Missouri Injury Lawyers Blog

Bassettbaby has recalled approximately 90,000 cribs with drop-sides citing safety hazards that include suffocation, entrapment and falling out of the crib. For more information about this recall, visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission press release here.

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, and it is a good time to see if the helmet you wear while riding your motorcycle passes the safety test. HelmetCheck.org has a feature on their website that lets you input your helmet's brand, type and model to find out it's safety rating. HelmetCheck also has a variety of motorcycle helmet safety information.

Missouri law requires all motorcycle operators and passengers to wear protective headgear at all times the vehicle is in motion on the highways of the state.

Bicycling is a popular warm weather passtime that can be dangerous if proper safety precautions aren't taken. It is important to always wear a properly fitting bicycle helmet. It can significantly reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by as much as 88% according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). More than half of all bicycle accident fatalities in the United States are attributed to head injuries.

To insure that you get a good fit on a bike, you may wish to check the bicycle helmet safety institute information on how to fit a bicycle helmet. You may also check with the vendor of the bicycle helmet or a reputable bicycle store to insure that your child has a good fitting bicycle helmet. It is also a good idea to make sure your helmet has not been recalled for defects by checking the
CPSC helmet recall list..

Traumatic brain injuries not only pose a significant risk of fatality, but also can lead to significant disability. The old saying that a pound of prevention is worth a pound of cure certainly applies to children wearing bicycle helmets.

Tatlow, Gump, Faiella & Wheelan, LLC wishes you a safe and happy summer.

Electrical injuries commonly involve serious physical injuries primarily involving burns. However, medical literature indicates that electrical injuries survivors may experience a broad range of impaired neuropsychological functioning. Many electrical injury patients perform significantly worse on standard neuropsychological testing including measures regarding attention, mental speed and motor skill. Frequently cognitive changes occur in patients who have suffered electrical injuries. See Duff and McCaffrey, 2001 Electric Injury and Lighting Injury, A Review of their Mechanisms and Neuropsychological, Psychiatric, and Neurological Sequelae, Neuropsychological Review, 11 (2001), pp. 101-116.

This phenomenon has been described a neuropsychological syndrome related to post electrical injury and involves physical, cognitive and emotional changes. See Recent Advances in Understanding the Neurobehavioral Aspects of Electrical Injury, 20th International Lightening Detection Conference, 2008, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, The Chicago Electrical Trauma Research Program.

Hearing loss is not uncommon in patients who have sustained mild to moderate traumatic brain injuries. Known by physicians as peripheral auditory dysfunction, this dysfunction, in addition to be self reported, may come to the attention of health care providers or family through evaluating or monitoring the neurological status of an injured person during the acute period following their brain injury. It is sometimes also noticeable on brain auditory evoked potentials (BAPs) sometimes also known as auditory brain stem potentials (ABPs) and auditory evoked potentials (AEPs). These tests are conducted by attaching sensors to the injured persons scalp and recording the electrical potentials generated by neuro activity and associated with specific brain function and motor processes. These tests can be used by physicians to help detect brain stem pathology and may be used in evaluating patients who are in a coma state.

In addition to having damage to specific brain function severe trauma can also cause direct damage to the ear itself. In addition, damage to hearing can result front secondary damage that may occur during inflammatory events, or from bleeding and pressure. Finally in addition to these causes hearing loss can be associated with defuse axonal injury.

Recent studies have shown that as many as 3 out of 10 patients suffering hearing loss at least a mild level in mild to moderate head injury.

Unfortunately hearing loss, like many of the symptoms of brain injury may not be adequately identified early, which can lead to additional complications for patient, family members and treating physicians and rehabilitationists. If you or a loved one has suffered a head injury and have not been tested for hearing loss, you should suggest to your provider that you receive a test for hearing loss to determine whether or not a hearing impairment may be part of the results of the injury. Identification of hearing loss may explain some of the problems that were mistakenly thought to be from cognitive impairment. Only with the correct diagnosis can a plan for future care and treatment be adequately pursued.

It is well documented that traumatic brain injuries can negatively affect the ability of a person to function in our society. The term "executive control" is a term that the medical community uses to refer to the ability of a person to formulate plans for action, carry those plans out, and to properly assess situations and life. This includes our abilities to assess situations and to take lessons away from the mistakes that we have made so we don't make the same mistake over again. Executive control has been described as what separates those who "get ahead" and those who are unable to learn their experiences and move ahead.

The loss or impairment of executive control is closely associated with injury to the frontal lobes of the brain. The frontal area of the brain is located behind the forehead in the area of the skull. This area is often injured in head trauma, because of the mechanics involved in the cause of many head injuries. Both automobile accidents, and many sports injuries involve forward acceleration of the human body. When the body is stopped in a car crash or contact sports, the normal anatomical position of a body causes a forward flexion of the head which may then strike a hard object thereby causing direct trauma to the area of the front of the forehead. Significant injuries can occur simply from the movement of the soft brain tissue inside the skull, with injuries becoming more severe up to and including penetration of the skull into brain matter.

Continue reading "Traumatic Brain Injury Impairment of Executive Control" »

Many people who suffer traumatic brain injury may suffer disorientation, confusion and loss of consciousness or even prolonged periods of coma. Often associated with these periods is a lack of memory for a specific period of time. There are several varieties of lapses in memory including antero-grade, post-traumatic and retro-grade. Retro-grade amnesia is a loss of memory for events before the injury was suffered. Antero-grade is the inability to remember events starting with the time of the injury moving forward in time. Post-traumatic amnesia is the period of antero-grade amnesia following a head injury to a discrete point in time when the memory then improves. This is differentiated from antero-grade amnesia which is often associated with a more severe injury and markedly decreased ability to learn new information.

Long periods of post traumatic amnesia and antero-grade amnesia are generally not associated with very mild traumatic brain injury and are more often correlated with more serious injuries.

If you or a friend or loved one has suffered from a brain injury as a result of an accident, you will need any attorney with the knowledge and skills necessary to handle brain injury claims. The attorneys at Tatlow, Gump, Faiella & Wheelan, LLC have successfully represented many people with brain injuries. Call or email us to schedule a free consultation.

In his article, Discussion on Differential Diagnosis and Treatment of Postconcussional Stages, 35 Proc-Royal Soc. Med. 607 (1942), A. Lewis states that, following traumatic brain injuries, studies have shown that as many as 70% of patients suffer anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders can include general anxiety disorders, social anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder.

If you or a loved one is suffering from an anxiety disorder following a closed traumatic brain injury, you should seek medical treatment immediately from a specialist such as a neurologist, or psychiatrist with experience in treating traumatic brain injury and associated anxiety disorders.

Traumatic brain injuries can be classified as two basic types. Closed head injuries and open head injuries. In open head injuries, the skull which protects the brain has been penetrated. In closed head injuries, there is no penetration into the skull but the injury occurs because of forces and deformation of brain tissue as it moves within the skull. Parts of the interior surface of the skull are rough and acceleration and deceleration of soft brain tissues can be injured by impacting with the harder surfaces of the skull.

In addition to these two basic types of traumatic brain injury, brain injuries are often qualified as mild, moderate or severe. While there are varying standards of what these categories mean, generally speaking mild head trauma includes a Glasgow Coma Scale between 13 and 15, with a loss of consciousness for 20 minutes or less with no deterioration of the Glasgow Coma Scale, no focal or neurological signs and no intercranial lesions.

Continue reading "Head Injuries" »