If you were in an accident and you’ve developed one of a number of symptoms, you may be the victim of a brain injury. Ask yourself the following questions:

Am I losing my memory?

Am I dizzy or lightheaded?

Do I have blurry vision?

Does your head hurt?

Am I losing coordination?

Do I feel off balance or do I have vertigo?

Am I depressed?

Do I feel more anxious or nervous than usual?

Do I have difficulty concentrating on my job or my family?

Do I have muscle weakness or facial weakness?

Am I having difficulty sleeping in a manner that is inconsistent with my sleep before the accident?

Remember that you may not even recognize the symptoms yourself, so you should also ask a loved one, a co-worker, a close friend, or someone familiar with your condition and your behavior, the following questions:

Am I forgetting things?

Have I been acting impulsively? Am I having difficulty controlling urges to eat, making impulsive purchases, started to drive or otherwise behave unsafely?

Do I laugh or cry at inappropriate times?

Am I irritable or grouchy in a manner inconsistent with my normal behavior?

Do my sentences trail off?

Am I slurring my speech?

Am I having trouble finding the right word to describe an object?

Remember that brain injuries which result from accidents are amongst the most dangerous problems that an injured person can suffer. Brain injuries occur because of a number of different causes. For example, blunt trauma to the head in a car accident can result from hitting your head on the steering wheel or on the headrest, from a direct hit from a deploying airbag, or in more serious accidents, from striking the head on one of the windows or the dashboard of the car. Oftentimes people that slip and fall will strike their heads on a curb on an obstacle near the area where they fell. Therefore, concussions and loss of consciousness are often indicators that a brain injury might have occurred.

However, a direct hit to the head is not necessarily the only way to injure the brain. Severe shaking, or even a whiplash injury can jar the head in such a way as to injure the brain. Additionally, an explosion following an automobile accident, even one which does not cause obvious injury to the head, can result in a brain injury due to the pressure which results from the explosion.

Sometimes a brain injury can be caused by hypoxia (a loss of oxygen) or a loss of blood circulating throughout the body. Therefore, a patient that has lost blood from an internal injury, or suffered a punctured lung in an accident, can suffer a brain injury even when they have not suffered a direct hit to the head.

If you have been in an accident and you are suffering from any of the above symptoms, you may have had a brain injury.

YOU SHOULD SEEK MEDICAL ASSISTANCE IMMEDIATELY, then, CONTACT US.