Tampa Bay Brain Injuries Myths Explained

In a new series from the Clearwater automobile accident attorneys at Dolman Law Group, we’ll examine common miconceptions about brain damage and traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

Myth No. 1:  A victim must lose consciousness to suffer a TBI.

In my Pinellas County plaintiff personal injury practice, I often combat this commonly utilized defense by the insurance carriers. This is absolutely bunk science that has been proven incorrect by physicians and is no longer accepted as a valid theory by leading neurologists or neuropsychiatrists.  In fact, it is readily accepted that becoming dazed or sustaining an alteration of mental status without loss of consciousness is a form of concussion and quite likely a traumatic brain injury.

In an article entitled Traumatic Brain Injury – Football, Warfare, and Long-Term Effects found in the September 30, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors state,

“Each year, more than 1.5 million Americans sustain mild traumatic brain injuries with no loss of consciousness and no need for hospitalization; an equal number sustain injuries sufficient to impair consciousness but insufficiently severe to necessitate long-term institutionalization.”

In many TBI cases my firm has handled, the defense expert (neurologist or neuropsychiatrist) has harped on the fact that my client did not lose consciousness and could have sustained a TBI.  Numerous peer reviewed medical journal articles have come to surface over the past two years in regards to acceleration/deceleration (i.e., Whiplash) mechanism injuries and how the victim can suffer a TBI as a result.

*Thanks again to the caring lawyers at Dolman Law Group for the first installment of this five-part series. Their personal injury lawyers serve clients across Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Manatee County, Sarasota County and the state of Florida.