Chicago Brain Injury Lawyer
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Just like your brain is a complex part of your body, so are the complications that can happen to it. Furthermore, so are the legal hurdles associated with complex personal injury cases, like traumatic brain injury cases. While there are several causes of TBI injuries, one of the most common is Chicago car accidents. If you or someone you love has suffered a harsh blow to the head, it’s imperative to see a doctor. Brain injuries typically show subtle or no immediate signs. If your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence, contact a Chicago brain injury lawyer with Curcio & Casciato. Call 312-321-1111 to schedule your free consultation with us.
Our Chicago Brain Injury Lawyers Can Recover Compensation
After suffering any kind of brain injury, you’re likely to see expensive medical bills, hospital visits, and potentially lifelong complications. A traumatic brain injury lawsuit might be the best recourse for securing compensation for your losses.
Accidents that result in injury can be terrifying, especially for those injured. That’s why we at Curcio & Casciato are committed to recovering the maximum compensation for your case. We don’t stop with current and future medical expenses. We also pursue full and fair compensation in the form of lost wages, permanent disability, and pain and suffering compensation. Below, we list all possible recoverable losses we might pursue in your case.
- Past, current, and future medical bills
- Past, current, and future physical therapy costs
- All lost wages
- Loss of earning capacity
- Loss of quality of life
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Permanent impairment or disability
Our Chicago emotional distress lawyers can show you how to calculate pain and suffering and help you calculate lost wages.
Recoverable Damages from a Chicago Brain Injury Lawsuit
If you suffer permanent brain damage from a serious personal injury, you’ll likely have a mountain of medical bills to worry about for the rest of your life. That’s why it’s important for your Chicago brain injury lawyers to pursue maximum compensation in your case. Below, we outline the different categories of damages recoverable in a brain injury claim.
In many cases, a moderate or severe TBI can result in chronic symptoms or even permanent disability. When calculating future damages, your Chicago brain injury attorney should take the following into consideration: your projected income lost and other costs you can expect for brain injury victims to incur.
Compensatory damages are common in many personal injury lawsuit types, including in a brain injury lawsuit. Brain injury lawyers pursue these damages to cover costs related to disability, mental anguish, pain and suffering, and other intangible losses from your acquired brain injury.
Maybe your head trauma resulted from a drunk driving car accident. In this case, the person who caused your acquired brain injury acted very recklessly. Sometimes, courts award punitive damages to the brain injury victim as a way to punish the drunk driver. These damages also serve as a way to deter others from engaging in the same behavior.
If a drunk or distracted driver injured you, contact our Chicago drunk driving attorney or Chicago distracted driving lawyer for more information.
While these damages are hard to win, they are nonetheless important for a traumatic brain injury claim. Hedonic damages are basically the loss of your enjoyment of life. What makes them so difficult to recover is the difficulty of quantifying your happiness. However, many victims of brain damage, especially from sports injuries, experience depression. They feel as though they might never lead a life as they once did. It’s important to choose an experienced and knowledgeable brain injury lawyer for your case if you want to pursue these damages.
What Is TBI?
TBI stands for traumatic brain injury. A traumatic brain injury occurs when an external force causes brain dysfunction. This is often the result of a violent jolt or blows to someone’s head. Sometimes, if an object penetrates the skull, this also causes TBIs.
Emergency visits for traumatic brain injuries were often the result of a car accident, a slip-and-fall accident, or sports injuries. Our Chicago premises liability attorneys can help if you were injured on another person’s property.
It’s always important to consult a doctor if you or someone you love suffers a head injury. This holds true for severe head injuries, as well as more mild head injuries, such as a concussion. These “mild head injuries” can lead to more severe or long-term injuries if they’re ignored or left untreated.
What Are the Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries?
It’s important to note that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common form of brain trauma. Approximately 1.7 million people suffer brain tissue injury each year. Of those 1.7 million people, around 52,000 lose their lives to brain damage. Some of those 1.7 million experience minor head injuries, while others experience serious injury. Below, we list some of the common types of head injury.
These are the most common minor head injuries. They result in countless ER visits for people of all ages every single year, as they can happen from a fall, an accident, or another source. Concussions often happen because of a severe jolt to the head from motor vehicle accidents or other types of accidents. Basically, a concussion is when your brain shakes or jolts in the same direction as the force applied to it.
It’s important to note that individuals who experience concussions regularly, such as athletes, could develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This condition can impact sleep patterns, moods, behaviors, and even brain functioning.
If you’ve sustained a brain injury from a Chicago auto accident, contact a Chicago car accident lawyer, Chicago truck accident lawyer, Chicago motorcycle accident lawyer, or Chicago pedestrian injury lawyer.
This is more or less a bruise on the brain. In many cases, contusions happen alongside concussions. Sometimes, contusions will not stop bleeding on their own and require surgery to remove. The extent of the damage from a contusion depends on factors like size, location, and how long it lasts.
A Coup-Contrecoup Brain Injury is associated with an impact so strong that it causes the brain to sustain damage at both the site of the impact and on the opposite side of the brain. Many brain injuries of this type occur from car accidents, violence, or a bad fall.
These are similar to concussions, but they tend to be much more severe. In fact, they also involve damage to the brain stem. A diffuse axonal injury (DAI) often results in tears in the brain connections of the brain stem. Depending on the severity of the tear, the brain damage could be mild or, in some cases, fatal.
You’ve probably heard that it’s a bad idea to pick at a scab on your body, as it can result in scarring or worsening of the original wound. The same notion applies to brain injuries, just in a slightly different way. If you have already sustained brain damage, then suffering another traumatic brain injury (TBI) could worsen the damage. Second impacts often in a brain injury case that is worse than the original.
If an object penetrates through the skull and into the brain, this is called a penetrating injury. If a victim does not receive treatment as soon as possible, these injuries could be fatal. In many cases, these brain tissue injuries cause immediate side effects, such as bleeding, clotting, and a disrupted supply of oxygen.
It’s important to see a doctor as soon as possible after a penetrating injury, as it is not recommended to try home remedies. Once you have received medical treatment, we recommend hiring brain injury attorneys to represent you.
Who Is at the Highest Risk for Serious Head Injuries?
Certain individuals are at a much higher risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI) than others. At-risk individuals include:
- Children from birth to age 4
- Young adults from 15-24
- Older adults who are 60+ years old
- Men are more likely to sustain a TBI than women
Treatment and Costs of Traumatic Brain Injury
Lifetime expenses for spinal cord injuries and brain injuries have the potential to be very steep. This is especially true if the victim suffers from a permanent or temporary disability following the injury. On average, costs for brain injury symptoms and treatment can range from around $85,000 to $3 million, according to Northwestern University in Illinois.
Traumatic Brain Injuries in Personal Injury Cases
Unfortunately, head trauma is not an uncommon result of personal injury cases. Especially after a very serious accident, it’s important to see a doctor right away. This can help give you an early diagnosis of a TBI, even if you don’t realize you have symptoms.
Sometimes, symptoms of these injuries won’t present themselves for days or even weeks. It is crucial to keep all medical records related to your accident. This way, you can achieve fair compensation for your injuries, even if they don’t show right away.
How Can a Chicago Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney Help?
Our Chicago personal injury law firm has developed relationships with some of the nation’s leading medical professionals to help us determine the cause of medical injuries, as well as the long-term medical and financial consequences of those injuries. Together we will look at your case and analyze what your options are. Don’t take on the complicated legal system alone. Our Chicago TBI attorneys are here to work with you every step of the way.
If you or a member of your family has been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, please contact the Chicago traumatic brain injury attorneys at Curcio & Casciato in downtown Chicago or call 312-321-1111 and schedule a free consultation today.
How to Prove a Traumatic Brain Injury
As always, see a doctor after your head injury. With the help of imaging tests and scans, you can very easily prove a TBI if there is one present. The following are three common tests that can identify a TBI.
- CT (computerized tomography) scan: CT scans use X-rays to make images of the brain. They are useful in showing bruising, bleeding, and other types of damage.
- MRI (magnetic resonance imaging): This involves the use of very strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the brain.
- ICP (intracranial pressure) monitoring: For these tests, a doctor inserts a special probe into the brain to track swelling. More swelling could lead to more damage.
How Does Someone Get a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Someone in the U.S. sustains a traumatic brain injury every nine seconds, states the Brain Injury Association of America, and you may be one of the many who lives with the effects of this type of catastrophic injury. Traumatic brain injuries generally occur due to a sudden, violent blow to the body or head or when an object reaches the tissue in your brain.
What Are the Physical Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Although a mild TBI may only have a temporary effect on your brain, a severe injury can result in long-lasting damage. Whether your brain injury was mild or severe, you may experience certain physical and cognitive symptoms in the days, weeks, or even months following the accident.
Common Physical Symptoms of TBI Injuries:
After you sustain a brain injury in a serious accident, you may notice some of the following physical signs:
- Loss of consciousness or a persistent state of confusion and disorientation
- Fatigue or drowsiness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Problems falling asleep or sleeping more than usual
- Difficulty speaking
- Weakness or numbness in your fingers or toes that does not go away
- Blurry or double vision
Other common physical TBI symptoms include persistent headaches, loss of balance, and dizziness.
What Are the Mental Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Following a brain injury, you may have a hard time concentrating or remembering things. You may also experience changes in your emotional state and drastic mood swings. Additionally, you may struggle with anxiety and depression, even if you did not have these issues before the accident.
Are There Long-Term Effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries?
Our Chicago catastrophic injury attorneys understand the impact of traumatic brain injuries can range from mild to catastrophic. Medical experts categorize brain injuries into three groups: mild, moderate, and severe. Although a severe brain injury may have a long-term effect on your ability to live a normal life, even a mild brain injury is still a serious issue that can cause noticeable persistent effects and requires prompt medical attention. If you experience any of the common mental, cognitive or physical symptoms of a brain injury, seek medical care as soon as possible.
How Long Does it Take to Recover From a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Generally speaking, the most significant portion of recovery from a traumatic brain injury occurs during the first six months after the injury.
In some cases, TBI victims can take years to recover. In worst-case scenarios, victims may never heal.
What Happens if I File a Personal Injury Claim for a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Traumatic injury cases in Chicago can be complex. You’ll need to get copies of all of your medical records, ask other medical professionals to review your records. After speaking to a Chicago personal injury attorney, you may want to interview witnesses.
Once the initial investigation is complete, your personal injury attorney will file a complaint.
We determine your fair traumatic brain injury settlement based on:
- Medical bills-both past and future
- Rehab cost
- Lost earnings-both past and future
- Disfigurement
- Disability
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of quality of life
If a traumatic brain injury caused the tragic death of a loved one, you might have a wrongful death claim. If so, we may be able to help you claim special damages. We understand that money can never replace your loved one. But, it can help you financially recover so that you can focus on healing.
In most cases, we can settle the claim without needing to go to trial. However, if a medical malpractice settlement can’t be reached, one of the medical malpractice attorneys at Curcio law offices will be prepared to take your case to trial.
Contact the Chicago TBI Lawyers at Curcio & Casciato
Traumatic brain injuries normally involve numerous medical tests and treatments. Most also require rehabilitation and long-term care. Your expenses can and will quickly pile up. Claiming the compensation you’re owed can help relieve you of the financial burden so you can focus on recovering.
We make our personal injury case evaluation for traumatic injury victims as easy as possible. You can call us at 312-321-1111 to schedule your free consultation. Rest assured that our Chicago brain injury attorneys are some of the best in the business. Contact Curcio & Casciato as soon as possible to speak with us about your case.
