Yes, you can sustain a brain injury from a slip and fall if you strike your head on the way to the ground or upon impact with the ground. These injuries can be catastrophic. A brain injury can sideline you for months or change your life forever, the costs of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be long-term. A brain injury can affect your ability to support yourself through employment or to live independently. Your damages claim can involve substantial compensation.

How a Slip and Fall Can Cause a Brain Injury

Although the skull protects the brain from harm during everyday activities, when a significant force strikes your head, your brain can experience injury. If the skull fractures, the colliding object can pierce or compress the underlying areas of brain tissue. Also, as your head gets snapped back and forth rapidly, your brain can get flung about inside the skull, sustaining bruises and hematomas (blood clots) from slamming into the hard inside of the skull.

How a Brain Injury Can Affect Your Life

Since the brain is “command central” for the human body, any significant injury to the brain can have a substantial impact on a person’s life. Here are some consequences of TBI, which can be either short-term or long-term:

  • Headaches, which can last for months or years.
  • Loss of the sense of smell, sight, taste, or hearing.
  • Intellectual problems like memory, thinking, attention, and problem-solving.
  • Language and communication impairment, both in understanding others and speaking or writing.
  • Sensory dysfunction, when things no longer taste, smell, or feel the same as before.
  • Social problems, such as following and participating in conversations, and understanding nonverbal cues.
  • Changes in behavior, like self-control, verbal or physical outbursts, and risky behavior.
  • Emotional challenges, such as mood swings, depression, irritability, and insomnia.

Altered States of Consciousness After a Brain Injury

Immediately or soon after a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury a person can experience altered states of consciousness, which can include:

Coma. A coma is a temporary state that usually lasts for several days or weeks. While in a coma, the patient is unconscious, is not aware of his surroundings, and cannot respond to any stimulus. He might regain consciousness or fall into a vegetative state.

Vegetative state. In this condition, the patient might open her eyes, move around, make sounds, but she is not aware of her surroundings. Because of these involuntary actions, loved ones often mistakenly think the person is regaining consciousness. Some patients remain in this state, but others improve and enter a minimally conscious state.

Minimally conscious state. As a patient improves from a coma or vegetative state, he can enter a stage of minimal consciousness. He might experience some awareness of himself or his environment even though is not fully conscious.

Brain death. Severe brain injury can result in brain death, in which there is no measurable brain activity. There is no recovery from brain death.

How to Get Help with Your Brain Injury Claim

If you or a loved one experienced a brain injury from a slip and fall, the Montero Law Center wants to talk with you about your right to compensation and how much your brain injury settlement could be. If you call us at 954-767-6500, we will set up your free consultation. A brain injury lawyer can help you.