What is the prognosis for a workplace TBI?

If your partner suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI) while at work, understanding their outlook will be crucial to getting the compensation they need.

Unlike injuries such as bone breaks, where doctors can give you a reasonable estimate of recovery time, predicting the outcome of a TBI is much harder. Many never make a full recovery.

New research suggests the odds may be better than you thought

Let’s say your partner suffered a TBI at work and is lying in a vegetative state. You and the doctors are wondering whether to continue life-sustaining treatment.

A new study by the University of California suggests you should not act in haste. It looked at people with moderate to severe TBIs. Here is what it found:

• Moderate to severe TBI sufferers at two weeks from the injury: 80% needed assistance for “daily basic functioning.”

• Moderate TBI sufferers one year on from the injury: 75% could operate alone for 8 hours a day at home.

• Severe TBI sufferers one year on from the injury: 50% could function alone at home for eight hours daily. 19% had no disability by this point and 14% only had a mild disability.

These statistics offer more hope than many previous studies. Yet, the sample size was small, only looking at 484 patients. It is still good news.

Does that mean we might not need as much compensation as thought? 

If your partner suffered a TBI in a workplace accident, you cannot assume they will be one of the lucky ones that will make a great recovery. Even if it does happen, your family will incur considerable costs, due to your partner’s loss of earnings and the medical treatment and rehabilitation they will need. Getting legal help to ascertain how much compensation you need and to fight for it will be crucial.