1. "You couldn’t have suffered a brain injury if you didn’t lose consciousness."
Not so. A brain injury results from any traumatically induced disruption in brain function. The victim needn’t have "blacked out" to have suffered a brain injury. A disruption of brain function may be evidenced by the victim’s inability to recall
Many people with TBI have problems with basic cognitive skills: learning, remembering, thinking. It’s more than a mere loss of "intelligence." TBI victims may find it hard to pay attention or concentrate, and they might have trouble learning new material. A TBI can also cause the victim to think more slowly, or to get easily
A child’s head injury can have devastating effects. To reduce the risk of the injured child suffering a second and perhaps worse injury, medical professionals should use the term “mild traumatic brain injury” to describe the child’s head injury rather than “concus
sion.”
In a study to be published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics
The Consumer Attorneys of California (formerly called The Trial Lawyers of California), named my partner Trial Attorney of the Year Finalist for 2009 in honor of our work for a brain injured client in the case of Burdett v. Teledyne Continental Motors. The Trial Lawyers Association presented a video about the case at its annual
One would assume that if a TBI victim cannot remember the injury producing event, he cannot suffer flashbacks or nightmares re-experiencing the event. Right? Wrong.
Indeed, a diagnosis of a TBI generally requires a loss of consciousness. But the victim’s loss of consciousnesss does not shield him from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Apparently
Some insurance company doctors say that young brains are more resilient. These doctors testify at trial that, when it is a young child who has suffered a traumatic brain injury, the prospects for a good recovery are brighter than they would be if the child were older.
New research shows that the opposite may be true.
When a head is twisted violently, such as in a car crash, microscopic brain structures, called axons, can tear. The damage to the brain is a called a "diffuse axonal injury," or DAI. When the axons tear, chemicals that were contained in those structures can leak into the brain tissue. The torn axons and chemicals in the brain tissue
Most TBI victims suffer from seizures and so need anti-seizure drugs. The drugs don’t eliminate the seizures, they attempt only to control them. Even if the TBI victim takes the drugs exactly as prescribed, the victim may still experience "breakthrough seizures." The seizures can lead to embarassment, social stigma and most troubling, a blackout while
Neuropsychologist researcher and professor Erin Bigler, PhD. recently spoke about the advances in images of post-concussion brains. 
As discussed here, concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries may not show up on standard MRI or CT images. Dr. Bigler described a new technique for analyzing MRI scans called "diffusion tensor imaging" or DTI. This technique illustrates the direction of
Most victims of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury recover fully within one year of their injury. But, sometimes, victims can be left with long-term cognitive problems that affect both their jobs and 
their family lives for years to come. Despite the potentially devastating effects of a mild brain trauma — also known as a " concussion
