When you suffer from a violent blow to the head or body from an accident, you may suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI). It can also result from any object that penetrates the brain tissue.
The severity of brain trauma varies from mild, which may temporarily affect your brain cells, to more severe trauma that may result to physical brain damage. Brain trauma can cause serious, long-term complications and can even be fatal.
Identifying the symptoms of brain trauma can be a key step in getting timely and necessary medical intervention. Here are the signs you need to keep an eye out for:
Physical symptoms of brain trauma
Physical symptoms of mild brain trauma usually include sensory issues, including ringing in the ears, visual problems, or when your senses of taste or smell get mixed-up. You may also experience photosensitivity and nausea or vomiting. Fatigue or drowsiness, speech problems, and loss balance are also hallmarks of brain trauma.
More severe brain trauma symptoms may include persistent headaches, seizures or convulsions, pupils dilating, draining of clear fluids from the nose or ears, fingers and toes numbing, and loss of coordination, among others.
Mental and behavioral symptoms of brain trauma
Apart from the physical symptoms of brain trauma, you also need to watch out for mental and behavioral changes following an accident.
You may experience feelings of extreme confusion or find that you are more forgetful than usual. You may forget the events leading up to the accident and other noteworthy events. You may also experience and display combative behavior and aggression. You may feel frequent agitation or irritation.
You might have the tendency to refuse medical treatment, due in part to your combative behavior, but also because you might underplay the seriousness of your injuries. Mood swings, difficulty sleeping, and depression and anxiety are also cognitive symptoms of a brain injury.
Experiencing these symptoms can be debilitating. You may be unable to return to your job and your normal routine for a long time. If you suffer from a brain injury following an accident, you may have a personal injury claim.