What should parents know about TBI – traumatic brain injury? In New York, what steps should parents take if their child sustains a brain injury because someone else was negligent or careless? When should parents speak to a New York City traumatic brain injury attorney?
Keep reading, and these questions will be answered in this brief discussion of children, TBI, and your family’s rights. The Brain Injury Association of America reports that more than two million people in the U.S. sustain a traumatic brain injury every year, and that almost 500,000 of those victims are children.
The Mark E. Seitelman Law Offices represents parents who bring personal injury claims when a child has been injured because someone else was negligent or careless.
How Serious Are Traumatic Brain Injuries?
Whether you’re young or old, TBI can be catastrophic. A traumatic brain injury sustained by a child may impair that child’s physical abilities, social growth, learning capacity, and create life-long difficulties with aspects of the child’s physical and mental development.
However, the effect of traumatic brain injuries on children may not be apparent immediately because a child’s brain isn’t yet fully developed. For a child, TBI may cause an ongoing injury process, and the child’s symptoms can change over time.
What Are the Long-Term Effects of TBI on Children?
Even mild concussions, which commonly happen in sports and traffic accidents, can cause life-long medical difficulties. Perhaps what is most important to know about children who are TBI victims is the potential long-term loss of cognitive functioning.
Even a moderate brain injury can make it difficult to process and remember information. Unfortunately, children who suffer moderate or severe brain injuries may become adults with considerably diminished prospects for employment in an information-based, high-tech economy.
Pediatric researchers have found that children with traumatic brain injuries may also suffer from conditions that include clinical depression, serious headaches, seizures, rapid mood swings, irritability, nausea, emotional outbursts and disorders, tinnitus, and permanent brain damage.
How Do Brain Injuries Happen?
Traumatic brain injuries may be the result of a blow, a jolt, or a mere bump on the head. Symptoms or signs of TBI might or might not be obvious immediately. Those symptoms may not become apparent until weeks or sometimes months later.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell us that these are the leading causes of TBI:
- accidental falls
- traffic collisions
- accidentally being struck by (or accidentally striking the head against) an object
- sports accidents
- intentional self-harm
- assault
What Are Your Family’s Rights If Your Child is a TBI Victim?
No child should have to endure a serious brain injury. In New York, the law entitles injured negligence victims to compensation for current and projected future medical expenses and elated losses.
After any blow to the head, your child should be immediately examined by a doctor. Then, speak to a New York personal injury attorney at the Mark E. Seitelman Law Offices.
When another party – a negligent driver, for example, or a manufacturer of defective safety equipment – is at fault for a child’s injury, parents have the right to be fully compensated for their medical expenses and related losses, and a New York City traumatic brain injury attorney at the Mark E. Seitelman Law Offices can help.
About Us
Your first legal consultation with an injury attorney is offered with no cost or obligation. Take advantage of this opportunity to receive personalized advice and to learn how the law applies in your own family’s situation.
We know how to recover the compensation that TBI victims need, and we are ready to fight aggressively and effectively on your child’s behalf. Parents pay no attorney’s fee to the Mark E. Seitelman Law Offices until and unless our legal team recovers the compensation you need to provide proper medical care for your injured child.