You’re driving down a West Virginia road (or riding as a passenger in someone’s vehicle) when another car suddenly hits you. The next hours of your life include chaos, pain, and interactions with police and medical workers. Surviving a collision can have both immediate and far-reaching effects on your life, especially if you suffered a brain injury.
Blunt-force trauma occurs when your head hits up against a hard surface. In a motor vehicle collision, this can happen when another vehicle hits you and your head slams off the hard surfaces inside the car. If you’re ejected from your seat, your head might strike the ground. Even if it was a rear-end collision, your upper body might be violently shaken, causing your brain to hit against the hard surface of your own skull. All these instances can result in a brain injury.
Recovering from a brain injury following a motor vehicle collision
If you passed out after the force of impact in a collision, your brain injury is moderate to severe. Even if you remained conscious, however, you could expect to feel head pain or upper body discomfort for days, if not weeks after a car accident. Once you have completed your recovery, you may still experience lingering effects of your brain injury, perhaps for the rest of your life.
These effects might include things like recurring headaches, mental confusion and chronic fatigue. You might have difficulty controlling your emotions and experience sudden bursts of explosive anger. A brain injury can cause significant memory problems, leaving you to forget where you put your car keys or even your own birth date.
Feeling like you’re living life in the slow lane
The lasting effects of a brain injury can cause you to feel sluggish. Many recovering brain injury victims say they feel like everything in life is moving in slow motion. This can cause feelings of frustration, and you might have a difficult time adapting to changes that a brain injury has caused in your daily life.
Rehabilitation services like physical therapy, counseling and other treatments can help a brain injury patient achieve the greatest quality of life possible. Sadly, however, even with the best care, you might experience an inability to live your life as you did before the collision.
Expenses associated with collision-related injuries
The financial strain that results from a motor vehicle collision can intensify stress in an already difficult situation. When another person’s negligence was the cause of your brain injury, West Virginia law entitles you to seek compensation for damages. In the past, many accident victims have sought recourse through the civil justice system to obtain financial recovery for their losses.
