Top 5 Signs Of Traumatic Brain Injury

Brain injuries can range from mild to severe in terms of how bad they are and what effects they can have on the individual. Moderate and severe brain injuries are defined as two different things.

– Moderate Brain Injury is considered as a loss of consciousness for 20 minutes to 6 hours.

– Severe Brain Injury is considered as losing consciousness for anywhere after 6 hours.

Whether an individual has a moderate or severe brain injurythey will have several different signs which indicate traumatic brain injury. These include cognitive deficits, speech, and language challenges and changes, sensory, perceptual changes, vision changes, as well as other challenges and changes.

COGNITIVE DEFICITS

Cognitive deficits involve how a person acts, understands, and reacts to the world around them. When a doctor is looking at Cognitive deficits in terms of signs of traumatic brain injury, they will be looking for signs such as:

– Attention
– Concentration
– Memory
– Language Processing
– Confusion
– Speed of Processing
– Distractibility

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES AND CHANGES

Challenges in how a person speaks or understands what you are saying to them can include signs such as:

– Not understanding spoken words
– A difficult time speaking
– Difficulty reading or comprehending words
– Speaking either very fast or very slow
– A slurred speech pattern
– Difficulty writing

SENSORY

One of the biggest signs of traumatic brain injury or that something is seriously wrong is desensitation of the sense of touch.

– Inability to determine if a temperature is hot or cold
– Inability to determine if your limbs are being repositioned
– Difficulties with interpretation of being touched

VISION

When people have issues such as TBI or concussions one of the first things a paramedic or medical technician will do is ask about vision challenges or changes.

– Loss of vision – partial or complete
– Blurred vision
– Issues with judging distances
– Nystagmus
– Photophobia
– Double vision

HEARING CHANGES OR CHALLENGES

Another one of the big signs of traumatic brain injury is hearing.

– Loss of hearing – partially or complete
– Ringing in the ears
– Increased sensitivity to sounds

If you’ve been involved in an accident and have a traumatic brain injury or you know someone else that has a TBI and you would like a free consultation contact Sloat & Nicholson at 1-800-873-3202.