Car Accidents – Open Head / Closed Head Injury – Legal Help

Every year, numerous people become involved in a variety of motor vehicle accidents occurring on freeways, highways and even quiet residential streets. While the vast majority of car accidents are minor mishaps that do not cause serious damage, car crashes occurring at high speeds and those involving several vehicles often result in serious injuries and death. An especially dangerous type of motor vehicle accident is a head-on collision as the force of impact severely damages both vehicles and causes their occupants to sustain severe traumas, such as whiplash, fractures, brain injury and spinal cord injury. In a large number of head-on collision cases, victims die as a result of their injuries.

Tragically, many of the deaths occurring at the time of car accidents or immediately after the collisions happen due to faulty automobile parts. For example, malfunctioning seatbelts and faulty airbags often lead to deaths that could have been avoided if these safety devices had functioned properly. In such cases whereby manufacturer negligence caused or contributed to the wrongful death of car accident victims, the surviving families can and should initiate legal action to hold the car makers responsible. In many cases, families are entitled to rightful remuneration for medical and funeral expenses, emotional suffering, loss of income, as well as loss of parental guidance in cases whereby victims are survived by small children.

Victims who survive head-on collisions often require long-term rehabilitation due to the injuries sustained as a result of being thrown out of their vehicles or against the interior parts, such as the roof and dashboard. In addition, these accidents typically involve violent acceleration and deceleration movements that disrupt normal function of internal organs and can lead to serious damage, such as tissue death and internal bleeding. An especially dangerous type of internal injury is closed head injury.

Often occurring at the time of the collision, closed head injury can vary in severity ranging from concussion and contusion to hematoma and diffuse axonal injury. While the first two types of brain injury typically do not leave permanent damage, hematoma (bleeding inside the skull) can lead to increased pressure within the skull, which in turn can push the fissures between skull bones open and result in large open head wounds. Diffuse axonal brain injury is also very dangerous as this condition describes damage involving large areas of the brain. As a result, victims often lose their ability to speak, think, move and control even very basic body functions.

Open head injury is another type of head injury often occurring at the time of car catastrophes. Prompt treatment is crucial in order to save victims' lives and preserve as much brain function as possible. The most important steps of open head injury treatment include stopping the hemorrhaging, removing any objects that might have penetrated the skull and replacing the broken skull bones with synthetic skull pieces to protect the brain. Medical professionals also carefully monitor patients' vital signs and sometimes insert a special intracranial pressure monitor within the skull to ensure that the pressure inside the head does not become dangerously high.