A devastating injury to the brain can be uniquely debilitating. Traumatic brain injury survivors often must endure a long and expensive recovery, changing their lives completely. A Chicago brain injury lawyer can help you and your loved ones if you decide to seek justice.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC understands how even a mild version of TBI (traumatic brain injuries) impacts all affected lives.
To learn more about legal rights from brain injuries caused by someone else’s negligence, contact a personal injury attorney at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form for a free consultation.
Talk with a Chicago traumatic brain injury lawyer to discuss your personal injuries, ongoing medical costs, and seeking fair compensation for your damages.
Most Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in Accidents
The most common causes of severe to mild TBI result from accidents. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [1], accidental brain injuries claim the lives of 190 people daily.
Some of the most common causes of many brain injuries related to accidents include:
- Truck or Car Collision: Car accidents can have devastating consequences, often changing the victim’s life forever. In motor vehicle collisions, the at-fault driver could be held financially accountable for the brain damage accident.
- Birth Trauma: Newborns who suffer moderate or severe TBI are often harmed by someone’s negligence during childbirth. An acquired brain injury involving a hypoxic or diffuse axonal brain injury can lead to preventable long-term damage when performing basic tasks.
- Medical Negligence: This issue has been responsible for numerous types of head injuries and often involves errors in administering anesthesia or medications.
- Gunshot Wound: Victims could experience physical severe trauma. Typically, the trauma involves cerebral contusion, brain bleeding, penetrating head injury, or other closed head trauma requiring immediate medical treatment.
- Workplace Accidents: Workers can receive benefits through mandated workers’ compensation coverage.
- Sports Injuries: Many contact sports can be dangerous enough to result in traumatic brain injuries or spinal cord injuries, including football, boxing, skiing, lacrosse, hockey, rugby, and more.
An acquired brain injury often stems from other minor traumas that are not treated promptly, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy.[2] Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is one reason why a medical checkup is crucial after head trauma.
Second impact syndrome is an often fatal condition diagnosed with post-concussion symptoms from closed head injuries.
If a slip and fall incident prevents the injured parties from returning to work, they may be eligible for permanent disability.
Traumatic Brain Injuries in Infants and Children
According to the Brain Injury Association of America (BIA), [3] head trauma is the leading cause of death, loss of memory, long-term disability, and other symptoms in young children.
Although brain trauma is severe for anyone, children are more fragile and susceptible to severe brain injuries that can lead to conditions like cerebral palsy.
These injured children and their families have the legal right to file a traumatic brain injury claim to obtain ongoing financial compensation.
Hiring a Chicago Brain Injury Lawyer
Suffering when a traumatic brain injury occurs? Want to hold the doctor or at-fault driver in a car accident financially accountable for lost wages or medical care?
Our brain injury attorneys can help you file a claim to obtain compensation.
Brain injury victims do not need to pay anything out of pocket for legal representation. Instead, your brain injury lawsuit proceeds on a contingency basis.
Our brain injury law firm handles every aspect of complex cases, from gathering evidence to negotiating a settlement.
Medical Experts as Evidence
To establish a link between a victim’s injuries and the negligence of another party, medical experts are often called upon for their knowledge and testimony. This is a strategy our team will use to establish causation and strengthen the evidence for your claim.
What Can Be Included in Damages?
A brain injury can have a devastating impact on victims, both physically and emotionally. These losses can play a role in the level of compensation that the victim receives if they are successful with their claim. These damages can include:
- Cost of medical care
- Projected future costs of care
- Reductions in pay
- Disrupted future earning potential
- Personal costs of pain, suffering, and diminished quality of life
Why Your Moderate or Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Needs to Be Treated
Permanent brain damage could occur should a victim suffer untreated traumatic brain injuries and other symptoms, including:
- Educational difficulties and diminished cognitive abilities
- Problems concentrating or performing a job
- Effects on personal relationships
- Blurry vision and pupil dilation
- Tired eyes, ringing ears, bad taste, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, and disrupted sleep patterns
- Ongoing mental health issues
A brain injury victim could experience challenging personality changes, including emotional trauma and permanent impairment, almost immediately after the accident.
The Cost of Treatment
Treating accident injuries and suffering the emotional symptoms generate excessive medical bills and pain and suffering damages. [4] Bills could add up quickly due to the following treatment strategies:
- Emergency care
- X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans
- Surgery
- Intensive care
- Medication
- Rehabilitation
- Assistive devices
- Counseling
Sample Illinois TBI Settlements for Damages
Our Chicago brain injury lawyers have a successful track record of representing clients with brain injuries caused by the wrongdoings of others.
Each brain injury attorney is dedicated to providing superior representation with compassionate care so our clients can focus on what matters most: physical recovery.
The large settlements below result from resolving an Illinois brain injury claim where the plaintiffs were harmed by malpractice, accident, or birth injury.
$15.9 MILLION SETTLEMENT (Will County)
A female newborn sustained a life-threatening anoxic ischemic event after an obstetrician and various medical professionals allegedly failed to correctly identify and respond to abnormal fetal monitoring data for over three hours.
The hospital’s neonatologist allegedly did not arrive until two minutes after delivery and did not attempt intubation until five minutes of life.
As a result, the child, now age 7, suffers from traumatic brain injuries, spastic quadriplegia, cortical blindness [5], seizures, and global developmental delay.
The settlement is the highest reported Will County malpractice verdict or settlement.
$19.5 MILLION SETTLEMENT (Cook County, Chicago, Illinois)
A 56-year-old factory worker suffered permanent neuromuscular damage impairing his motor skills after being deprived of oxygen during the defendant’s negligence during intubation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
He had previously undergone a tracheostomy and was on a ventilator. He suffered the injury when a community hospital employed a third-year resident.
He was training at Northwestern when medical professionals attempted to change the tracheostomy tube [6] but failed to maintain an adequate airway.
The Northwestern insurance carrier paid $12 million of the settlement, and the resident’s employer paid $7.5 million to resolve the personal injury lawsuit.
$50 MILLION AWARD (Illinois)
A male newborn infant suffered severe TBI during delivery when an OB-GYN at Evanston Hospital allegedly failed to perform a Cesarean section even after multiple signs of fetal distress and ordered the administration of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin [7] put further stress on the infant.
The hospital’s insurance paid the family’s economic and non-economic damages, including:
- Emergency room costs
- Future medical bills
- Future lost wages
- Past medical bills
- Ongoing therapy and rehab
- Loss of normal daily living
- Emotional distress
- Long-term pain and emotional suffering
Available Brain and Serious Head Injury Treatment in Chicago, Illinois
In the Chicagoland area, we are fortunate to have many nationally recognized hospitals that excel in treating people with catastrophic to mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Among the leading facilities for head trauma rehabilitation are:
- Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (Formerly RIC) 355 E. Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611
- Rush University Medical Center 1653 W. Congress Parkway, Chicago, IL 60612 [8]
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 710 N. Lake Shore Drive, #1022, Chicago, IL 60611
- Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital 1401 S. California Ave., 60608
- Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital 26W171 Roosevelt Road, 60187
Common Traumatic Brain Injury Lawsuit Cases
Our Chicago brain injury attorneys are committed to securing the most favorable compensation for each client.
As part of our law practice, we will represent survivors of various head trauma [9]. Our traumatic brain injury lawyers will evaluate the personal injury claim to maximize the value of each client’s brain injury lawsuit.
Concussions
Concussions [10]Â are the most common head injury. Although medical experts consider concussions less severe than other types of brain injury, the long-term effects are not fully understood.
Contusion
A contusion is another common type of brain injury and often results from an impact directly to the head through a jolt. Some victims of extensive contusions require surgery to remove them from the brain.
A coup or contrecoup brain injury describes a severe contusion at the impact site when both sides of the head sustain damage. The brain’s movement during impact could slam brain tissue against the inside of the skull on the head’s opposite side.
Diffuse Axonal Injuries
A diffuse axonal injury results from a strong rotation or shaking of the head, a common damaged brain tissue occurrence when rotational forces or intense jolt happen in motor vehicle accidents, even when those are minor head issues. These problems occur when the unmoving brain lags behind the forward and backward–thrust skull, which causes the tearing of brain structures.
Subdural Hematoma
A subdural hemorrhage is bleeding on the brain. It occurs when blood vessels burst between the brain and its outer protective membrane, usually due to a blow to the head. The build-up of blood can pressure the brain and cause severe injury or death, so subdural hematomas [11] must be diagnosed as early as possible.
Penetrating Injuries
A penetrating skull injury from a sharp object or other external force usually involves a bullet [12] or knife entering the skull and forcing skin, hair, and bone into the victim’s brain. Rapidly traveling objects can damage the brain. In addition, slower-moving objects can easily ricochet off the head, causing skull damage.
Anoxic Brain Injuries
Anoxic brain injuries can occur when a lack of oxygen is delivered to the brain.[13] The victim can suffer permanent brain damage without continuous oxygen flow in the bloodstream, as cells in the brain can die in as little as four minutes.
Brain Trauma
Classified as anoxic differs from a hypoxic head or brain injury in that inadequate oxygen supplies usually cause hypoxia, while anoxia results from a complete loss of oxygen. While the two conditions are similar, a complete lack of oxygen supply to the brain can cause significantly more widespread brain damage.
Brain Infection
Parasites, fungi, viruses, and other organisms invading the body can cause brain infections, as well as abscesses and surgical errors.
Gross Anatomic Injuries
Gross anatomic injuries are visible physical wounds. Damage to the brain or skull will leave unmistakable cuts, abrasions, bruises, and swelling.
Skull fractures [14] often occur as a result of a severe impact or accident from gross anatomic injuries. Spinal cord injuries are also associated with brain injuries, especially from a car accident or bad fall incident.
Get Help from Experienced Chicago Brain Injury Lawyers
Our Chicago brain injury lawyers can help you receive the maximum compensation you deserve.
At Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, we have numerous Chicago brain injury attorneys in practice areas that handle complex civil brain injury cases on a contingency basis.
Traumatic brain injury victims should connect with a medical malpractice attorney today. Call us to learn more about your legal options in an injury case. Call us at (888) 424-5757.
Resources: [1] CDC, [2] CDC, [3] BIA, [4] rid.uscourts.gov, [5] PubMed, [6] cancer.gov, [7] FDA, [8] Rush University Medical Center, [9] NIH, [10] CDC, [11] NIH, [12] aans.org, [13] NIH, [14] PubMed
