A car crash can result in all kinds of different injuries. One of the most worrying things that can occur is brain damage. So, it’s important to know what to look out for if you or someone you care for is involved in a collision.
Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that you — and others around at the time — may not be able to see that a person has brain damage.
You cannot see a person’s brain
The brain lives safely cocooned inside a person’s head, so unless a crash has left a hole in the skull, you won’t be able to see it. You might expect to be able to see external symptoms if brain damage has occurred. You may, but it’s also possible you won’t, and even if you can, they might not tell you the seriousness of the injury. If a person says they have a headache and are feeling nauseous, does this mean they have serious brain damage or just a mild concussion that will go away? The answer is that it could be either.
Symptoms can take time to develop
Another issue is that the symptoms of brain damage do not always present straight away, and they might not present until the injury is already dangerously advanced. For instance, a bleed in the brain might not present symptoms until the blood builds up enough to create a dangerous amount of pressure, by which time significant harm may already have occurred.
The only way to be sure whether someone has a brain injury or not is to get them to a doctor for a medical checkup. However reluctant they are, if they hit their head in the crash, it is something they need to do, and it can provide them with evidence if they need to claim compensation.