The Recovery Timeline Of A Traumatic Brain Injury
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
Traumatic brain injuries are common injuries in both auto accidents and slip and falls in St. Petersburg and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, they’re also some of the most complex, often severe, and difficult injuries to recover from. Even mild traumatic brain injuries can be unpredictable and require a certain amount of recovery time; meaning time away from work, medical bills, and sometimes permanent effects.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries
Mild traumatic brain injuries in the St. Petersburg area can vary. Typically, these brain injuries will have a recovery time ranging from about a week to around a month, with minimal (but still limiting) effects. Some of the effects one may feel after a mild traumatic brain injury are poor concentration, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, confusion, brain fog, and depression or anxiety.
During recovery, a person may not be able to work for some time until these symptoms resolve. To speed up recovery time, it’s often recommended that the injured person spend as much time resting as possible, and not overexert themselves either physically or mentally. These injuries will be monitored by doctors to determine when an injured person may get back to their regular routine.
Moderate Traumatic Brain Injuries
Moderate traumatic brain injuries include a loss of consciousness of up to, but not more than, 24 hours. This could mean a concussion where one is unconscious for just a few moments, or an injury that involves several hours of unconsciousness.
A moderate traumatic brain injury can involve varying recovery times. One individual may recover in a period of a couple of weeks, while another could require months of medical intervention to control lasting symptoms. In some instances, a moderate traumatic brain injury could cause long-term effects like mental disorders such as depression or anxiety.
Severe Traumatic Brain Injuries
Severe traumatic brain injuries often lead to short or long-term disability and in many cases may be fatal. These can involve months or years of rehabilitation and recovery times that may be lifelong. While all severe traumatic brain injuries are different, a basic recovery timeline may look like:
• In the first months – In the first months of recovery, one may experience coma, a vegetative state, or a minimally conscious state that sees them going in and out of consciousness for a prolonged period of time. As the swelling in the brain begins to decrease, an individual should see more time conscious as the brain begins trying to heal. When individuals can retain consistent consciousness and appropriate reaction to stimuli, doctors will consider them to be emerged from their minimally conscious state.
• 3 to 6 months – The 3-to-6-month period after a traumatic brain injury a person will see their most rapid rate of recovery. The brain will take on a higher state of plasticity, allowing therapy and rehabilitation to lead to dramatic progress. At the 6-month mark, about 60% of severe traumatic brain injury patients will regain their ability to walk.
• 6 months to 2 years – After the 6-month mark, brain injury patients may start seeing some plateaus, but that doesn’t mean they have reached maximum recovery. In this period the progress may be slower, but progress will continue in recovering mobility, speech, and cognition. 64% of traumatic brain injury patients see cognitive recovery around the 1-year mark.
• In the later years – After 2 years a person’s recovery may not be over. With different therapies and medical interventions, an individual may regain fine motor skills once lost, further improve speech and cognition, and see further easing of their symptoms.
Those suffering from traumatic brain injuries need support. With weeks, months, or years long recovery, they need someone on their side to make sure they can continue to sustain their progress. If you’ve been in an auto accident or slip and fall resulting in a traumatic brain injury, contact us at TheStPeteLawyer.com today.