Brain Injury Can Require Surgery

Accident victims who sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBI)¹ can require many different types of treatment. For example, individuals with concussions are often required to rest both physically and mentally and abstain from any activities that may risk a subsequent trauma to the head. In the weeks and months following a brain injury, a victim may require different types of therapy for rehabilitation and coping skills. In some instances, a TBI victim can require surgical treatment.

Anytime you have surgery, there are serious risks involved. Even the most routine procedures can go wrong and cause additional injury or even death. Brain surgery is particularly risky because a mistake can lead to even more severe brain damage and related effects. However, surgery is recommended in may TBI cases.

When is surgery required?

Following any trauma to your head, you should always seek a medical evaluation as soon as possible so that a medical professional can assess the amount of damage caused to your brain and determine whether or not surgery is necessary in your case. Some of the reasons why TBI victims require surgery include the following:

If your injury was a penetrating or open brain injury and the penetrating object became lodged in your brain, surgeons will go in and remove the object.
If bleeding occurred due to your brain injury, doctors may operate to drain or otherwise remove the excess blood in the skull cavity.
If you have a blood clot (subdural hematoma)² forming on your brain, it can be surgically removed.
If intracranial pressure is building due to swelling of the brain, a surgeon may remove a part of your skull to give the brain more room to swell.
Doctors may surgically insert an intracranial pressure monitoring device inside the skull to continuously monitor pressure from bleeding or swelling.
In some situations, surgeons can repair damaged tissue or bleeding blood vessels.
It may be necessary to operate to remove damaged tissue to make room for healthy tissue.
Surgery can be used to repair fractures in the skull to both help heal the fracture and prevent the bone from causing additional damage to the brain tissue.

Surgery is not considered to be a treatment that will reverse the damage caused by the brain injury. Instead, it is often needed to prevent complications from swelling or intracranial pressure and to ensure that oxygen and blood flow to the brain continue as needed.

Brain surgery requires extensive recovery

Following surgery to treat a traumatic brain injury, a victim will likely have to stay in the hospital for several days, especially if bleeding, swelling, or pressure were at issue. Medical professionals will want to continue to monitor the state of the brain to prevent any further damage. Even after they are released, however, they will have a long recovery ahead of them. Generally, if a brain injury requires surgery, it is severe enough to cause many symptoms that can affect a person’s work, school, social life, and general quality of life.

In addition to the physical recovery, brain injury victims will face costly medical bills. Neurosurgery is not inexpensive and the bills for the procedure, hospitalization, rehabilitative therapy, and more can pile up quickly. In many cases, a traumatic brain injury occurs in an accident that is caused by another person and, in such situations, that person should be held liable for all of the costs of your treatment and more.

Schedule a free consultation with a Tampa Bay brain injury lawyer today

No matter whether you require surgery or not, treatments for a traumatic brain injury can be costly and recovery time can be extensive. If your TBI was caused by a the negligence of another party, you should not hesitate to consult with an experienced brain injury attorney regarding your rights to recovery. At the Dolman Law Group, we help injured victims in Tampa Bay receive fair and just compensation for all of their medical bills and other losses. We understand how much a traumatic brain injury can affect your life and we will help you hold the negligent party who caused your injury accountable. Please call to schedule your free consultation at 727-451-6900 today.

Dolman Law Group
800 North Belcher Road
Clearwater, FL 33756
727-451-6900

https://www.dolmanlaw.com/legal-services/brain-injury-attorneys/

References:

¹http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tbi/tbi.htm
²https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000713.htm