I can’t tell you how many different ways people manage to get brain injuries in the workplace. There are literally thousands of different ways. Falling objects, equipment that someone else is operating where they run into an employee because they are operating the equipment improperly or there’s a blind side where they don’t see them.
There are also tripping hazards where people fall and hit their head. You can also have very difficult work environment where people are in a confined space and they strike their head on an object. You may even be in a wearing a hard hat but get whacked on the noggin good enough to suffer a brain injury. There are also horrible head-crushing injuries where a human beings skull is actually crushed causing a brain injury. Those are very serious cases, which require a very experienced lawyer with well-qualified experts.
It’s important to talk about the range of brain injuries. Some brain injuries can actually be photographed, not with a camera but with an x-ray or CAT scan. We also have devices now known as MRI, which are magnetic resonance imaging machines, and we also have something called PET Scanners. They can demonstrate where parts of the brain have died or been damaged. Often, we’ll see a sub-dural hematoma. Basically, a bruise on the brain. The brain is contained in the skull and when you get hit in the head, your brain smashes up against your skull and that can cause very serious complications that are quite difficult to detect.
Neuro-psychologists or nuero-psychiatrists can give very specific, non-invasive tests. They are generally question tests, sometimes involving tapping. They can detect very, very, subtle changes in the brain. For instance, I’ve had cases where a professional person who had a very technical job had a very mild brain injury. But it affected their whole life because their job was thinking and analyzing and the part of their brain that got hit is the part that analyzes problems and tries to solve them.
And it was an important case that most people would say, “Geez, a little hit like that can cause a change in life?” And the answer is, “yes.” I’ve seen people who suffer horrible crushing skull injuries who make a pretty good recovery. They typically can’t go back to work because it wouldn’t be safe for them or it wouldn’t be safe for the people around them. But they can go about their lives ok. Serious brain injuries can affect your eyesight, your hearing and your sense of smell as well as a lot of other things.
I encourage people to give me a call, tell me what kind of problems you are faced with as a result to an injury to your head and we’ll try and figure out a way to help you out.
Contact the Segal Law Firm at (855) 344-9100.