Chicago Personal Injury Lawyers Blog

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) contribute to a substantial number of deaths and cases of permanent disability annually. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that at least 5.3 million Americans currently have a long-term or lifelong need for help to perform activities of daily living as a result of a TBI. Approximately 75 percent of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.

One specific group at risk is youth athletes playing in organized sports. Most sports related traumatic brain injuries, TBIs, can be classified as concussions. Repeated mild brain injuries occurring over an extended period (i.e., months or years) can result in cumulative neurological and cognitive deficits, but repeated mild brain injuries occurring within a short period (i.e., hours, days, weeks) can be catastrophic or fatal. The latter phenomenon, termed "second impact syndrome" has been reported more frequently since it was first characterized in 1984.

Here is another example. During August 1993, a 19-year-old college football player reported headache to family members after a full contact-practice during summer training. During practice the following day he collapsed on the field approximately 2 minutes after engaging in a tackle. He was transported to a nearby trauma center where a CT scan of the head showed diffuse brain swelling and a thin subdural hematoma. Attempts to control the elevated intracranial pressure failed, and he was pronounced brain dead 3 days later.

Catastrophic effects from successive seemingly mild concussions sustained within a short period are not yet widely recognized. Second Impact Syndrome results from acute, usually fatal, brain swelling that occurs when a second concussion is sustained before complete recovery from a previous concussion. The risk for second impact syndrome should be considered in a variety of sports associated with likelihood of blows to the head, including boxing, football, ice or roller hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, and snow skiing. These sports also present risks for single impact blows to the head that cause brain injuries; pitchers getting hit by baseballs at close range, hockey players getting checked down to the hard ice, and basketball players colliding at full speed as examples.

It goes without saying that when one suffers a severe brain injury the first priority is the health of the injured loved one. If your son or daughter suffers an injury in any respect, regardless of whether it is an organized practice or game, the same legal principles apply. An injured party may seek compensation for injuries so long as they are able to establish that the injury was a result of another's negligence. Whether or not a legal remedy is available depends on the facts of each particular case. In particular, the most important fact is whether or not anybody knew or should have known there was a risk that a severe brain injury could occur during the practice or game. This question is not as simple as determining whether the organization sponsoring the practice or game knew of the risk. The factual investigation into the cause of the injury may lead to the conclusion that there was a defective piece of equipment or property that caused the injury. A skilled attorney will be able to conduct an investigation in to all potential culpable parties.

Often times there are specific laws that deal with whether and the manner by which one can bring a lawsuit against an organization sponsoring a practice or game. In particular, special laws and time limitations may be in place for bringing lawsuits against municipal or school entities. Usually shorter statute of limitations apply to schools or municipalities. In addition, there may be issues with respect to exculpatory agreements in the event the injured party has reached a majority. These agreements may be used to prevent an injured party from recovering money damages against an entity that would be otherwise responsible for compensating a victim.

With respect to the potential compensatory results of a settlement or verdict, a severe brain injury obviously has long standing effects that will likely cause permanent disability, pain, future medical expenses and lost wages.

An injured party is able to seek compensation for his or her past and future medical expenses, past and future lost wages, past and future disability and past and future pain and suffering.

What if the brain injury occurs during an organized sporting event through high school or college sports programs?

These cases are a bit complicated depending on whether the school at issue is a private or public entity. As stated earlier, municipal and state entities have different laws that apply to them. Generally speaking those public entities have legislative safeguards that make it more difficult to successfully obtain a recovery.

Source: HeadInjury.com

Source: Centers for Disease Control

I came across another interesting write-up from the folks in Berkeley on their website titled Science Today pertaining to new technology and understanding the brain. If I didn't represent brain injury victims in my law practice, I would probably think that magnetoencephalography would only come up in a New York Times or Chicago Tribune crossword puzzle. Physicist Robert Kraus of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has helped develop a helmet of sensors that can be used with a technique called magnetoencephalography to observe tiny electrical currents in the brain.

Explained by Mr. Kraus, when you think, when you move a hand, when you see things, large numbers of brain cells or neurons fire in your brain all together - simultaneously. That produces a current. That current results in a magnetic field; that magnetic field comes out of your head and we measure the magnetic field all around your head with a sensor system.
Often times, in a brain injury case, you will have expert witnesses offering opinions as to the severity of the plaintiff's brain injury. These professional opinions naturally have an element of subjectivity, so I insist on understanding the science and medicine so that I may intelligently represent my clients. Magnetoencephalography could provide the brain activity measurement results to strengthen a brain injury case.

Beyond the benefits of using magnetoencephalography results in the courtroom, this technology can also help my brain injury clients with their recovery. The ability to map the brain and better understand how an injury has impacted the brain is significant information in the process of determining what treatments and therapies to focus on going forward.

Source: Science Today at the University of California (www.ucop.edu/sciencetoday)

Source: Brain and Spinal Cord.org (Brain Injury Statistics)

In this blog, I will periodically post links to recent literature that I find important in my practice. This is one of those blogs and the article that caught my eye is called Committing Single Events To Memory, from Science Today at the University of California.

When I first started handling traumatic brain injury cases (TBI) I was amazed at how much of the brain we do not understand. I find that due to this lack of knowledge, any traumatic brain injury lawyer must constantly be reviewing the latest scientific and medical journals that seek to understand more about the brain. This article addresses issues that may arise in the treatment of memory loss as the research seems to have isolated that Arc activation and regulation controls certain memory functions. In most TBI cases, memory loss is affected. This research could potentially affect my clients' treatment and their cases, and that is important to me.

Source: Science Today at the University of California