Often resulting from damage to the head (blows, hits), mainly from transportation accidents, or even violence, and taking poor care of babies, TBI’s effect the lives of about 6 million Americans every year.
Fortunately not all TBI’s are major, for only 270,000 out of the colossal number of cases have a moderate or severe TBI. All other instances may just be mild concussions or a short blackout ranging from seconds to minutes.
After experiencing some form of damage to the brain, symptoms soon appear whether they are mild, or extreme. Symptoms of TBI’s include the patient not feeling like oneself, issues with memory, concentration, attention, senses and more. Those with a higher level of damage from TBI’s also experience these symptoms along with excruciating headaches, vomiting, nausea, or even seizures.
There are many types of TBI’s but out of all of them, concussions have the least severity. Other TBI’s with a higher level of damage may come from different types of skull fractures. These occur whenever the skull cracks or breaks.
1. Depressed skull fracture- this occurs when a piece of broken skull bone sinks into the brain causing damage of tissue.
2. Penetrating skull fracture- as its name suggests, this is when an object penetrates the skull and plunges into the brain causing damage in a certain area/path.
Skull fractures may cause swelling and could even break blood vessels and form blood clots. They will often cause bruising in a certain area of the tissue; these mixed with blood from broken blood vessels make up what are known as contusions. Contusions cause quite a bit of damage and often occur with the sudden back and forth movement of the head such as when a driver slams the brakes of a car after going 80 miles per hour.
Other conditions that skull fractures could lead to include hematoma (the heavy bleeding into or around the brain when major blood vessels break), Anoxia (the complete absence of oxygen through blood to the brain or any organ in the body), or hypoxia (a decrease in oxygen supply but not completely cut off from it).
Other conditions that skull fractures could lead to include hematoma (the heavy bleeding into or around the brain when major blood vessels break), Anoxia (the complete absence of oxygen through blood to the brain or any organ in the body), or hypoxia (a decrease in oxygen supply but not completely cut off from it).
TBI’s may have a few consequences such as cognitive impairment (problems with thinking, deciding, and memory), problems with sensory information, a troubled time communicating, or even noticeable and major changes in behavior.
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