Reasons Children and Teenagers Sustain Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries among adults are usually due to vehicle accidents and violent actions. A study however, by Brain Injury reveals that many underage minors visits an ER because their TBI was due to a consumer product. CNN, which analyzed the study, revealed that the top reasons children have non-fatal TBIs include:

• Falls from beds, on floors, from bicycles, and down the stairs
• Sports injuries, including TBIs from playing basketball, soccer, and football
• Injuries due to hitting ceilings and walls (from jumping on the bed or off furniture) chairs, and tables

The study showed that:

• Sports and recreation accounted for 28.8% of the TBIs
• Home furnishings and fixtures accounted for 17.2% of the injuries
• Construction materials and homes structures caused 17.1% of the injuries
• Child nursey equipment was linked to 2.7% of the injuries

Beds were the primary cause of a TBI for infants and children up to four years of age.

Car seats were the fifth leading cause of TBIs for infants. The study indicated that it wasn’t necessarily that car accidents caused a car-seat related TBI, as it was that using the car seat improperly outside the car caused a TBI, such as placing the car seat on a countertop where the infant could fall.

Researchers indicated that the study only focused on ER admissions. They recommend the following safety tips:

• Removing area rugs
• Installing better lighting
• Staying away from playgrounds with hard surfaces
• Using stair gates
• Using stairway handrails that are easy to grasp

US CDC TBI guidelines for minors

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of guidelines recently for treating children and teens with TBIs:

• Avoid using imaging tests on child who only has a mild TBI
• Use TBI scales that are based on the child’s ages
• Understand which factors reasonably indicate that a child will need a long-term recovery
• Inform parents when and under what conditions their children should resume normal activities
• Advise children to return to activities (other than sports activities which require a longer waiting time) after about two to three days of rest

Complications for children who develop a traumatic brain injury

According to the National Institutes of Health:

• One in five infants who develop a severe TBI dies
• More than half of infants who develop a severe TBI are still not doing well six months after the initial TBI event
• Children and adults often suffer cognitive, emotional, and behavioral difficulties for years after the injury
• “After a TBI, children are at increased risk for posttraumatic seizures”

Stanford Children’s Health states that there are many possible complications from a TBI. Complications include decreased or loss of speech, vision, hearing, taste, and muscle. Many children may need medical and rehabilitative treatment for their entire life – including speech, occupational, and physical therapy.

Some of the symptoms of a severe TBI in children are:

• Headaches that don’t go away
• Repeated nausea and vomiting
• Loss of consciousness or a coma
• Unawareness of surroundings
• Difficulty walking
• Short-term memory loss
• Skin that has a pale color
• Seizures/convulsion
• “A dark circle in the center of the eye (pupil) looks larger in one eye”
• “Locked-in syndrome, a condition where a person is conscious and can think, but can’t speak or move”

If you suspect that your child has suffered a TBI, consult with a physician as soon as possible. If the traumatic brain injury was caused by a car accident, a slip and fall, a product defect, or a physical attack; you may have a claim against the driver and owners of the other vehicle, the owner of the property where the fall occurred, and anyone responsible for the violence. At Merkel & Cocke, P.A. our Mississippi TBI lawyers represent clients of all ages. Please call us at 662-627-9641 or complete our contact form to schedule a free consultation.

Our personal injury lawyers represent children and parents throughout Mississippi, including in Tupelo and the Gulf Coast Region – and including Jackson, Clarksdale, and Oxford. We also represent children and parents in Tennessee and Arkansas.