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Extremity Weakness Following A Brain Injury
Any time the brain sustains damage, it can have a devastating impact on the survivor. From memory impairments to overall weakness or paralysis, a brain injury survivor's life suddenly changes. Because trauma to the brain can result in a variety of adverse effects, most brain injury survivors have to overcome cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, and physical changes.
One such physical change that can occur following a mild or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is general weakness. To be more precise, a brain injury victim may feel weakness and numbness in the feet, legs, arms, or hands. This is important to know because sometimes people aren't aware they have suffered a brain injury since there aren't always visible signs.
Weakness and Brain Injuries
It can take hours or even days for symptoms to develop following a head injury, but often one of the first symptoms to appear is a weakness in the extremities. It is important to note that a brain injury survivor won't typically feel weakness in all of their limbs. The side of the brain injured will determine which limbs will be impacted. Typically, if one side of the brain is damaged, the opposite side of the body will experience weakness. For example, if the left side of the brain suffered trauma, a person's right leg and right arm may be weak. Sometimes, just the lower limbs will be impacted, other times both upper and lower extremities will be adversely affected.
Brachial Plexus (Shoulder) Nerve Damage Suffered By Newborns
"Only a few more pushes and she'll be out."
"Aaaaaaaargh!"
"There's the head. Now relax for a second, you'll feel a little pressure as I rotate your baby a little. Now push."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"
"A little more."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhh!!!"
"Waaah…waaah…waah!"
"She's out!"
This is pretty much the scene you experienced about an hour ago in the delivery room. Your wife was crushing your hand as she pushed, and you were wide eyed waiting for your baby girl to come into the world. Your wife is now passed out (Give her a break-she was in labor for 36 hours!), and you are standing outside the nursery, holding an icepack to your swollen hand, and gazing at the most beautiful girl in the world.
She's absolutely perfect. She has 10 fingers, 10 toes, an adorable button nose, and her mother's good looks (thank goodness). However, she somehow managed to get her arm twisted underneath her, so you gently knocked on the window to see if the nurse could help her out. She went over to your baby and attempted to reposition her. Your child screamed bloody murder and began to wave her other arm around as soon as the nurse touched her shoulder.
Causes Of Paralysis During Surgery
Someone who undergoes surgery is usually aware that there are risks associated with the procedure and that a positive outcome cannot be guaranteed. However, no one wants to believe that they may be harmed during surgery because an anesthesiologist is not paying attention or a surgeon makes a mistake. While medical negligence only occurs in a small percentage of surgeries, the results of such errors are anything but small. For instance, something as life-altering as paralysis can be the outcome of a critical mistake made by a doctor during surgery.
Surgical Errors That Lead to Paralysis
While some surgical errors can be corrected with another surgery, when a patient is paralyzed by a surgeon's mistake, there is often nothing that can be done to fix it. Here are some ways in which a patient's care team could have caused paralysis during surgery:
- Incision errors. In brain or spinal cord surgery, it is critical that a surgeon is precise. When a surgeon is careless or unskilled and makes an accidental incision or an inaccurate cut, it can possibly lead to nerve and tissue damage that can cause paralysis.
Going Up Against A Trucking Company Following An Accident? Here’s What You Need To Know
If you get into an accident with a large commercial truck, pursuing a personal injury claim will proceed in a manner similar to that of a typical car accident; however, when large trucking companies are involved, it is important to know what to expect when dealing with them.
Big trucking companies have big teams. In fact, within hours of the crash, they usually send out investigators and attorneys to the crash site to start collecting evidence and looking for ways to lower their liability. They know that trucking accidents can produce serious injuries that can lead to expensive lawsuits, which is why they will do whatever it takes-even destroy evidence-to protect their interests. It is important to know this because in a normal car accident case, the other driver doesn't have his or her own investigators who will quickly arrive on the accident scene.
Other Differences Between Truck and Car Accident Cases
Dealing with a personal injury claim after a truck accident can be more complicated. This is because there are many parties that could be at fault for the wreck. For example, in a typical car accident injury claim, your lawsuit will be against the other driver and his or her insurance company. Unlike a car accident claim, a truck accident injury claim can be directed at multiple parties, including the trucking company, owner of the truck, truck driver, third party, or another party depending on the circumstances of the crash.
Is Infant Cephalohematoma A Birth Injury That Warrants A Medical Malpractice Claim?
During labor and delivery, a baby's head travels through the birth canal and undergoes a lot of stress as it tries to squeeze through the pelvic bones. Even in a normal labor, a baby will undergo a great amount of pressure that can lead to bruising and swelling-all perfectly normal results of labor and delivery. However, in more complicated deliveries, a baby's head may be compressed in the birth canal for a longer period of time, which may increase an infant's chance of cephalohematoma.
What Is Infant Cephalohematoma?
A hematoma is a collection of blood within the tissue. A cephalohematoma is a hematoma that develops on a baby's head, under the skin but above the skull. Because of its location, it will appear that there is a lump on the infant's head that may feel soft and squishy.
Causes of Infant Cephalohematoma
This condition typically occurs due to the difference in sizes between the infant's head and mother's pelvis. When a mother's pelvis is small and the baby is relatively big, the baby has a greater chance of developing a cephalohematoma due to the baby's head scraping along the sides of the birthing canal and the stress of being squeezed through the bones of the pelvis.
Why Head-On And Left-Turn Motorcycle Crashes Happen
Since motorcycles are small vehicles that lack the protection that cars offer, motorcycle accidents are more likely to result in injuries and deaths than other types of collisions. According to the latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cited by the Insurance Information Institute, per mile driven in 2015, there were 29 times more deaths from motorcycle crashes than from car crashes, and motorcyclists were nearly five times more likely to suffer injuries than passenger car occupants.
Unfortunately, these alarming numbers are of great concern-especially to motorcyclists and their families-which is why motorcyclists as well as all motorists need to understand some of the most dangerous ways in which motorcycle crashes occur in order to reduce the likelihood of being involved in one.
Two of the Most Dangerous Ways Motorcycle Crashes Occur
The following types of crash are unfortunately common and can cause serious injuries:
Spasticity: A Stiff Side Effect Of A Brain Injury
When someone suffers trauma to the brain, it can lead to interrupted signals being sent from the brain to the muscles. As a result, someone may suffer from spasticity in addition to a brain injury. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, damage to the brain "can cause changes in muscle tone, movement, sensation and reflex."
What Is Spasticity?
Spasticity is an unfortunate possible side effect of a brain injury. It is defined as a muscle control disorder, which basically means that someone with spasticity isn't able to fully control his or her muscles. Consequently, a person with spasticity has stiff muscles due to a permanent contraction of the muscle. While someone with spasticity may only feel a mild tightness and discomfort in the muscles, spasticity can be so severe in others that it can cause excruciating pain in their limbs, joints, and back. Although spasticity is usually a tightness in the legs, spasticity and muscle tightness can also occur in the shoulders, elbows, arms, hips, knees, ankles and feet.
An Alarming Trend: Overprescribing Dangerous Drugs To Seniors
It is well known that some medications have side effects that can cause drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, and other adverse symptoms. This is why doctors have to be careful when prescribing medications to patients and check if the drug will interact with a patient's current medications. And while some doctors do their due diligence, others hand out multiple prescriptions at a time-even mixing some dangerous medications.
According to a study in the Journal of the American Medication Association (JAMA), overprescribing medications to older adults is a growing concern. Although seniors do tend to have many health conditions for which they need medication, the data analyzed in this study raises a huge concern regarding the number of polypharmacy incidents.
What Is Polypharmacy?
Polypharmacy is defined as prescribing multiple medications-sometimes more medications than are necessary. It is a growing concern in the elderly as patients who use multiple medications may be at risk for dangerous drug interactions and side effects such as balance problems and confusion, which can lead to injuries.
Birth Brain Injuries Caused By Medical Negligence
Parents get nine months to prepare for the birth of their babies, but no expectant parent prepares for the possibility that their child may suffer a birth injury. Unfortunately, there are many different birth injuries that may occur when negligence is involved. One of the most serious injuries babies may suffer during childbirth is a brain injury.
Typically, a baby's brain in injured when there is a lack of oxygen. When the brain is damaged, a child's ability to reason, speak, and develop normally may be affected for life. It's disheartening, but sometimes birth brain injuries are the result of doctor negligence.
Some of the ways in which negligence occurs during pregnancy or labor and delivery may include:
- Pregnancy negligence. When a doctor fails to monitor a pregnancy carefully, fails to detect a maternal infection, or prescribes a harmful medication during pregnancy, a brain injury may be the result and medical negligence may be to blame.
- Failure to perform a C-section. Sometimes there are complications with a mother's health or a baby's health and an emergency cesarean section surgery should be performed; however, a doctor may fail to perform a C-section in a timely manner. This can be the case if a baby is too big, suffers from irregularities in the heartbeat, or if there is a change in the mother's blood pressure or she is profusely bleeding. When doctors fail to act quickly and appropriately in ordering the C-section, a baby may suffer unnecessary birth injuries.
Bowel And Bladder Issues: The Unmentionable Side Effects Of A Brain Injury
The brain controls every function in the body-even bowel and bladder functions. In fact, the brain helps people know when they have to go to the bathroom and allows them to use their bodies in a way that helps them empty their bowels and bladders. So when someone suffers a brain injury as a result of medical malpractice, bladder and bowel issues are often a result.
What to Expect: Bowel and Bladder Changes
When someone who suffers trauma to the brain also experiences problems with her bowel and bladder, here are some things to expect:
- Bladder infections. Following a brain injury, bladder functions are often impaired which is why urinary catheters are often used in hospitals. Although a catheter can be helpful during this time, catheters can also increase someone's risk for a bladder infection.
- Skin sores. Because diapers are often needed when someone has trouble controlling one's bowels and bladder, it is possible to develop skin issues like sores that can lead to infections. When diapers are needed after a brain injury, it is critical to change the diaper often so that wounds don't develop and to monitor the skin for any changes.
703-591-0067
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703-591-0067
From our office in Fairfax, Shevlin Smith, P.C. serves clients throughout Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., including Alexandria, Annandale, Arlington, Ashburn, Burke, Centreville, Dale City, Fair Oaks, Leesburg, Manassas, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Springfield, and Woodbridge, as well as Fairfax County, Arlington County, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County.
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