This video on mild traumatic brain injury features Portland Oregon Brain Injury Lawyer, Dr. Aaron DeShaw:
Insurance companies will often claim that a person with a brain injury doesn't have a brain injury in a legal claim, or insurance doctors say that the "mild" designation means that 100% of these TBI survivors have no permanent consequences. Neither of these are true. It is important for a brain injury lawyer understands how to address these issues with the insurance adjustor, defense doctors and the jury.
There are very specific definitions of mild traumatic brain injury in the medical literature. There have been consensus statements going back to the early 90s that say exactly what a mild traumatic brain injury is. One of the most common definitions of mild traumatic brain injury used in the United States is from the American Academy of Neurology. It is important to notice whether a defense neurologist, that is the person hired by the insurance company to defend the claim, says that there is or is not a traumatic brain injury based on the history, because the American Academy of Neurology has this certain criteria.
A mild traumatic brain injury grade one under their criterial is no loss of consciousness, transient confusion, there are some concussion symptoms or mental status abnormality, and the Glasgow coma score is between 13 and 15.
A grade two would involve, again, no loss of consciousness. Some transient confusion and some abnormal mental status for over 15 minutes. A grade three, the highest grade, is one with any loss of consciousness at all. And so if you lost consciousness during your traumatic brain injury, the American Academy of Neurology say you had a grade three mild traumatic brain injury.
It is important to note that even though the medical definitions of mild, moderate and severe are based upon historical findings of Glasgow coma scale scores of a certain number, and whether there's the presence of a frank bleed or not, the loss of consciousness can influence that to some degree, because of course if you have a long loss of consciousness or automatically go into a coma, you would be considered to have a major traumatic brain injury.
But, the important thing to note here is that with mild traumatic brain injuries, you can have severe, symptomatic consequences, so the fact that it's considered mild under the standard definition does not mean that your symptoms will be mild, and in fact, we've represented many people with mild traumatic brain injuries that have ended their careers as doctors and other professionals, and certainly as lay people.
If you are seeking a lawyer to handle your brain injury case, please contact us on this web site, or call our office at (503) 227-1233 for a free consultation.