Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog
We have heard a great deal about the dangers of head injuries, including concussions. For those who are not aware of what a concussion is, it is essentially a brain injury that occurs when the victim is hit in the head or even the victim of a whiplash type accident where the brain forcefully slams into the skull. This can result in swelling as blood pools under the dura.
This is the same thing that happens when a person gets a bruise anywhere on his or her body, but when the bruise happens in the brain, there is nowhere for the blood to expand due to the skull, and this creates a buildup of pressure that can result in permanent brain damage.
While scientist have learned a lot more about concussions in recent years, there is a newly discovered type of brain injury known as second impact syndrome. There is little known about this condition, but doctors and researchers fear it may be responsible for many teen deaths across the nation as a result of sports injuries.
Second impact syndrome is believed to be caused when the victim suffers a concussion, and then suffers a second head injury before the concussion has had time to fully heal. The fear of this second impact syndrome is why we now have mandatory monitoring periods in professional and amateur sports.
According to a recent news article form NBC News, a 15-year-old football player was just killed when he suffered a head injury during a junior varsity football game. Since his death is believed to due to second impact syndrome as he was the victim of a pervious head injury. When this second injury occurred, he suffered a seizure and then died the next day.
His parents agreed to donate their son’s brain to science to see if more could be learned about this potentially deadly medical condition. Specifically, his brain will be transported to a lab run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is considered to be the most advanced traumatic brain injury research lab in the nation. The research is being largely funded by a not for profit organization that is trying to reduce head injuries in youth sports.
While there are few things more tragic that a parent having to bury a child, as our Boston personal injury lawyers have seen, having a victim survive a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can also be devastating. The reason for this is because many people who survive a TBI are not going to act the same as they did prior to the accident. Some will never be able to walk again, and others will not be able to do routine tasks like using a fork, or even talking.
These victims will need years of rehabilitation and possibly many more operations over the years. While this can be emotionally difficult, it can also be financially devastating as well, since we could easily be talking about upwards of $100,000 in medical bills. This is one of the things you should discuss with your brain injury victim’s lawyer when working to calculate your total damages.
If you have suffered personal injury in Massachusetts, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
North Texas Teen’s Death Could Provide Answers About Head Injury, November 12, 2016, By Bianca Castro, NBC News
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