One of the most serious of all injuries is an injury to the brain. Often referred to as the "invisible injury", brain injuries are often overlooked by medical professionals, paramedics and even victims. Many times a brain injury does not cause visible symptoms until weeks, months or years after an injury or accident has occurred.

A blow to the head can lead to much more than a superficial bump or cut. The brain is particularly vulnerable when the head has suffered a severe trauma. Whether your head strikes an object or an object strikes your head, the force of that blow can damage the cerebral cortex or the deep white matter inside your skull. That strike can bruise the cerebral cortex, or it can cause a whiplash that can lead to a diffuse axonal injury to the deep white tissue.

A brain injury is not always visible to the naked eye. Direct trauma to the head may leave a gash that can penetrate or fracture the skull and possibly the brain. That same kind of trauma can cause the brain to collide with the skull without breaking the bone itself. Another kind of trauma, indirect trauma, is often associated with the "Shaken Baby Syndrome" because it involves a severe shaking or whiplash that can shake or rotate the brain, damaging the delicate nerve cells inside your head.

Some secondary types of brain injury stemming from non-neurological structure injuries can also be devastating to victims and their families. Such injuries include edema, hematoma, and hydrocephalus and hygroma. An edema refers to the swelling of the brain that can lead to pressure building up and preventing blood and oxygen from entering the brain. Hematoma is the collection of blood due to tissue injury or tearing of a blood vessel. Bleeding in the brain after trauma can occur after being released from the emergency room. Hydrocephalus and hygroma are characterized by a collection of fluid in and around the brain.

When you are involved in an accident, it may be very hard for even medical professionals to determine whether or not a brain injury has occurred. The following is a list of common signs of an injury to the brain:

• Loss of consciousness - You lose consciousness to any degree from being dazed for a few seconds to slipping into a coma.
• Post-traumatic amnesia - You experience memory loss of events prior to and following the incident.
• Concussion - Your awareness is altered, and you may feel dizzy, nauseous, disoriented, forgetful, irritable, or depressed.
• Encephalopathy - Your brain is not functioning normally (which may not be a permanent state), and you may be confused, inattentive, or in a stupor.
• Focal neurological signs - You experience recognizable signs that tell your doctor your brain is not functioning one hundred percent.
• Seizure - Your nerve cells function improperly causing you to lose consciousness, fall and convulse.
• Unequal or un-reactive pupils - Your pupils do not respond normally to light.

Bisnar | Chase is a personal injury law firm that represents people who have been seriously injured. To most effectively serve the special needs of our clients, we limit our practice to matters involving serious personal injuries and wrongful death.

We do NOT charge a fee until there has been a monetary recovery in our client's case and we advance all costs and expenses.

All consultations, whether in our offices or your home or hospital room, are free.

If you or a loved one have suffered a brain injury in California, call Bisnar | Chase for a free legal consultation or click here to fill out our convenient on-line brain injury case evaluation form.