I hit my head in a crash. Can a concussion be part of my claim?

A concussion is a brain injury

Doctors call a concussion a mild traumatic brain injury. “Mild” describes how it looks at first, not how it feels to live with. Most people recover within weeks, but a real number have symptoms that last months or longer: headaches, trouble concentrating, memory lapses, sensitivity to light and noise, dizziness, poor sleep, irritability, and changes in mood.

You do not have to hit your head to have one. The brain can be injured by being jolted inside the skull, the kind of sudden motion that can happen in a rear-end crash, a T-bone or a head-on collision. Many people with a concussion never lost consciousness.

Why these injuries get missed

Brain injury symptoms often appear hours or days after the crash, after the emergency room has already sent you home. The first person to notice may be a spouse or a coworker who sees that you are forgetting things, losing your temper, or struggling with work that used to be easy. Many people do not connect those changes to the crash at all.

Tell your doctor about every symptom, including the ones that seem unrelated: the headaches, the fog, the trouble finding words, the sleep. If it is not in the medical record, the insurer will say it did not happen.

“Your scan was normal”

This is the insurer’s favorite argument in brain injury cases, and it is misleading. A CT scan in the emergency room is looking for bleeding or a fracture that needs surgery right away. Standard CT and MRI scans are usually normal after a concussion, because the injury is to the way the brain functions rather than something those scans are designed to show. A normal scan rules out an emergency. It does not rule out a brain injury.

Brain injuries are proved the way doctors diagnose them: by the history of the crash, the symptoms and how they developed, evaluation by a neurologist or other specialist, and in many cases neuropsychological testing that measures memory, attention and processing. Some cases use advanced imaging. The testimony of family members, friends and coworkers about how you have changed is often some of the most persuasive evidence there is.

What a brain injury claim includes

Texas allows recovery for past and future medical care, lost income and lost earning capacity, physical pain, mental anguish, and physical impairment — the loss of the ability to do the things you did before. In a brain injury case, those last categories often matter most. Someone who can no longer manage a demanding job, keep up with their children, or follow a conversation the way they used to has lost something real, and in an ordinary Texas injury case against a private person or company, that part of the claim is not capped.

Moderate and severe brain injuries — with bleeding, skull fracture, or a long loss of consciousness — are a different order of case. They often require years of rehabilitation and a life care plan that prices out future treatment, and they need to be built with the same care as any catastrophic injury.

Do not settle early

Brain injury symptoms can take months to show whether they are going to resolve. A quick settlement in the first weeks, before anyone knows, closes the claim permanently. The insurer knows that, which is why early offers in these cases can come fast.

Children and older adults

Brain injuries can look different at the two ends of life. A child may not have the words to describe a headache or fog; the signs show up instead as irritability, changes in sleep, trouble in school, or losing interest in things they used to enjoy. Parents and teachers are often the first to notice. In older adults, a fall or a jolt can cause bleeding inside the skull that develops slowly, especially in someone taking blood thinners, and confusion or drowsiness in the days after a crash should be treated as an emergency. In both cases, early evaluation and a clear record of what changed are what protect the person and the claim.

Authority: CDC: Symptoms of mild TBI and concussion · Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 41 (damages)