Personal Injury
Defective ProductsTypes of Traumatic Brain Injury
There are two types of traumatic brain injury or TBI. The first is called closed head injury, which generally is the result of an event like a car accident. In this scenario, the head whips back and forth or side to side, hitting against the inside of the skull at a very high rate of speed as it does. This knocking around of the brain causes tissue to be bruised and blood vessels to be torn within specific areas of the brain. The brain regions that are most often affected by a closed head injury are the frontal and temporal lobes. The frontal lobe regulates decision-making, problem solving, movement, and emotions, while the temporal lobe controls memory, hearing, speech, and the ability to learn.
The second outcome of a closed head injury is that nerve fibers called neuronal axons are stretched. Neuronal axons are long and narrow, resembling strands of thread, and their job is to connect brain cells to each other. This interconnection of cells links the different parts of the brain to each other and also links the brain to the rest of the body.
When neuronal axons are elongated because of a traumatic brain injury, it stops the communication between the regions of the brain, and it can sometimes interrupt communication between the brain and other parts of the body. If the TBI victim experiences mild to moderate head injuries, the damage to the neuronal axons will cause them to become easily confused or distracted, and unable to concentrate. They will also find it difficult to plan, organize, problem solve and make judgments, which may mean they are unable to return to the job they held before the injury occurred.
In addition, these patients may also experience vision problems, such as being slow to comprehend what they are seeing, or unable to comprehend it at all. There is also the problem of hand-eye coordination, making the patient prone to bumping into objects, dropping things, and generally unsteady on their feet. This means that they may not be able to drive, or operate machinery.
The other four senses may also be affected, especially speech. Patients with mild to moderate TBI have a hard time getting words out, and when they do, the words are slurred and garbled. They also lose the ability to add intonation and inflection to their spoken words.
Finally, the injured individual may begin having emotional or behavioral problems. It isn't uncommon for these patients to experience depression, anxiety, irritability, anger, paranoia, frustration, agitation, and mood swings.
Problem behaviors may include violence, impulsiveness, a lack of inhibition, emotional outbursts, childish behavior, lack of self-control, inability to accept responsibility or criticism, and alcohol or drug abuse. If the patient suffers severe neuronal axon damage, they will experience extensive cognitive disabilities, like permanent memory loss, as well as the loss of many higher-level mental skills.
The second type of TBI, known as open head injury, is the outcome of the skull being penetrated by an object like a bullet. In this case, the brain damage is localized in the area that was penetrated, which means that the individual experiences less impairment than a patient with closed head injury.
However, even though there are fewer detrimental after effects from open head injury, they can be just as serious as those that result from closed head injuries. It all depends on how much destruction was caused by the object as it penetrated the brain.
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