Head injury affects an individual in respect of a loss of amenity of one's lifestyle and the overall enjoyment of life.

For legal purposes, head injury is classified in three main areas:

• traumatic brain injury
• moderate traumatic brain injury
• mild traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury

This occurs when an external force hits the head hard enough to cause the brain to move inside the skull encasing the brain.

For example, a rapid acceleration and deceleration of the head can force the brain to move back and forth inside the skull. The movement of the brain can cause damage to brain tissue, which may have an overall lasting impact on the individual. 

Mild traumatic brain injury

This can be difficult to diagnose in the immediate aftermath of an accident where an individual has sustained multiple injuries.

Medical teams will be working to do everything they can to repair the body from orthopaedic and internal injuries, meaning a mild head injury can be overlooked for long periods. It's important to recognise and understand the needs of an individual during the rehabilitation process in order that appropriate treatment is sought to aid recovery. 

The most common causes of traumatic brain injury are falls and road traffic accidents.

Mild traumatic brain injury by definition usually refers to those injuries where there's a loss of consciousness of not more than 30 minutes, and post-traumatic amnesia periods of less than one day. However, these are only guidelines and are not exclusive areas of definition. It may be possible to sustain a traumatic brain injury where there's not been a loss of consciousness.

Symptoms of brain injury can persist for varying lengths of time and in some cases can lead to permanent impairment. Some of the recognised symptoms which may lead to a diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury include:

• Nausea, vomiting, headaches, diplopia (blurred vision), persistent and erratic sleep
  disturbance, susceptible to early fatigue, marked lethargy or loss of taste/smell. All could indicate mild traumatic brain injury if they cannot be accounted for in relation to other injuries sustained.
• Attention deficit, poor concentration, unusual perceptions, decreased memory power,
  impaired speech/language recollection or diminished executive functions which can't be accounted for by other causes of an individual's emotional state.
• Measurable behavioural changes or alterations in an individual's emotional responses. For
  example, irritability, outbursts of anger, uninhibited behaviour that can't be accounted for by a psychological reaction, emotional stress, or other causes. 

Many of these symptoms may not become measurable or clearly apparent until an individual attempts to return to their normal day-to-day life. It's therefore important to work together to ensure such an injury hasn't been overlooked.

This is especially the case where physical injuries have been life changing in the case of multiple fractures or spinal cord injury.

Our team of specialist personal injury solicitors have a wealth of experience in dealing with such cases.

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