Your brain controls the majority of your abilities and bodily functions. As a result, any harm that your brain suffers could easily result in diminished abilities and other hardships that could potentially prove permanent depending on the nature of your injury.
While you may hope to take measures to protect yourself as often as possible, some situations are out of your control. For instance, you may practice safe driving techniques, but another driver could easily cause an accident that leads to your suffering a serious brain injury. If your injury is severe, you could even fall into a coma or other state.
Brain injury effects
Because the effects of a brain injury can depend heavily on the details regarding the injury, it can be difficult to determine what impacts a person will face in terms of recovery and lasting damage caused by the injury. Some issues that can play a role in diagnosing brain injuries and predicting their effects include the following:
- The type of injury
- Your age
- Your abilities before the injury
- Brain swelling and other secondary problems
The tests used to determine the severity of brain injuries are also limited in their abilities to show how severe an injury may be. Additionally, some symptoms and issues do not arise immediately at the time of injury. Therefore, brain injuries are especially unpredictable.
Recovery
Of course, when someone faces a brain injury, one of the main concerns relates to recovery. Generally, the first six months after an injury occurs is the period of fastest improvement. However, each person and injury differs, and a six-month period may show more improvement for one person and less improvement for another. Additional improvements typically occur for two years post-injury and slow down considerably after this two-year period.
Plus, the type of rehabilitation and other treatments undergone can also affect recovery. Still, you will have a long road ahead of you after suffering a serious brain injury, and your life may never be the same, even with vast improvements during recovery.
Compensation
If another person caused the incident that led to your brain injury, you may want to consider seeking compensation for damages. Medical bills, rehabilitation, physical therapy and a number of other factors can place a significant financial strain on an already difficult situation, and filing a personal injury claim could allow you to seek restitution for those costs from the individual considered at fault.
