Unlike most cells of the body, neural tissues have only limited ability to regenerate and heal. As a result, even a relatively minor head injury may result in permanent disability that can negatively affect your quality of life and your day-to-day functioning. Because the brain controls all aspects of living — mental as well as physical — the effects of a traumatic brain injury can be unpredictable and varied.
Functional Deficits
Due to damage from a traumatic brain injury, you may have difficulty remembering how to perform activities that you typically do on a routine basis. These may include manual tasks such as operating a car, or even basics of daily living, such as eating, bathing, and dressing. You may also have trouble with tasks requiring mental focus and organization, such as paying bills or shopping.
Motor Deficits
An injury to the brain may result in complete or partial paralysis. The muscles require signals from the brain in order to move, and these signals can stop if the part of the brain that sends them is too severely damaged. Sometimes brain damage doesn’t stop the motor signals entirely but causes them to get scrambled. This can result in uncontrollable motor abnormalities, such as tremors. Muscles may become too short or too tight, a condition known as spasticity.
Communication Deficits
Damage to the language centers of the brain could affect your ability to communicate in specific ways that have special scientific names:
- Agraphia: Difficulty communicating through writing
- Alexia: Inability to read
- Aphasia: Difficulty expressing oneself through verbal speech or understanding what others say
Sensory Deficits
Sensory deficits from a TBI affect your ability to perceive and interact with the world around you. For example, an impact to the back of your head could affect your ability to see. Your field of vision may decrease, producing tunnel vision. You could lose visual acuity or start seeing double. Depending on the area of the brain affected, sensory deficits can also change your perception of touch, taste, smell, and sound.
Psychological Changes
Damage to the brain can also produce psychological changes. You may have trouble regulating your emotions, making you more prone to aggressive behavior. Conversely, you may experience apathy, no longer taking an interest in things you once cared deeply about. You may experience symptoms of specific psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety.
These are just a handful of the disabilities that can result from a traumatic brain injury. They may affect your ability to work and support yourself, which makes it important to recover compensation from the responsible party. Contact a lawyer, like a brain injury lawyer from Yearin Law Office, for help with your personal injury claim.