Signs of a traumatic brain injury

When you suffer a head injury, you may be worried about the lingering impact of a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The mildest — and we use that word loosely, as all brain injuries should be taken seriously — type of TBI is a concussion. But it can get far worse than that, with compounding issues like cellular death, bleeding on the brain, excessive pressure and more.

It does not matter how the head injury happened. Maybe you got into a car accident. Maybe you slipped and fell in a store and hit your head on the tiles. Perhaps you fell off a ladder at work. No matter how it happened, you need to know what signs and symptoms to look out for. They may include:

• Headaches, especially if they don’t go away or keep getting worse
• Nausea and vomiting
• Loss of consciousness
• Memory issues, such as not remembering the injury or even time before it took place
• Sensitivity to sound and light
• Irritability and personality changes
• Having trouble with basic motor skills that you had previously mastered
• Having trouble speaking or communicating
• Experiencing serious mental confusion
• Loss of problem-solving skills
• Seizures and convulsions
• Trouble falling asleep, or conversely, sleeping far too much
• Loss of feeling
• Mood swings or the onset of depression

These are not all the symptoms you could see, but they help to show you what to watch out for. If you do suffer a TBI in an accident, you definitely need to get medical care as quickly as you can. You also need to know about all of the legal options you have to seek financial compensation.