Lake Charles Personal Injury Law Blog

When you find out that your loved one has been involved in a catastrophic situation that has resulted in a traumatic brain injury, your first thoughts may center on the likelihood of a full recovery. In serious cases, your family member may experience long-lasting effects that ultimately affect his or her ability to live life the same way as before the accident. However, with a well-rounded team of medical professionals in Louisiana, your loved one has a much higher chance of being able to recover and embrace the changes that resulted from their accident. 

Setting goals is an integral part of your family member's recovery. Depending on the severity of the accident and the injuries that resulted from it, your family member may have suffered injuries that resulted in limitations to their ability to speak, read, communicate and understand you and others in your family. According to healthfully.com, while your loved one may have a significant goal, such as being able to return to their career responsibilities, there will be much smaller goals that they will focus on first such as memory recall and remembering sequences. 

After your loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in Lake Charles, the first and most important question you likely have for their caretakers will be if they can recover (and if so, what extent)? Answering that question with anything approaching exactness may seem impossible, yet people come to us here at the Hale Law Firm all the time asking it anyway. Like them, you may be surprised to learn that clinicians can develop a reasonably good idea of what one's long-term prognosis following a TBI can be thanks to a test known as the Glasgow Coma Scale. 

The reason brain injuries can be so devastating is due to the fact that brain cells cannot be regenerated. This means that whatever damage a TBI does is irreversible. If that damage is mild, then one may experience little more than concussion-like symptoms and quickly return to full health. Severe injuries, however, can leave one completely dependent on around the clock care in order to perform basic functions such as breathing. Knowing which outcome your loved one faces may be a factor in your decision to seek compensation from the party responsible for their TBI. 

A catastrophic head injury in Louisiana may result in amnestic syndrome. You may recognize amnestic syndrome by its more commonly known name of amnesia. According to the Mayo Clinic, amnestic syndrome stems from damage to the areas of the brain that process memory. This damage can result from catastrophic injury such as severe trauma. Other possible causes include seizures, strokes, inflammation of the brain, tumors, degenerative neurologic conditions and alcohol or drug use. Amnestic syndrome can also result from psychological trauma. The term for this is dissociative amnesia, and it is one of the rare instances in which a sufferer may lose autobiographical information or personal memories, although this is usually temporary. 

Amnestic syndrome can be retrograde, meaning that it interferes with recollections of the past, or it can be anterograde, meaning that it is more difficult for the individual to form new memories or learn new things. The damage to the brain that can cause memory loss can also contribute to disorientation or confusion. Another possible symptom of amnestic syndrome is confabulation, which consists of memories that are either completely invented and false or else genuine memories that have become distorted into inaccuracy. 

Collisions involving large commercial vehicles and smaller passenger automobiles occur all too often in Louisiana, and they frequently result in serious injuries or death for the drivers and passengers of the lighter vehicles. According to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, the occupants of these smaller vehicles suffer 78 percent of the traffic-related deaths due to such accidents. Therefore, when sharing the road with large trucks, it is important for drivers to follow certain safety practices to help avoid potentially serious, or deadly, trucking crashes.

Perhaps the most important action for drivers to take when sharing the road with tractor-trailers and other such commercial vehicles is to allow them extra room. These large trucks require more room to maneuver and they need a significantly greater distance than smaller, passenger cars in order to stop safely. Providing semitrailers a cushion of safety gives them the time and distance needed to avoid colliding with the vehicles in front of them if they are forced to suddenly slow or stop.