When You Have Been Injured,Your Attorney's Experience Matters

More Than 35 Years Of Aggressive Advocacy For Brain Injury Victims

Last updated on March 9, 2026

Although most concussions and other brain injuries are caused by falls, motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries and violence, many people also suffer traumatic brain injuries as a result of medical negligence. These types of brain injuries are particularly unacceptable because they are preventable – occurring only because medical professionals have behaved carelessly and negligently.

Patients put their lives in their doctors’ hands and trust that their doctors know best. However, sometimes medical professionals make mistakes in the operating room or when diagnosing conditions, which can lead to brain and head injuries. If your loved one suffered a brain injury as a result of someone else’s negligence, contact Shevlin Smith, P.C. Our firm has been fighting for injury victims in Fairfax, Virginia, and surrounding areas for more than 35 years. Our attorneys have the skills, knowledge and experience you need when seeking full and fair compensation.

Why Hire Shevlin Smith, P.C.?

Selecting the right legal representation is critical in complex personal injury and medical malpractice cases involving traumatic brain injury (TBI) or brain damage. Key factors that distinguish us include the following:

70 years of combined legal experience: We have decades of collective experience handling serious head injury, medical malpractice and catastrophic injury claims.
Award-winning trial representation: Attorney Michael J. Shevlin has more than 20 years of legal experience and is recognized as an award-winning trial lawyer.
Professional recognition and industry honors: Attorney Thomas G. Smith has been selected for inclusion in Virginia Super Lawyers since 2007, and attorney Shevlin since 2008, reflecting consistent peer recognition for professional excellence.

Hiring experienced legal professionals increases the likelihood of a favorable outcome.

Types Of Brain Injuries Caused By Medical Malpractice

The brain can be permanently damaged through a variety of medical mistakes or lack of diligent care in a medical setting.

The following are some common brain injuries due to medical malpractice:

Anoxic brain injury: A patient can suffer permanent brain damage when the brain is completely deprived of oxygen. This type of brain injury typically occurs due to an error a doctor makes when assisting childbirth. This can leave a baby to suffer lifelong cognitive issues and disabilities.
Hypoxic brain injury: A hypoxic brain injury means there was a partial lack of oxygen, such as at birth or during surgery. Brain cells can die without enough oxygen. Even when a partial lack of oxygen occurs, mild to moderate brain damage can result.
Stroke: During a stroke, the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain is suddenly interrupted, causing brain cells to die off. When doctors fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke and provide treatment, a person can suffer a stroke-induced brain injury.
Toxicity: Some drugs have toxic effects that can kill brain cells. If doctors or pharmacists leave people on certain medications for too long, prescribe too much medication or give someone the wrong medicine, it is possible the drug can cause brain damage.

If you are unsure whether you have a medical malpractice claim, please contact our firm to discuss your legal options during a free initial consultation.

Causes Of Brain Injuries

Just as there are many types of brain injuries, there are many causes of brain damage, including:

Labor and delivery errors: When a doctor fails to perform a timely emergency C-section, doesn’t act quickly when a baby’s umbilical cord is compressed or attempts to deliver a breached baby, oxygen deprivation that may injure a baby’s brain can occur. Sadly, this can lead to cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, seizure disorders and many more adverse effects.
Misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis: Although doctors are trained to diagnose and treat health conditions, some doctors have made diagnosis mistakes that have led to brain injuries. For example, a doctor could have delayed diagnosing a heart attack or stroke, failed to treat meningitis in a timely manner, misdiagnosed a condition, or delayed treatment of a blood clot or an aneurysm.
Surgical errors: When a doctor makes a surgical error during a brain tumor procedure or performs a wrong-sided brain surgery, or if an infection sets in following brain surgery, a patient can suffer serious brain damage.
Medication errors: Anesthesia errors made during surgery can lead to brain injuries. For example, an anesthesiologist may overmedicate a patient or fail to monitor the patient closely during surgery, which can ultimately lead to irreversible brain damage.

When any type of medical error occurs that affects a person’s brain, the outcome is devastating, to say the least. However, sometimes patients and their families are not told about the lack of oxygen or medication error that occurred. This is why it is important to know what symptoms and side effects to look for that could indicate a brain injury from medical malpractice.

Types Of Accidents That Cause Brain Injuries

Many serious head injury and traumatic brain injury (TBI) claims arise from preventable incidents caused by negligence. The following are common accident types that frequently lead to brain trauma:

Car and bus accidents: Sudden impact, whiplash or direct blows to the head during collisions can cause concussions, skull fractures or severe brain damage.
Truck accidents: Commercial truck crashes can involve greater force because of the vehicle’s size and weight.
Motorcycle accidents: Riders have limited protection, making them highly vulnerable to serious brain trauma.
Pedestrian accidents: When a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle, the head usually absorbs direct trauma from the vehicle or roadway, frequently causing severe or permanent brain injury.
Bicycle accidents: Cyclists face risks similar to pedestrians, with falls or collisions commonly leading to concussions or more serious brain injuries.

Our experienced brain injury lawyer can help determine liability by evaluating the accident and gathering evidence to pursue compensation.

Types Of Brain Injuries From Personal Injury Accidents

Below are common types of brain injuries resulting from personal injury accidents.

Concussion: A mild form of traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a blow or jolt to the head.
Contusion: A bruise on the brain caused by direct impact.
Diffuse axonal injury: This occurs when rapid movement causes the brain to shift inside the skull, damaging nerve fibers.
Penetrating brain injury: Caused by objects that pierce the skull and brain tissue, resulting in permanent impairment.
Brain damage from oxygen deprivation: When the brain is deprived of oxygen during an accident or medical error, it can lead to irreversible injury and functional limitations.
Skull fractures: A broken skull can damage underlying brain tissue and increase the risk of bleeding or swelling within the brain.

It is important to know the specific diagnosis to determine treatment needs and the full value of a claim.

The Difficult Road To Recovery From A Brain Or Head Injury

Recovering from a serious brain injury is a difficult and lengthy process for both the injured person and that person’s family.

For most brain injury victims, the recovery process involves the following:

Physical recovery: When a person suffers a concussion or TBI, they often need help regaining their physical abilities. This is why a physical therapy program is essential for brain injury survivors. Through physical therapy, head injury patients can improve their strength, coordination and walking ability. Physical recovery can also involve speech therapy and occupational therapy that will include treatment programs to help the person regain independence in everyday life.
Emotional recovery: Because people with brain injuries experience emotional problems, recovering emotionally from a brain injury may include counseling, mental health care and medications. Typically, a person living with a traumatic brain injury will need to see a psychologist or a neuropsychologist to help with their emotional recovery. Also, families of brain injury victims need emotional support during this difficult time, which is why many family members join support groups or seek help through counseling.
Financial recovery: Since brain injury treatment and recovery can be very expensive, victims will often file medical malpractice lawsuits to recover damages for medical expenses, ongoing medical care, lost income, future lost earnings, and pain and suffering. Also, families who have lost their loved ones to brain injuries may be able to seek damages for funeral expenses, loss of companionship, loss of services, lost income and benefits, and more.

Our attorneys have an in-depth knowledge of concussions, traumatic brain injuries and those caused by factors other than trauma like oxygen deprivation. No matter what type of injury you suffered, we are ready to help you fight for justice and accountability.

What To Expect After A Brain Injury

Knowing what the road ahead looks like can help you make important decisions now. Understanding the potential long-term costs of recovery and the possible need for lifelong assistance is vital to support your loved one.

What brain injury victims can expect: After suffering a traumatic brain injury, the injured victim will often experience physical and psychological changes. Not only do people living with brain injuries tend to deal with headaches and other physical challenges, but they become more easily angered, often struggle with depression and are more emotional. These changes are common and can get better with physical therapy, counseling and medication.
What families of brain injury survivors can expect: It is important that families realize that their loved one might never return to their former self, or that it can take years for their loved one to achieve the best possible progress. Also, families need to know that brain injury survivors often have a hard time with short-term memory loss and may experience personality changes. Each stage in the recovery process may be different, which is why it is essential that families talk with their loved one’s doctor and physical therapist, join a support group for people dealing with brain injuries, and get counseling.
What to expect legally: The legal process can also be long when dealing with a brain injury because it is important that the patient reaches maximum medical improvement before putting a value on the claim. This way, the injured victim and their family will be able to recover the most money possible after the full extent of the injury is known. While the legal process can take months or years, it is critical that brain injury victims and their families seek legal advice immediately if they think medical negligence caused the injury. Also, it is best to have an attorney handle an injury claim of this nature who has experience in medical malpractice law and brain injury claims.

If you believe a surgical error, medication mistake, diagnosing error, or medical professional’s mistake caused your brain injury or your loved one’s death, you should speak with an attorney who has experience handling medical malpractice cases, as well as courtroom experience.

Symptoms And Side Effects Of Concussions And Traumatic Brain Injuries

There are many different physical and cognitive effects of brain damage that vary widely depending on the extent of the damage and the part of the brain that was injured.

Some common brain injury symptoms include:

Headaches: One of the most common problems after a brain injury is a headache. Headaches can be debilitating and make it difficult to think and go about daily activities.
Loss of vision: After a brain injury, people might experience double vision, blurred vision, sensitivity to light and some sort of vision loss.
Coordination and balance problems: It is common for most brain injury victims to experience dizziness, vertigo and disequilibrium. Even coordination problems occur due to changes in strength and balance.
Speech problems and communication issues: Brain injuries can lead to language impairment, disorders of speech, trouble expressing thoughts through language and poor social skills.
Insomnia: Most people who suffer from head trauma also suffer from sleep disorders, such as insomnia. Unfortunately, lack of sleep can make one’s memory and other brain injury symptoms worse.
Memory loss: Brain injuries typically cause short-term memory problems, but they can also cause a loss of memories from the time period right before the injury that stretches back several hours, or even years.
Loss of bladder and bowel function: Because the brain controls the bowels and bladder, brain injury survivors may suffer from loss of control, constipation and an increased urgency to urinate.
Spasticity: When a brain injury interrupts the flow of messages between the brain and muscles, spasticity happens. This type of muscle control disorder involves jerky motions, stiff muscles and trembling of the extremities.
Weakness of the arms and legs: A brain injury can cause immediate symptoms, such as limb weakness. This is known as quadriparesis, which means muscle weakness that affects all four limbs.
Paralysis: This type of brain injury outcome results in the total loss or partial loss of the ability to move and/or feel anything in the affected areas.
Wrongful death: This outcome is obviously the worst consequence of a brain injury. Families of loved ones who died as a result of a medical professional’s negligence need to know about their rights to a wrongful death claim.

For more information, we recommend also downloading one of our free Virginia and Washington, D.C., medical malpractice e-books:

What You Need To Know Before Pursuing a Medical Malpractice Case
A Patient’s Guide To Medical Negligence in Virginia

Get your copies today to begin learning how to navigate complex medical practice cases.

Compensation You Can Recover For Personal Injury And Medical Malpractice

Victims of brain injuries may pursue the following compensation through either personal injury or medical malpractice claims, depending on how the injury occurred.

Medical expenses: Both personal injury and medical malpractice claims may cover hospital bills, rehabilitation, therapy and long-term care costs related to brain damage.
Loss of income: Compensation may include lost wages and reduced earning capacity when injuries prevent a victim from returning to work.
Pain and suffering: Both claim types allow recovery for physical pain, emotional distress and reduced quality of life.
Future medical care: Long-term treatment needs, including therapy and assistive care, may be included in both types of claims.

The primary difference is that medical malpractice claims require proof that a health care provider failed to meet accepted standards of care, which can involve additional legal requirements.

Statute Of Limitations For Personal Injury And Medical Malpractice

Filing a claim within the required legal timeframe is essential. Failing to meet the statute of limitations may result in losing the right to seek compensation entirely.

Personal injury claims: In Virginia, the statute of limitations for most personal injury cases is two years from the date of the accident or injury.
Medical malpractice claims: The statute of limitations is two years from the date the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, but no more than five years from the date of the act of malpractice.

The key difference is that medical malpractice claims usually have more complex filing deadlines than standard personal injury claims. This makes early legal consultation critical.

Case Results For Brain Injury Claims

The following case outcomes demonstrate successful representation for individuals and families affected by serious neurological injuries by our attorneys.

$4,900,000 settlement for a brain-injured newborn (NICU negligence): A newborn suffered severe brain damage due to delayed recognition and treatment of respiratory distress in the NICU, resulting in lifelong care needs.
$3,300,000 verdict on a wrongful death from delayed diagnosis: A three-year-old died from untreated elevated ammonia levels, causing irreversible brain injury, with the jury awarding significant damages.
$1,450,000 settlement for brain injury caused by anesthesia error: A mother sustained an anoxic head injury after anesthesia-related respiratory distress was not promptly treated during a cesarean section.

These results show the importance of experienced legal representation when pursuing claims involving severe neurological harm.

Discuss Your Legal Options With An Attorney For Free

Shevlin Smith, P.C., is based in Fairfax, Virginia, and we serve clients throughout the surrounding areas, including Washington, D.C. To take advantage of a free initial consultation, call us at 703-634-7350 or reach out online.