What are the possible effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

No two brain injuries are exactly alike. Each TBI comes with its own short- and long-term effects and challenges.

Suffering brain damage due to a workplace injury can be a temporary setback or a permanently life-altering event. Learning more about what comes with a TBI can help you better understand the potential problems you may encounter in the future.

Three types of brain injuries

Medical professionals at John Hopkins University explain that there are three basic types of brain injuries:

• Closed brain injury: Occurs without the brain or skull being penetrated by a foreign object. These types of injuries are often caused by the internal collision of the brain and the skull, resulting in concussions or contusions. Bruising, brain bleeds, and swelling of brain tissue and surrounding blood vessels are often associated with this type of TBI.

• Penetrating brain injury: This happens when any foreign object penetrates the skull and brain, such as a gunshot wound. These can be more traumatic as ripping and tearing of irreplaceable brain tissue can occur.

• Anoxic brain injuries: These happen when the brain is starved of oxygen for too long. Usually, four or five minutes without oxygen is sufficient to cause significant brain damage. These can happen when blood clots block passageways, drowning, or chemical exposure.

The possible results of a brain injury include:

• Cognition: Confusion, memory loss, short attention, decreased awareness of time, space, self, and others, and coma

• Motor skills: Poor balance and coordination, paralysis, muscle spasms, tremors, decreased stamina

• Sense and perception: Loss of sensation or heightened sensation, vision impairments, changes to senses, loss of left- or right-side awareness

• Communication: Difficulty speaking, word choice, problems reading or writing, slow or slurred speech

• Functional: Difficulty driving, dressing, bathing, eating, and other daily activities

• Social: Difficulty maintaining healthy relationships, withdrawn or silent in social situations

• Psychological: Decreased motivation, irritability, anxiety or depression, inappropriate social behavior

When you or a loved one suffers a traumatic brain injury in California, the first step to recovery starts with getting the benefits and compensation needed to pay for treatment and secure a stable future. An experienced advocate can help.