Traumatic brain injury (TBI) refers to damage or destruction of brain tissue due to a blow to the head, resulting from an assault, a car crash, or a fall.
Damage from a closed head injury occurs because the person receives a blow to the head that whips the head violently forward and back or from side to side as is common in a car crash. According to website
brainline.org, this causes the brain to collide at high velocity with the bony skull in which it is housed. This jarring movement bruises brain tissue and tears blood vessels, particularly where the inside surface of the skull is rough and uneven. Therefore, certain areas of the brain – usually the frontal and temporal lobes – are damaged. This damage, which can be detected through MRI and CAT scans, tend to affect several areas of the individual’s functioning.
Open head injury, the second type of TBI, occurs when the skull is penetrated, for example by a bullet. Damage following open head injuries tends to be focal and the implications for subsequent impairment tend to be focal and limited. However, such injuries can be as severe as closed head injuries, depending on the destructive path of the bullet or other invasive object within the brain.
Recovery after injury is usually quite different for those with moderate-to-severe injuries versus those with mild injuries. In mild TBI, one person may recover quickly and completely, while another may experience significant challenges even several years after injury. In more severe injuries, recovery typically continues in many ways for months and years.
The leading causes of TBI are:
- Falls (35.2%);
- Motor vehicle-traffic crashes (17.3%);
- Struck by/against events (16.5%);
- Assaults (10%); and
- Unknown/Other (21%). 1
*These percentages may not be 100% accurate but it does not change that falls are the most common cause of TBI, especially among children 0-4 and 15-19 as well as the elderly.
Attorney Randy Rozek and his staff in Madison and Milwaukee, WI offices have devoted their entire professional career to representing individuals against big corporations and insurance companies throughout the state of Wisconsin and across the country. In fact, Rozek has successfully represented injury victims from Alaska to Florida. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, Rozek has focused his practice on representing victims of serious, life-changing injuries. He has worked with some of the leading experts around the world in fields of medicine and law and currently serves on the Board of the Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice and is the editor of the Journal of Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation. Attorney Rozek was also named the 2016 Wisconsin Trial Lawyer of the Year. Along with Rozek, his experienced legal team is passionate about helping brain injury victims win their case.