What Are The Legal Challenges Of Proving Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms After A Car Accident In Arkansas?

Why Are Traumatic Brain Injuries Difficult To Diagnose And Prove In Car Accident Cases?

I would say that one of the hard parts of proving a brain injury is all of the red tape associated with getting the right medical professional to appropriately listen to your concern symptoms and make the appropriate diagnostics to determine you’ve got a TBI. Because I think at least initially, these present to the emergency room as concussions, so the initial protocol for concussion is given at the time.

There’s not a lot of treatment you can do after a car accident, a traumatic brain injury, or a concussion to show regular treatment of an injury that occurred. I think that’s why they’re so difficult to actually identify and determine if they’re a serious head injury, just from an accident.

Much like a soft tissue injury, it’s sometimes hard to see a traumatic brain injury. There’s not a gash or a wound or anything that is as visible as it might be in a different kind of physical injury, so it’s hard to prove and hard to show.

What Common Symptoms Of TBI Are Often Missed Or Dismissed After A Crash?

I think some of the most overlooked symptoms, simply because people are usually so frustrated with being so hurt, are the mood swings, anxiety, and depression. We deal with people who are so injured and so frustrated with the insurance company, but one of the ways that we can tell they’ve suffered a head injury is when those symptoms don’t subside.

If someone has suffered TBI, they may continue to be irate, have mood swings, and act outside of their normal personality when it comes to trying to understand the process and how they’re being treated. It’s like they have a problem regulating their emotions, and I think that is a common thing that goes undiagnosed.

This is not something anyone can really recognize on their own and report to their doctor; you almost need to bring in a family member or someone who deals with you on a daily basis to report to a doctor that you haven’t been yourself since the accident.

What Kind Of Evidence Is Necessary To Connect A Brain Injury Directly To A Car Accident In Arkansas?

In a perfect case, somebody would go to the emergency room right after the accident, and the ER physician would notice signs of a TBI or a concussion and note that in the records. After this, following up with a primary care physician or a neurologist who can further test and make an appropriate diagnosis is crucial, because these records can be put in an objective medical record.

That’s one of the most important things that insurance companies and defense attorneys look for in negotiating a traumatic brain injury claim. Objective findings, evidence, and proof from the right kind of doctor, who is generally a neurologist.

It’s also important to do follow-up care by going back to the doctor and reporting if headaches, nausea, or other symptoms that didn’t exist before the accident persist. This is important to proving a connection, as going to the neurologist who recognizes the symptoms as being lingering symptoms of a more serious injury that’s not resolving on its own.

Attorney Bradley Mullins is a seasoned lawyer based in Springdale, Arkansas, who has helped countless clients just like you navigate the intricacies of proving a traumatic brain injury after a car accident. With 13 years of relevant experience, Attorney Mullins is prepared to assist you in gathering the proper documentation from your doctors to support your claim.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Mullins & Blake Attorneys today to schedule an initial consultation.

What Steps Should Be Taken Immediately If A Brain Injury Is Suspected After A Car Accident In Arkansas?

The first thing you should do is go to the emergency room immediately. Any doctor that you see at the emergency room can’t treat a TBI. But any time you tell a medical professional that’s making notes and making objective findings based on your presenting complaints, that’s evidence that we can use to highlight and support the fact that you were suffering after the accident.

A lot of people tend to try to be agreeable and minimize their symptoms, but this is the one time when you want to say as much as you can about your injuries. Because every time you go to the doctor, they’re making notes, and those notes are one of the single most important things that we rely on as evidence to help prove your case.

Can You Share A Case Where Proving TBI Symptoms Was Particularly Complex?

I don’t know if we have a particular case, but one theme we see a lot is that it’s often hard to get to the right doctor. If your complaints are not taken seriously or overlooked at the emergency room, and then your neck and your back are sore, you may just end up going to a chiropractor who isn’t equipped to handle a traumatic brain injury.

So ultimately, it’s really difficult in those situations to prove a TBI. If we don’t have the right kind of doctor examining, seeing you for follow-ups, we won’t have proper documentation of what you went through. The clients who are actually able to get to those correct physicians, neurologists, and psychologists to have the additional objective tests run and treatments followed are the ones that we can advocate for the best.

In any injury case, the ones that have the proper medical documentation are the ones that we can get more recovery out of for our clients. Largely, I think it revolves around getting the appropriate and accurate care from the right doctor.

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