Brain Injury After a Car Crash: Why Symptoms Can Appear Days Later
A car accident can cause a vehicle occupant to sustain various types of injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries. Unlike other surface injuries, TBIs may not cause symptoms until hours or days after a car crash. The fact that injuries like TBIs can have a delayed onset of symptoms after a car accident makes it essential to seek immediate medical attention and to gather comprehensive medical documentation to link a brain injury to a crash and demonstrate the treatment needed for the injury.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury occurs when the head or body suffers a blow or force that causes temporary or permanent trauma to brain tissue, resulting in changes to brain function or physical damage to the structure of the brain. Common examples of traumatic brain injuries include mild injuries like concussions or more serious injuries such as:
- Brain hematoma
- Brain hemorrhage
- Coup-contrecoup
- Diffuse axonal injury
- Penetrating brain injury
Car accidents can cause TBIs due to the force of the crash, causing a person’s head and neck to whip or violently jerk, impacting the head on the inside of the passenger cabin, or getting hit in the head with flying objects or debris.
Why Can Brain Injury Symptoms Take Time to Appear?
Brain injuries frequently have a delayed onset of symptoms. Even serious brain injuries can take hours to begin manifesting symptoms that would encourage a crash victim to seek medical attention. Some of the reasons why symptoms of brain injuries can take time to appear include:
- Shock can mask symptoms: The adrenaline rush that a person may experience from a car accident can make brain injury symptoms less noticeable for hours or days following a crash.
- Bleeding and swelling can take time to cause symptoms: It can take several hours for swelling or bleeding in the brain to begin causing noticeable symptoms of a brain injury.
- Changes in brain function can occur gradually: Changes to brain function that cause noticeable symptoms may take hours or days before a car accident victim realizes that they feel different after the accident.
- Dismissal of early symptoms: Some car accident victims may notice minor symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, or mild confusion, but may misattribute them to stress from the accident or other conditions. They may ignore those mild symptoms until they worsen or fail to go away after a few days, prompting a crash victim to seek medical attention, which can diagnose a brain injury.
Common Delayed Symptoms of Brain Injuries
Common symptoms of brain injuries that can take hours or days after a car accident to become noticeable include:
- Persistent headaches
- Dizziness
- Balance or coordination issues
- Nausea and vomiting
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Confusion
- Memory problems
- Mood changes or swings
- Difficulty concentrating
- Sleep problems
Legal Implications of Delayed Symptoms
Delayed symptoms of brain injuries from a car accident can have significant consequences for a crash victim’s injury claim. Any delay may cause an accident victim to postpone medical attention. By the time they finally see a doctor or go to the hospital to obtain a diagnosis, enough time may have passed so that an insurance company might argue that the person’s brain injury had another cause. A failure to begin prompt treatment of a brain injury can cause the injury to worsen, requiring a longer or more intensive course of treatment.
Contact Our Personal Injury Lawyers Today
When you have gotten into a car accident, the delayed onset of brain injury symptoms may mean it takes you hours or days to realize that you sustained an injury in the crash. Contact Kitrick, Lewis & Staley-Sladek Co., L.P.A., today for a free, no-obligation consultation with our car accident attorneys to learn more about the consequences of delayed brain injury symptoms after a crash.
