A crash, a traumatic brain injury and recovery expectations

A traumatic brain injury can occur whether you are in a bicycle, motorcycle, car or truck crash. No doubt you will be thankful to survive, but what then?

You may think that such an injury leaves you with a significant impairment. However, the brain will begin to heal itself and with that, your period of recovery and rehabilitation can begin.

What happens

Once your condition stabilizes, your brain cells will begin the work of repairing themselves. The brain will create new pathways among the neurons that are still healthy. Some parts of the brain will take on certain functions the injured areas used to handle.

Helping the brain

To help the brain along, you must participate in a rehabilitation program tailored especially for your particular injury. Once your condition is evaluated, trained medical professionals will design a program for you. There are usually three stages of rehabilitation:

• Inpatient in a specialized facility
• Outpatient day program
• Individual outpatient therapy

Two components

There are two main components of rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury: relearning skills you have forgotten and compensating for long-lasting impairments. After the injury has occurred, much of what you have learned over the course of your life is still present in your brain. One goal of rehabilitation is reprogramming your brain, creating new connections to existing information and helping you to reacquire skills you thought you had forgotten. Often these are skills that are part of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, walking and eating.

Looking ahead

If you have sustained a traumatic brain injury as the victim of a traffic accident, whether you were driving, walking or riding your motorcycle, you can expect full and fair compensation to cover your current and future medical expenses, pain and suffering and more. A serious crash injury like TBI may leave you with some lifelong medical issues, but through rehabilitation, you can recover some of the abilities you thought lost forever.