What Caregivers Should Know After a Loved One Suffers a Major Accident

 

Unfortunately, bad things sometimes happen to loved ones. If someone close to you was involved in a tragic accident, you may be left with the responsibility of becoming their caregiver. If that’s the case, there are certain things you should know.

 

1. Emergency Medical Care Is Required Immediately

Directly after an accident that causes a serious injury, it’s important to get that person to an emergency room immediately. If there’s any question about how serious the injury is, you should call an ambulance.

 

2. Insurance Providers Need to Be Dealt With

If your loved one is not in the condition to contact his or her insurance providers, you will have to do it for them. Become knowledgeable on what those policies are supposed to pay for. Sometimes insurance companies try to get away with paying for as little as possible. Do not let that happen. This should include health insurance as well as any other policy related to the accident such as car insurance.

 

3. You Should Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer

Chances are the accident that harmed your loved one was caused by another party’s negligence. Make sure to contact a personal injury lawyer right away. While insurance may pay for certain things, it will not pay for everything. A serious injury can cause a disability that may seriously inhibit a person’s quality of life. An insurance company will not reimburse a person for that. You have to use the legal system (Source: Kenneth Cristall Law Corporation).

 

4. You Will Need to Help Manage their Medical Treatment

After the initial surgery to immediately address the injuries, your loved one will probably require continual medical care and treatment. Depending on the nature of the injury, this treatment may continue for the rest of their life. If they are now disabled, they will need your assistance.

Part of your job as a caregiver is to help your loved one properly manage their medical needs. This may mean driving them to doctor appointments and therapy sessions. It may even mean providing some of the therapy and treatment yourself.

 

5. You Will Need to Help Manage their Finances

If your loved one’s disabilities stemming from the accident are severe enough, you may be given the power of attorney. This is a powerful position that requires serious responsibility. Use it to make sure your loved one’s finances are managed in a way that benefits them the most.

Overall, tragic accidents do sometimes happen to good people. If you are left in the position of caregiver, do everything in your power to make sure their life is as comfortable as possible.

Categories: accident, accident lawyer, accidents, brain injury, health care, health insurance, Injury, injury attorney, injury lawyer, Insurance, insurance providers, medical care, nbsp

Silent Signs of a TBI: Why You Need a Doctor

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is a very serious condition that can occur at any time there is an injury involving the head. Head injuries and brain injuries are two different types of injuries, and you do not have to suffer from both to have one or the other.

 

TBI has been classified into three categories. A Personal Injury Attorney in Pasadena, CA lists some examples of each category on their website. Each of these categories has their own signs and symptoms. It should be noted that moderate and severe TBI can have lasting impacts on the victim’s life.

 

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. This type of injury usually involves a concussion. The person did not have to be rendered unconscious to receive an injury, and the head does not have to be physically damaged. In most cases, these injuries occur from violent shaking of the head, such as during the impact of a vehicle accident. Symptoms include dizziness, vomiting, loss of memory, difficulty concentrating, and irritability without justification.

 

Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury. To be classified as a moderate case of TBI, the victim must have been knocked unconscious and remained that way for up to one full day. There are serious side effects that last for months associated with this problem. All the symptoms mentioned above are prolonged, and there is a noticeable problem with anger issues and uncontrolled emotions. Moderate TBI victims become easily confused and may also have physical impairments due to the brain trauma. There may also be issues with loss of vision from time to time.

 

Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. This type of brain injury usually occurs with physical m to the head. Severe TBI victims can loose mobility at times, have sensory malfunctions, lose ability to see, hear, or taste things at different intervals and without warning. Severe TBI usually causes lasting physical issues and most sufferers have a very hard time controlling their emotions. They are prone to anger problems and often have to be restrained or medicated to control these temper problems.

 

It is very important to note that TBI can be a lasting issue, even in mild form. Flare ups of these problems can continue to occur for weeks, months, even the rest of their lives depending on severity. They can also flare up after long periods of no symptoms.

 

TBI symptoms are often overlooked because the victim does not complain about a headache or about feeling dizzy when they stand up. They may thin that the food they ate was just awful instead of realizing that their sense of taste is gone. They may even believe they are imagining the problems. The cue that everyone should watch for is the anger and irrational emotions. This is usually a signal that they need help.

 

 

Anyone who has been involved in an accident or has been diagnosed with a concussion or other brain or head injury should be carefully monitored for these signs of TBI. It will be necessary for a loved one to spot the signs and take them for immediate medical care because the scariest part of TBI is that the victim often does not understand what is happening.

 

An avid follower of Tripp Halstead, a little boy who suffered a TBI from a fallen branch, Melanie Fleury was inspired to write this article to educate others on the types of traumatic brain injury. She searched the site of a Personal Injury Attorney in Pasadena, CA to learn more about common head injuries and how they are treated.

 

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/2103003787/

Categories: brain injury, head injuries, injury attorney, nbsp tbi, pasadena ca, personal injury, severe tbi, signs, silent, TBI, tbi victims, traumatic brain

Silent Injuries: Top 5 Accident Related Pains

Every year, more than 3.3 million people are injured in car accidents in America. Although the majority of these injuries will be minor, it is still important to seek medical attention in order to rule out any severe issues. Unfortunately, many people fail to do this in a timely manner because the adrenaline rush that they experience after an accident makes them believe that everything is okay. Additionally, the majority of motorists only monitor themselves for any obvious wounds or the symptoms of whiplash because they believe that is the most common car accident injury. However, there are several other common issues that can plague people even after a minor traffic incident.

 

Five Common Car Accident Injuries

 

1. Traumatic Brain Injury - People can suffer from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to a wide variety of different issues, including a car accident. Sadly, it is common for people to be unaware that they have a TBI until they end up developing serious complications. According to Howell and Christmas, LLC, a law firm in Charleston, SC brain injuries often go undetected after an accident and can later lead to significant complications. In order to prevent this from happening, you should always get checked out by a physician shortly after the accident occurs.

 

2. Back Injury - Although you are likely to realize that your back is sore as soon as you attempt to get out of your car, you might believe that it will feel better in a day or two. In some cases, this assumption is correct, but in many others an injured back will become more severe if you do not seek immediate medical attention.

 

3. Internal Organ Injury - All of your internal organs are at risk of being injured during an accident, but it is shockingly common to be unaware that an injury has happened until after you end up dealing with a life-threatening situation. In fact, this is the main reason that hospitals do not like to discharge people who seem fine after an accident until they have completed all of their normal testing procedures.

 

4. Knee Injury - Getting an injured knee is one of the most common side effects of a car accident, but it is also not taken seriously enough by most motorists. Unfortunately, many people think that they will simply be able to shake off the impact of their sore knee within a day or two, but this delay can cause the injury to become a permanent disability. Because of this, anyone who has knee pain after an accident needs to go to the doctor immediately.

 

5. Wrist Injury - Your wrists are likely to absorb a lot of the impact of the accident, so you should get them checked out right away if you are experiencing any pain. Failure to do this could force you to wear wrist braces for an extended period of time, and you might even end up needing to get corrective surgery.

 

Suffering from an injury as the result of a car accident can cause you to incur a lot of medical expenses. Fortunately, you can hire a car accident attorney to help you recover these expenses from the driver who was responsible for the incident.

Researcher Melanie Fleury has been in an accident that resulted in injury. Unfortunately, back pain reared its ugly head after the insurance settlement was made. She writes this article in hopes that an injured person will seek proper compensation for pain due to an accident. The law offices of Howell and Christmas, LLC offer a free consultation if you are in any doubt about whether you have a case or not.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/3275118087/

Categories: accident, brain injury, car accident, christmas llc, common car, injuries, Injury, medical attention, pains, people, traumatic brain