CLERMONT BRAIN INJURY ATTORNEY

Clermont Brain Injury Lawyer

With plenty of sunshine, nearby beaches, and a lot of local attractions, people seldom run out of things to do or see in Clermont. However, in spite of all the wonderful things about this city, there are dangers everywhere—from roadways, to beaches, to amusement parks, and backyard pools.

Of all the injuries one might suffer while enjoying Clermont, brain injuries are among the most serious.

The Clermont personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Jerry Jenkins can help you understand the legal options available to you.

Read on for more information about brain injuries and how the Law Offices of Jerry Jenkins can help you obtain compensation if you have acquired a brain injury due to an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence or careless actions.

What Is a Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury is often caused by a violent jolt or blow to the head. In some cases, the injury may involve penetration through the bony protection of the skull, while other brain injuries are considered “closed”—meaning the skull was not broken or penetrated. Because the brain is such a complex organ that controls all the voluntary and involuntary responses of the body, the effects that an injury has and the deficits it produces depend on the severity of the injury, the location of the brain that was injured, and even the side of the brain that suffered the injury.

The brain is made up of several sections, called lobes. Each of these lobes controls different parts of the body.

Here is a look at the vital sections of the brain and the possible effects that an injury to these areas could cause:

• Brain stem: The lowest portion of the brain is the brain stem. The brain stem controls the body’s involuntary responses, such as breathing, heart rate, and sleep cycles. If one injured his or her brain stem, the result is generally death or the need for life support.
• Cerebellum: Beneath the occipital lobe, the cerebellum controls functions such as balance and coordination, skilled motor activity, and visual perception. Those suffering injury to the cerebellum can have difficulty with balance, movement, and coordination.
• Occipital lobe: Located in the back part of the head, the occipital lobe’s primary function is vision. If one suffers an injury to the occipital lobe, he or she might have trouble seeing or perceiving the size and shape of objects.
• Parietal lobe: In the top of the brain, the parietal lobe controls functions such as sense of touch, depth perception, visual perception, and the identification of shapes, sizes, and colors. Injuries to this portion of the brain can result in troubles involving the primary senses, including touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.
• Frontal lobe: As its name suggests, the frontal lobe is located in the front portion of the head and controls attention, concentration, self-monitoring, the ability to speak, motor planning and initiation, personality, emotions, and the awareness of one’s ability and limitations. An injury to this portion of the brain can cause difficulty controlling one’s emotions or behavior, speaking, and recalling events.
• Temporal lobe: Located on the side of the head in the temple area, the temporal lobe controls such functions as memory, the ability to understand language, sequencing, hearing, and organization. Injuries to this part of the brain often lead to difficulties with memory and communication.

In addition to the lobes, the brain is also divided into two roughly equal halves—the left side and the right side. While these sides are equal in size, they do not have the same functions. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the body controls the left side of the brain.

The side of the brain that is injured can also have an impact on what type of deficits the injury creates.

• Left side: The left brain provides analytical and logical traits, the ability to organize, precision in movements or actions, and literal thinking. Someone who has suffered an injury to this side of the brain can suffer effects such as difficulties speaking and understanding language, depression or anxiety, impaired logic, difficulties with sequencing, and lost control of the right side of the body.
• Right side: The right brain is the creative side, producing traits such as imagination, empathy, intuition, conceptual and figurative thinking. Injuries to the right brain can cause visual memory impairments, difficulty with visual perception, altered creativity or music perception, loss of “big picture” thinking, and lost control of the left side of the body.

When a brain injury occurs, the body responds with physiological responses, including biochemical reactions that can cause further damage if not addressed promptly. Severe brain injuries often result in a loss of consciousness that lasts for longer than 24 hours. This period of unconsciousness is known as a coma. As time goes on, if the person cannot wake up, a doctor may diagnose that person with a consciousness disorder.

Some consciousness disorders include:

• Vegetative state: The individual is unaware but may begin experiencing sleeping and waking cycles, normal digestion and breathing, a normal heart rate, and may even open his or her eyes.
• Persistent vegetative state: When one has been in a vegetative state for one year after the injury, he or she will be considered to be in a persistent vegetative state.
• Minimally conscious state: This state often gives doctors and family members hope, as it might be an indication that the person is beginning to “wake up.” Individuals who are in a minimally conscious state show a slight but definite awareness of the environment and of themselves.
• Brain death: A person suffers brain death when all of the brain’s lobes, including the brain stem, stop functioning.

How Do Brain Injuries Occur?

Brain injuries can be caused by any event or activity that results in a violent blow or jolt.

Among the most common causes of brain injuries are:

• Falls
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Assaults
• Sports and recreation injuries
• Gunshot wounds
• Child abuse or domestic violence
• Blast injuries resulting from military deployment

The Complications of Brain Injuries

There are many potential complications of brain injuries. Some of these complications include:

• Hydrocephalus: Hydrocephalus is the name that describes the condition of having excess fluid on the brain. This fluid can place further pressure on the brain and could cause further damage if not treated right away. Hydrocephalus is commonly treated by surgically placing a shunt that will drain the fluid.
• Seizures: Seizures suffered after a brain injury are referred to as post-traumatic epilepsy. It is not uncommon for brain injury patients to suffer seizures during the early days after the injury occurs. However, for some people, these seizures can occur years after the injury.
• Damage to blood vessels: Several vessels may be damaged in the injury, and can lead to complications such as a stroke or a blood clot. If the individual is non-ambulatory for a period of time after the injury occurs, blood clots can also develop in the deep veins of the legs, leading to a potentially fatal condition called a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a clot travels through the bloodstream to the lung.
• Infections: Infections are common in brain injured individuals due to changes in how the brain communicates with the body and the individual’s inability to communicate that they don’t feel well. Often, the first sign that a caregiver or physician has that an infection has occurred is that the individual will be running a fever. The most common areas of infection after a brain injury include the urinary tract and the lungs.

Brain Injuries Affect All Parts of Life

Suffering a traumatic brain injury not only impacts the life of the person who experienced the injury, but often impacts the lives of those who love and care for the person as well. Brain injuries are incredibly expensive, with estimates pinpointing the cost of lifetime treatment of the injury at between $85,000 to $3 million.

More than 5.3 million adults and children in the U.S. are currently living with a brain injury and resultant lifelong disabilities. Here are some of the impacts often suffered by those with brain injuries:

• At work: Individuals with brain injuries have an unemployment rate of 60 percent two years after the injury occurs. Many of these individuals will never return to the jobs they held before the injury, and many cannot handle any sort of gainful employment as a result of their injury and the deficits it created. For those who can return to work, there is often a need for a modified schedule that features shortened workdays, fewer workdays, more breaks, and fewer tasks.
• At school: Contrary to popular belief, children do not typically fare better than adults after suffering a brain injury. Instead, many deficits will not become known for years, as the child’s brain continues to grow and develop around the injury. For children who are returning to school after a brain injury, there is often a need to accommodate the injury through the help of a paraprofessional who can assist the child in completing his or her assignments and provide assistance in testing the child through an alternative means such as giving verbal or multiple choice tests.
• In society: After a brain injury, the individual may find the friends who lined the hall and filled his or her social media with posts of concern and well wishes often fall away after weeks or months. Those individuals, while well-meaning, may find that they simply don’t have much in common anymore with the injured person. It is not unusual for brain injured individuals and their family members to feel isolated by the injury and as though no one understands what they are going through.
• In the home: The entire structure of the family changes after a brain injury. Children can find themselves providing caretaking duties for a parent. Parents may find the need to move an adult, brain-injured child back into their home to provide constant care. The brain injured person and his or her spouse can have difficulty in their sexual relationship due to hormonal changes caused by the injury. The family can discover that they can no longer do an activity that they once enjoyed together. The home can undergo modifications to accommodate disabilities caused by the injury. In nearly every way, the home life of an entire family has changed. More than half of the homeless population in the U.S. has suffered a brain injury. While some of these injuries were acquired after the person became homeless, many times the extreme difficulties faced by those suffering this type of injury leads to homelessness.

Call Our Clermont Brain Injury Lawyers Now

If the negligent or careless actions of another person or entity caused your brain injury, you can pursue compensation through a brain injury claim. This form of civil lawsuit holds the at-fault party financially responsible for the damages that he or she caused.

Some of the damages that we can try to collect through a brain injury lawsuit include:

• Medical expenses.
• Lost income due to being too injured to work or missing work for medical treatment related to the injury.
• Loss of future earning capacity if the injury renders the person no longer capable of earning the income they made before the accident.
• Any property damage that was sustained by the injured person during the event that caused the injury.
• Compensation for the impacts that the injury has had on the person’s life, including physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of the enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium, which is a damage collected on behalf of the injured person’s spouse due to the loss of intimacy and companionship suffered as a result of the injury.

Let The Law Offices of Jerry Jenkins help you understand the legal options available to you as a result of your Clermont brain injury.

For a free case evaluation, contact us online or call us at (407) 287-6757.

Client Testimonial

Review: 5/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“I live in GA and I was on vacation in Florida When I got hit. I needed a Florida lawyer to handle my case. Jerry was swift, he directed me and gave me good advice, hooked me up with great medical teams and followed my wishes for financial negotiation. Jerry has a wealth of knowledge and used all capacities to get the most I can get from my claim. Jerry will return your call in a timely manner, he will handle you correctly and accordingly. Don’t go nowhere else.”

Review by: Ivan J.