Serious San Diego Bicycle Accident Causes Head Injury

September 22, 2018 Injury Lawyer San Diego 0

Last Thursday, a 67-year-old man was hospitalized for the injuries he suffered when his bicycle crashed in San Diego County’s Linda Vista. He had been attempting to keep his hat on as the wind was blowing it off , according to police.

The scene of the accident was the 1700 block of Ulric Street at about 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, according to San Diego police Officer Brad Ruff, who reported on the San Diego bike accident. The bicyclist’s injuries included facial fractures, a skull fracture, a broken shoulder, a broken forearm, and a lacerated kidney. He is still expected to survive. Bicycle accidents can be common in San Diego but just as well prevented, by wearing helmets and exercising sound judgment while on the road.

If you or a loved one has ever been injured or killed in a San Diego bicycle accident, contact San Diego, CA bike accident lawyer and the San Diego injury attorneys. You may also contact these San Diego, CA personal injury lawyers.

Helpful Information About Minor Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI)

July 6, 2018 Injury Lawyer San Diego 0

One of the secrets and silent serious injuries one can suffer during an accident is a minor traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Notably, Natasha Richardson died following a closed head MTBI injury after striking her head while skiing. It was also speculated that pitchman Billy Mays’ death was caused by MTBI due to falling objects from the overhead compartments in his plane.

MTBI is a very serious condition that can prove fatal if not quickly diagnosed and treated. To better inform San Diego residents, our website added this helpful information about minor traumatic brain injury (MTBI), including its’ detection and treatment.

Minor Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI)

Many people heard of Minor Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) recently when it was cited as the sudden cause of death for Natasha Richardson, notable model and wife of Liam Neeson. However, as a life-threatening condition, and one that can be imposed on you by people or places that may be liable for your injury, it is important to know and understand some of these relatively common injuries that can be often misdiagnosed.

One of the biggest problems with MTBI is that most people do not realize that something is wrong until it is too late. If there is no penetration or bleeding, most will try to just shake it off. However, brain injuries can be incredibly complex, and with the brain being center of all activity of our body, damages done to it can affect nearly anywhere else in our body, both physical and mental limitations. Sudden head injuries tend to take us to the emergency room, where time is of the essence, and physicians are only looking for severe brain injuries. This means that minor injuries may go unnoticed. Patients will be told that they are fine, only to develop symptoms in the future which, by that time, will not be attributed to a mild head injury from months previously.

Below are some symptoms that are associated with MTBI. Most can also be attributed to other disorders, so correct diagnosis is typically missed, and the patient is sometimes then accused of fabricating symptoms and/or not taken seriously.

Symptoms of MTBI

  • Difficulty cognitively figuring out new things
  • Being disorganized in approach to new problems
  • Having difficulty completing activities in a reasonable amount of time
  • Becoming easily frustrated, irritable, or having outbursts of anger or rage
  • Problems with word finding or selection
  • Hypersensitivity to light or sound
  • Problems with concentrating and being easily distracted
  • Problems with short-term memory
  • Becoming more forgetful
  • Increased frequency of headaches
  • Increased impulsiveness, impatience, risk-taking, rudeness, or social impropriety
  • Fatigue
  • Problems reading letters and words
  • Difficulty in understanding what others are saying
  • Confusion in telling right from left
  • Getting lost easily
  • Decreased libido
  • Seizures
  • Sensory problems with vision, hearing, taste, smell, sensation
  • Emotional difficulties (depression, fear, nightmares)

A doctor with Duke University noted that a person can seem incredibly and deceptively lucid and normal following injury, but have a sudden turn for the worse as bleeding from the brain can cause a pressure build up until they experience a traumatic brain injury. Delay in symptoms can range from five minutes to three hours. Immediate treatment is always essential, as damage done to the brain from swelling is often irreversible.

Any type of blow to the head has the potential to cause this. Luggage falling on your head when retrieving overhead storage on an airplane at San Diego airport, hitting your head on your steering wheel after being rear-ended on the interstate 5, or even a branch falling while a neighbor trims their tree in your Escondido neighborhood has the potential to induce MTBI.

Remember to always take precautions with accidents, and especially your health.

Was Pitchman Billy Mays Killed by MTBI; Second Celebrity Head Injury Death After Natasha Richardson?

June 29, 2018 Injury Lawyer San Diego 0

Did Billy Mays, the 50-year-old celebrity pitchman, die of a Minor Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) following a “hard” landing by a US Airways flight between Philadelphia and Tampa, Florida?

That is the question buzzing around the internet right now.

Mays had been flying home to Tampa after filming an OxiClean commercial in Philadelphia when the front tire of his US Airways flight exploded following the hard landing. Initially, no serious injuries were reported and Mays posted on his Twitter feed about the hard landing saying it was par for the course with US Airways. After the landing, objects fell from the ceiling, although it is unclear what those objects were, and hit Mays in the head.

After landing, Mays told a local news crew about the hit to his head:

“All of a sudden as we hit,” Mays said. “You know it was just the hardest hit. All the top…you know the things from the ceiling started dropping and it hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.”

Mays was found dead at his home the next day by his wife, Deborah. Reportedly, Mays did not feel well when he went to bed later that night. No other major health problems have been disclosed.

Traumatic Brain Injury Diagnosed in Sixth Former NFL Player

January 30, 2018 Injury Lawyer San Diego 0

A 6th former National Football League player has been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries similar to what boxers suffer from multiple blows to the head.

Doctors at Boston University School of Medicine studied the brain of Tom McHale and determined that he suffered from a traumatic brain injury before his death last May. McHale was 45 and played in the NFL from 1987-1995 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

According to McHale’s family, injuries from football and dealing with his pain led to a psychological downturn:

McHale played on N.F.L. offensive lines for nine seasons, most of them with the Buccaneers, before retiring and running several Tampa-area restaurants. According to his widow, Lisa, he developed such chronic pain in his shoulders and other joints that in 2005 he began taking improperly large doses of the painkiller OxyContin, which exacerbated his lethargy and depression and led him to take cocaine occasionally to offset those effects.

McHale spiraled downward, went through drug rehabilitation three times, and died on May 25, 2008, of a lethal — and deemed by the police, accidental — combination of oxycodone and cocaine. His death shocked many former teammates and players, several of whom remembered him as an intelligent and responsible man.

Doctors concluded that McHale’s condition was the result of repetitive head trauma. In some cases, McHale’s condition can lead to the onset of dementia.

In serious car accidents, people can be subjected to significant forces to their head and brain–not unlike what a boxer or football player experiences. In some cases, this leads to concussions. In others, it leads to traumatic brain injuries. It’s important to keep McHale’s story in mind when we start to see possible signs of traumatic brain injury. In some cases, the injury can progress as severely as McHale’s condition.