Hi, I’m Anne Parys. I’m Peter Gough. We’re with Quatrini Law Group and this is your legal tip Tuesday. March is brain injury awareness month and I’m here to talk to Peter about how do you know you’ve had a brain injury? I mean, usually you get hit on the head, you know you’ve had a brain injury, right? Yes. and I’ve been practicing workers compensation for 35 years and a significant portion of my practice is dealing with injured workers who sustained concussions. So, as as you mentioned, sometimes concussions or traumatic brain injuries can be incurred in manners you don’t really think of or come to mind. So, for example, the most frequent form of concussion or traumatic brain injuries due to a shearing or a contusion of the of the brain to the skull. So that includes usually what’s called acceleration or deceleration injuries. You move forward suddenly, you go to the side suddenly and your your your brain hits this the inside of the skull actually.

So you may have gotten a concussion and not realize it. Yes. Cuz again, you didn’t have direct impact with an airbag in car accident or a window. You just basically have stopped suddenly or turned suddenly and and and your brain is sheared.

So then how would I know if I got a concussion? Generally after the adrenaline uh wears off of of a of a traumatic type incident, you you’ll notice that you’ve uh have a headache of of perhaps more intense or in a different location than than typical headache comes and um generally after that nausea might develop uh a form of fogginess might develop. However, within a couple of days or weeks, more significant symptoms do develop such as loss of concentration, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise, lack of focus, vision issues such as you’re seeing double or one of the eyes doesn’t seem to be focusing correctly.