Why Don’t the Doctors Spot Brain My Brain Injury?

The common signs of a concussion appear very often after a bicycle or car crash (don’t call them “accidents”).

These symptoms are serious signs of long lasting and life changing brain injury. There are four general categories: 1. Thinking/remembering, 2. Physical, 3. Emotional/mood and 4. Sleeping. The symptoms include: Thinking/remembering: difficulty thinking clearly, feeling slow down, difficulty concentrating, difficulty remembering new information; Physical: headache (that does not go away), fuzzy or blurry vision, nausea or vomiting (early on) dizziness, sensitivity to noise or light, balance when walking or standing, feeling tired and having no energy; Emotional/mood: irritability, sadness, more emotional than usual, nervousness or anxiety; Sleep: sleeping more than usual (for days after the crash), inability to sleep, trouble falling asleep.

Despite being in plain view, these symptoms are often ignored as unimportant when dealing with survivors of crashes. Why? For several reasons.

Most of the time you don’t even realize you had a brain injury. Most people think: “How can I have a brain injury? I was safe in the car.”Nothing could be further from the truth. A slam against the window, the back of your seat steering wheel, a rearview mirror or doorpost all cause brain injuries. you don’t even realize you have been unconscious because you wake up and start right back wherever you left off. Sometimes not much time is past, so your brain does not tell you that you were knocked out. It’s not like going to sleep. I have had clients who explained remembering the crash and then waking up with police officers and EMTs standing over them while they are laying on the grass next to the road. Please understand that it takes many minutes for an ambulance to arrive and much more time for law enforcement to arrive at the crash. If you have any gaps in your memory, you are knocked out and you have a traumatic brain injury. Remember, one of the above listed symptoms is confusion? When EMTs arrive after you’ve been knocked out, you’re confused, flustered, disoriented, having difficulty thinking clearly so you don’t tell them that you were knocked out. They also have a problem themselves.

EMTs and actual medical professionals don’t readily recognize the signs of head trauma. EMTs always arrived after you have regained consciousness. They don’t realize you have had a brain injury. The difference between medical professionals and veterinarians is veterinarians have to guess what their patient’s problems are. Good medical professionals are also supposed to guess that since most of their patients or doctors. They take a history, but they also touch and observe the patient’s body. EMTs are simply not that well-trained. You only have to have a high school degree and a nine-month class to become an EMT. Thus, the occupants of the ambulance that arrives at your crash scene are not the best ones to diagnose a brain injury

No one wants you to have a brain injury. You, your family and friends want you to be fine and not have a brain injury. They are not medical doctors so these subtle symptoms after a crash are disturbing, sometimes don’t interfere with your ability to perform your daily activities, so everyone (including you) just hopes for the best to be addressed in a diagnosis of the extent of your injury needs to be made.

Doctors are people. They want to have a solution for you. Whether you go to the emergency department or walk-in clinic (don’t if you know you were unconscious; go straight to Level III trauma hospital). Some doctors are just bad and don’t bother acknowledging concussions are brain injuries and that they do not go away. Their attitude is: “nothing can be done, so why upset patient with this bad news?” In that environment, why tell you that you have a brain injury you will have to learn to live with for the rest of your life? The doctor will look like he can’t do anything (likely he can’t) or doesn’t know anything about brain injuries. Perhaps he doesn’t want to admit he can’t do anything and doesn’t want to refer you out to a more experienced specialist who can diagnose quickly, more expertly and accurately the extent of your brain injury.

Thankfully, we have a Federal government agency with the expertise, background information, experienced doctors to teach medical professionals and doctors to look for brain injuries: the Center for Disease Control. This is an excellent resource and especially an excellent resource for brain injury information.

With that in mind, the Center for Disease Control has created a video for doctors with the assistance of the National Football League. Yes, the entertainment company that has denied the damage done to its performers since its founding in 1920 is helping spread awareness of how common brain injuries are. This video is an excellent resource to educate the medical professional in front of you who is telling you that it’s “just a concussion you’ll get over it.” You can put this on your smart phone you can save this note in your ICE information on your phone (if you’re a cyclist or motorcycle rider).

This is your tax dollars being put to good use. https://www.cdc.gov/concussion/headsup/clinicians/

Keep this on your device and use it in an emergency room to explain to the ED doctor.

Stop clicking now if you are injured and searching for an attorney.

I am a full-service personalized, personal injury lawyer with a statewide practice in all 67 counties. I have 31 years of experience to put to work for you. Call me so I can answer your questions: 1-800 – 535 – 3002. Email: [email protected] Skype: ScienceCan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JSteeleLaw/ Twitter: @JSteeleOlmstead or @FlaBicyleLawyr Whatsapp: J. Steele Olmstead Instagram: jsteeleolmstead.