WASHINGTON, DC TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY LAWYER

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) happen and other catastrophic injuries are more often than most of us realize. Many times, they are the result of car accidents, truck accidents, and pedestrian accidents. However, TBIs can come from other incidents such as slip and falls and bicycle accidents. Anytime that a person's head hits the ground or another object, that person is at risk for a traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injuries take many forms. The most common type of traumatic brain injury is called a concussion. It is estimated that over 100 people every day are hospitalized with concussions, or other traumatic brain injury symptoms. Traumatic brain injuries can be insidious, because some people have these injuries do not even realize that they have them. Some injuries impact not only the entirety of a person's life, but the way that they perceive the very world around them. Sometimes, people with brain injuries only know that they have them when it is pointed out by friends and relatives.

Brain and Spinal Injury cases can be extremely complicated to work, and you want to make sure that you are speaking to a team of attorneys and staff members who are attuned to all of the nuances of such a case. The attorneys at Blaszkow Legal have been helping people who suffer brain injuries through no fault of their own for over 40 years. Call us today, and speak to one of our Washington DC personally injury lawyers today!

How Do You Know if You Have a Brain Injury?

Brain injuries are diagnosed by medical professionals, using a wide variety of diagnostic methods and testing. Two most common types of diagnostic testing include CT scans of the head and brain, and MRIs. X-rays can determine the location of fractures, but they cannot show brain- and cerebral-tissue in enough detail for doctors to make clear diagnoses and determination.

The Glasgow Coma Scale is another way that doctors, nurses, and emergency medical personnel used to determine if someone who has been injured maybe suffering from the effects of a traumatic brain injury. The higher the number the better, generally speaking, although a person with a GCS of 15 can still have a "mild" brain injury.

What Are The Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Traumatic brain injuries can take on many forms, and can impair all of the functions of a person's life. Some of the most common include:

• Cognitive difficulties

• Difficulty concentrating

• Motor defects

• Loss of memory

• Amnesia

• Difficulty following complicated instructions

• Sensitivity to light, or photophobia

• Sensitivity to sound or phonophobia

• Difficulty speaking

• Cognitive dissonance

• One-sided paralysis

• Total paralysis

• Seizure

• Headaches/migraines

• Altered moods

• Loss of enjoyment of life and recreational activities

How Are Traumatic Brain Injuries Caused by DC Car Accidents?

Car accidents are one of the leading causes of traumatic brain injuries in adults in the United States. This is increasingly common, even for people who wear their seatbelts. Wearing a seat belt is not automatic protection against a head injury. After all, the seat belt is designed to stop your body from flying forward. Seat belts accomplish this vital mission, but your head is still un- restrained. Often, your head can rock forward, and then backwards, striking the headrest behind you (commonly called whiplash, but here, with the added blunt force trauma of impact).

In side impact cases, often found at intersections when a negligent person runs a red light or stop sign, a person's head can strike the window of the car or the B-pillar with considerable force.

In bicycle accidents, slip and falls, as well as pedestrian accidents, a person's head will often hit the ground after the initial fall itself. This impact can be quite serious, and in the event of a person being struck by a vehicle that is moving at any speed, that impact can result in catastrophic injuries.

Damages in a Washington DC Brain Injury Case

If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury through no fault of your own, you may be entitled to file a claim for compensation. This compensation will take into account all of the ways that the accident has impacted and affected your life.

Some of the elements of brain injury damages include:

• Medical treatment expenses, such as hospitals, imaging/radiology, doctors, physical therapists and more

• Home Health Care treatment such as nurses, certified nursing assistants, home physical therapists

• Medical equipment and supplies such as walkers, crutches, bandages

• Necessary modifications to your home such as stairlifts widening doorways

• Future medical expenses, if medical treatment is not completed. Some brain injury cases may result in treatment that may be necessary for the rest of your life

• Time lost from work

• Loss of earning capacity if you cannot return to your previous occupation

• Emotional trauma

• Post-traumatic anxiety

• Embarrassment

• Inconvenience

• Impairment and activities of daily living

• Loss of enjoyment in life

• Pain and suffering

What is the Statute of Limitations for Filing a Washington DC Brain Injury Claim?

In DC accident cases, DC law imposes a 3-year statute of limitations. This means that you have three years from the date of the accident file the underlying lawsuit. However, you do not want to wait that long to speak to an attorney. You want to talk to an experienced brain injury lawyer in DC immediately!

There are more important deadlines that may also apply, however, depending on how the accident happened, and who was involved. If, for example, you were crossing the street in you were hit by a DC government vehicle, then you are required to file notice with the DC government. DC law states that you have to notify them within 6 months of the date of the accident of any tort claim (DC Code 12-309)!

If your accident is involved a federal vehicle, then federal law imposes only a two-year statutory limitations, under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Because of all of these different deadlines, you never want to risk the possibility that your claim is going to be denied on procedural ground. You need to contact an experienced brain injury lawyer immediately to file your claim for compensation, and the fight for your rights.

Contact a Washington DC traumatic brain injury lawyer right away!

Attorney Joe Blaszkow and his team at Blaszkow Legal know that a traumatic brain injury-causing accident is beyond the devastating to you, and to your family. Don't suffer through this alone. Call us today, and we will help you hold the negligent party or parties accountable. Let us fight for you and your family.

Call today for a free consultation: 703-879-5910