Signs That You Or a Loved One Might Have a Brain Injury

Salt Lake City, Utah TBI Lawyer Kevin Swenson

Video Transcript:

Kevin Swenson: 

They bumped their head or they had forces in their head that could cause that, and if they do, they'll typically say they have a concussion, but then they don't do anything about it other than diagnose it.

Rob Rosenthal:

Could you or a loved one suffer from a brain injury from an accident and not even be aware of it? Well, that's what we're gonna find out today because that's what we're going to ask the lawyer. Hi again everybody, I'm Rob Rosenthal with AskTheLawyers.com, and my guest is Utah attorney Kevin Swenson. I wanna remind you right at the top, if you'd like to ask Kevin questions about your specific situation, head over to AskTheLawyers.com, click the button at the top of the page, it says Ask a Lawyer, and you can ask your questions right there. Kevin, good to see as always, thank you for helping us out.

Kevin Swenson:

Thanks, Rob. 

Rob Rosenthal:

So let's talk about traumatic brain injuries. Do brain injuries, are they one of those things that show up right away, say someone's been in an auto accident, collision, is that the kind of thing is gonna be noticed right away?

Kevin Swenson:

Sometimes it is, and sometimes it's not. And one of the problems with a traumatic brain injury is sometimes it's not diagnosed quickly either, or it will be diagnosed as a concussion, but nothing more is said about it. 

Rob Rosenthal:

Well, I would imagine in the emergency room, obviously, if there's a broken bone or something like that, that's easily seen, and especially if it's a situation where they're trying to work very quickly and that maybe they're not testing for brain injuries, does that often happen?

Kevin Swenson:

That often happens. Yeah, it's very common for somebody to go in and not have a traumatic brain injury diagnosed quickly.

Rob Rosenthal:

So what are some of the symptoms of maybe that if someone's been in an accident and they may have a brain injury, what are some of these symptoms to look out for early on?

Kevin Swenson:

Well some of the symptoms you're gonna look for or headaches, sometimes forgetfulness, a lot of times people have a problem where they can't grab a word, they know what they're trying to say, but they can't come up with it. They'll misplace their keys more frequently, sometimes they’re a little quicker to anger. So there can be some cognitive issues and there can be some behavioral issues.

Rob Rosenthal:

So like a change of personality. 

Kevin Swenson:

Yeah, yeah, that's one of them. 

Rob Rosenthal:

And that would seem like that's the kind of thing a family member or maybe a co-worker, somebody would notice maybe before an emergency room doctor. 

Kevin Swenson:

Right, yeah. And so what the emergency room doctor is gonna be looking for is whether there was a force there, they bumped their head or they had forces in their head that could cause that, and if they do, they'll typically say they have a concussion, but then they don't do anything about it other than diagnose it. They don't send them for treatment frequently, they just say “You have it.”

Rob Rosenthal:

What about what children can... Is it different for children? What are some of the symptoms maybe parents should look for at their child is impacted?

Kevin Swenson:

Yeah, it's the same kind of thing if they're complaining of headaches, pain in the head, sometimes they're sleeping more, they're more irritable, and the problem with it is it can be a combination of any of those, and they're not required to have all of them, so it makes it a little tricky, but again, behavioral changes can be seen in children as well. 

Rob Rosenthal:

What are some of the after-effects of a traumatic brain injury? I imagine this could go on days, weeks, even years down the road, what are some of the things that people with a TBI have to live with?

Kevin Swenson:

Yeah, that's a really good question. One of the problems is that they don't get diagnosed, so they don't know they're having... They don't have a label for it, but it's the irritability, they'll be tired, you may get in a crash and where you've been a person that's never taken a nap and you find yourself having to take a nap every day. You have headaches every day. People tell you something and then they'll say, “Hey, I just told you that,” or you'll ask a question, they'll say,” We just talked about that yesterday,” and so the memory sometimes is not as good, so you'll have the behavioral issues there as well as the cognitive. You may not be able to function as well.

Rob Rosenthal:

It would seem like it could also affect someone's ability to make a living. Maybe they can't work, maybe they can't do the same job there used to be able to do. Do you find that to be the case?

Kevin Swenson:

Yeah, that's common. So somebody will be working and they're able to show up, they're able to do their job, but they're able to do it at maybe 50% or 70%, and they're trying hard and they just can't figure out why they're not getting it the way they used to, so that does happen pretty regularly.

Rob Rosenthal:

Is the issue with the traumatic brain injuries also Kevin that it not only affects the person who is injured but their families, their caregivers as well?

Kevin Swenson:

Often it affects them as every bit as much because the person with the traumatic brain injury may or may not know they have it, and the people around are saying, “Why are you so ornery, why are you being grumpy to me? I'm trying to help you. You're shouting at me.” Or they're changing, and there's not a good reason for it because it hasn't been diagnosed or dealt with. 

Rob Rosenthal:

So how can a personal injury attorney like yourself help? What can an attorney do for someone who may have suffered a brain injury because of a car crash or truck crash, something like that? 

Kevin Swenson:

Yeah, so we always are looking at the medical records, and if somebody has been diagnosed with a concussion, we will talk to them and say, “Hey, are you having these kind of symptoms?” but then we'll also talk to a family member: “Hey, are you seeing these kinds of things with them?” and then the best thing we can do for them is get them into a good medical provider, get them into a neurologist or a neuro psychologist to have them evaluate and figure out what's really going on with them. 

Rob Rosenthal:

It would seem like sometimes people don't even know to look for that. They may not even realize that that's a thing, so having somebody with the experience to help of that would be value. 

Kevin Swenson:

Yeah. It is because like you say, they just go unnoticed a lot of times, and so when you ask the questions and talk to the family members, I mean, you obviously don't wanna create something that isn't there…

Rob Rosenthal:

Right.

Kevin Swenson:

But if there's an issue there, you want to know about it and you want to get help for them and let them deal with it. 

Rob Rosenthal:

What's your advice for picking an attorney if you suspect it may be an issue, maybe there's a brain injury involved, what's your advice for picking the right attorney to help?

Kevin Swenson:

Make sure you pick an attorney who deals with traumatic brain injury, who has tried the cases and taking them to court, knows what to do, knows how to handle them, and that an insurance company knows how to handle them as well, because like they're missed in the medical side, a lot of times that are missed in the legal side, too. An attorney will read a record and say, “Oh, they had a concussion.” And that's kind of where it ends. So getting somebody who knows how to deal with them all the way through a trial.

Rob Rosenthal:

It would also seem that it’d be helpful to get somebody who has the experience to know what sort of damages to seek, for that sort of thing, as there's probably a lot of costs that are gonna be involved with something like that that people may not think about.

Kevin Swenson:

That's true. There are always issues of continuing training or rehabilitation, and something you'll need counseling or different issues for the next several years, and if you don't get that accounted for, then that's something that's gotta come out of the injured person's pocket instead of the responsible person's pocket. 

Rob Rosenthal:

Lots of helpful information as always... Kevin, thank you for making some time to answer your question.

Kevin Swenson:

Thank you. 

Rob Rosenthal:

That's gonna take care of this episode of Ask the lawyer, my guest, who's been Utah attorney Kevin Swenson. I wanna remind you if you'd like to ask Kevin questions about your specific situation, head over to AskTheLawyers.com, click the button on the top of the page that says Ask a Lawyer, and doesn't cost you anything to ask a question. Thanks for watching, I'm Rob Rosenthal with Ask The Lawyers.

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