, Moderate, and Severe Brain Injuries
Doctors classify a TBI by how long the person lost consciousness and by their score on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which rates eye-opening, verbal, and motor responses. The higher the score, the better.
Mild brain injury
A mild TBI, including a concussion, generally involves a loss of consciousness of less than 30 minutes, or none at all, and a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13 to 15. “Mild” describes the initial injury, not the recovery; many people with mild TBIs have symptoms that affect work, school, and relationships for months.
Moderate brain injury
A moderate TBI generally involves a loss of consciousness lasting more than 30 minutes and up to 24 hours, with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 9 to 12. It usually causes cognitive difficulties, including problems with attention, concentration, memory, impulse control, and executive functioning, along with speech and language symptoms, sensory changes, sleep disorders, irritability, depression, and sometimes seizures. Symptoms last months, and permanent changes are common.
Severe brain injury
A severe TBI generally involves a loss of consciousness of more than 24 hours and a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3 to 8. It usually leaves permanent damage, and the consequences depend on the injury, how quickly treatment began, and the rehabilitation available afterward. Someone with a severe TBI can experience every symptom of a moderate injury to a greater degree and is far more likely to live with a permanent disability.
Signs and Symptoms of a Brain Injury
Brain injury symptoms are often missed in the emergency room, where the focus is on visible injuries, and they can appear days after the accident. Watch for:
- Headaches that persist or worsen
- Memory loss and depression after an accident, including trouble recalling the crash itself
- Confusion, slowed thinking, and difficulty concentrating
- Sleep changes, either sleeping far more than usual or being unable to sleep
- Mood changes, irritability, anxiety, and personality changes noticed by family
- Sensitivity to light and sound
- Dizziness, balance problems, nausea, and ringing in the ears
- Slurred speech, delayed responses, and fatigue
Delayed onset is common. If you or a family member notice any of these symptoms in the weeks after a crash or a fall, see a doctor and say that you hit your head, even if you were already checked at the scene.
How Brain Injuries Are Diagnosed
There is no single test for a brain injury, which is why insurers argue about them. Doctors use a combination of tools:
- CT scan. The first scan in the emergency room, used to find bleeding, swelling, and fractures. A normal CT usually means there is no bleeding that needs surgery; it does not rule out a brain injury.
- MRI. More detailed imaging that can show contusions and some signs of diffuse axonal injury that a CT misses. Specialized MRI techniques can detect damage that ordinary scans cannot.
- Glasgow Coma Scale. The bedside score, from 3 to 15, that first responders and emergency physicians use to grade the initial severity of the injury.
- Neuropsychological testing. A structured evaluation by a neuropsychologist that measures memory, attention, processing speed, and executive function against what would be expected for the person. This testing is often the strongest evidence of a mild or moderate TBI.
Common Causes of Brain Injuries
Anything that results in a sudden blow to the head or intense shaking can cause a TBI. The accidents behind most of the brain injury claims we handle:
Brain Injuries in Children and Older Adults
Children and older adults are injured differently and recover differently, and both are more likely to have a brain injury dismissed.
A child’s brain is still developing, so the effects of an injury may not appear until the child reaches the age where the damaged skills are needed: a preschooler’s injury may surface as a learning problem years later. Children also cannot always describe their symptoms, so parents and teachers have to watch for changes in behavior, sleep, school performance, and mood. Claims for children have longer deadlines but should not wait.
Older adults fall more often, and a fall from standing height is enough to cause a serious brain injury, particularly for someone taking blood thinners. Recovery is slower, symptoms are frequently attributed to aging or dementia rather than the injury, and the loss of independence that follows a TBI is more likely to be permanent. Falls in nursing homes and hospitals raise additional questions about whether a fall-prevention plan was followed.
How TBIs Impact Your Life
The brain is responsible for every area of your life. How an accident affects it can be difficult to see on scans, and it is impossible to predict how it will heal and change over time.
How you were injured, your symptoms, and the long-term consequences will be unique to you. One person with a moderate TBI may have mostly physical symptoms while another has mostly cognitive deficits. A severe TBI may alter one person’s personality and leave another’s intact but affect their ability to think critically and manage their own affairs.
A consequence that is an inconvenience for one person can end another’s career. Sensitivity to sound is a nuisance for most people; for a music teacher, it makes work impossible. That is why the value of a brain injury claim depends on the person, not the diagnosis.
Brain Injury Compensation
Depending on the severity of your TBI and the circumstances, you may recover compensation for the economic and noneconomic damages stemming from your injury. That can be the difference between recovering the wages you lost or will lose, getting the medical care you need, and putting your life back together.
If you or a loved one suffered a traumatic brain injury because of a negligent or careless act, you could pursue an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit for your:
- Medical expenses, including future medical costs such as rehabilitation, therapy, and in-home care
- Loss of income and earning capacity
- Discapacidad
- Desfiguración
- Dolor y sufrimiento
- Mental anguish, including PTSD after an accident
- Pérdida de la vida en común
- Wrongful death, when a brain injury is fatal
Proving a Brain Injury Claim
Insurers routinely dispute brain injuries, because the damage is often invisible on a scan and the symptoms are easy to dismiss as stress or exaggeration. Proving the claim means building the picture from several sources:
- Imaging. The CT and MRI results, and where the ordinary scans are normal, advanced imaging that can show the injury.
- Treating physicians. The emergency records that document the head injury on the day it happened, and the neurologist and rehabilitation physicians who have treated you since.
- Neuropsychologists. Objective testing that measures the deficits and ties them to the injury.
- Life care planners. Experts who project the medical care, therapy, equipment, and assistance you will need over your lifetime and what it will cost.
- Day-in-the-life evidence. Testimony from family, friends, coworkers, and teachers about who you were before the injury and who you are now, and sometimes video of an ordinary day, which shows a jury what a diagnosis cannot.
Our article on what to expect in an Ohio brain injury lawsuit walks through each stage. Brain injuries also rarely happen alone; some of our clients also have spinal cord injuries or other serious injuries from the same accident, and the claim has to account for all of them.
How a Brain Injury Lawyer Can Help
Brain injury cases are complex. The severity of the injury and the circumstances of the accident shape how your case moves forward. A severe TBI requires compensation that accounts for decades of care. A head injury caused by a driver making a delivery may make the driver’s employer liable. And because brain injuries are major medical events, the case requires medical and economic expertise from the start.
A skilled lawyer can illustrate what you endured and how the TBI changed your life, making the harm apparent to a judge or jury. Your attorney works with your physicians and medical experts to document the effects on your functioning, your ability to live independently, your work, and your relationships.
At KNR, our brain injury attorneys will:
- Responder a tus preguntas y dudas
- Te mantendremos informado durante todas las fases del proceso
- Obtain medical records about the extent of your brain injury
- Identificar a la parte responsable
- Calcula el valor justo y total de los daños y perjuicios que has sufrido
- Negocia para conseguir la máxima indemnización
- Lucha por todo lo que te mereces ante los tribunales si es necesario
Brain Injury Lawyers Across Ohio
KNR has offices throughout Ohio, and a brain injury lawyer near you who knows the local courts and the local medical providers. Click below to reach an attorney in your area:
Ohio Brain Injury FAQs
What is a traumatic brain injury?
A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is damage to the brain caused by an outside force: a blow to the head, a violent shaking, or an object penetrating the skull. It ranges from a concussion, which is a mild TBI, to injuries that leave a person permanently disabled. A TBI can happen without a skull fracture, without a visible wound, and without losing consciousness, which is why so many are missed in the first days after an accident.
Can I file a claim for a concussion?
Yes. A concussion is a brain injury, and if someone else’s negligence caused it you can recover your medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. Insurers treat concussions as minor because the scans are often normal; the claim is proven with the treating physician’s records, neuropsychological testing when symptoms persist, and evidence of how the symptoms affected your work and daily life. Many people have headaches, memory problems, and mood changes for months after what was called a mild injury.
How much is a brain injury case worth?
It depends on the severity of the injury and its effect on your life. A concussion that resolves in weeks is worth far less than an injury that ends a career or requires lifetime care, where future medical costs and lost earning capacity alone can reach into the millions. Ohio limits noneconomic damages in most injury cases, but the limit does not apply to certain catastrophic injuries, such as a permanent injury that prevents you from caring for yourself, which many severe brain injuries meet. A lawyer can give you a realistic range only after the medical picture is clear.
How long do I have to file a brain injury claim in Ohio?
Generally two years from the date of the injury for a personal injury lawsuit. A brain injury caused by medical negligence has a one-year deadline, and other exceptions exist, so confirm the date with a lawyer early. Brain injury cases also take longer to build than most, because the full extent of the injury may not be known for a year or more, and the evidence needed to prove it should be gathered from the beginning.
What if my loved one cannot communicate because of a brain injury?
A family member can act for them. If your loved one cannot make decisions, a court can appoint a guardian, and the guardian can hire a lawyer and bring the claim on the injured person’s behalf. If a power of attorney was signed before the injury, it may be enough. The deadline to file does not wait while these arrangements are made, so call as soon as you can; we handle the guardianship step for families regularly.
Contact KNR’s Brain Injury Lawyers
All brain injuries are serious and will affect your life in many ways. You may be able to return to school or work a few weeks after a concussion, or you may be permanently unable to work or care for yourself after a severe TBI.
Whatever the extent of your injury, the attorneys of KNR are ready to take on your case, calculate your damages, and seek the maximum compensation possible. We understand the complexities of brain injuries and know how to work with medical professionals to prove the extent of your injuries and the compensation you deserve.
Call us today at 1-800-HURT-NOW or contact us online to schedule a free consultation. There is no fee unless we win.
