A traumatic brain injury is the injury everyone around the victim understands least. There is often no cast, no scar and no abnormal CT scan. What there is, is a person who cannot hold a thought long enough to finish a task, who snaps at people for no reason, who cannot tolerate a loud room, and who is quietly terrified this is permanent.
In West Hollywood these injuries come from pedestrian and vehicle collisions on Sunset and Santa Monica, falls on stairs in older buildings, falls at nightlife venues, motorcycle and scooter crashes, assaults where venue security failed, and construction incidents. Djougourian Law Corp builds these cases with the objective evidence they require.
Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury
The CDC reports over 69,000 TBI-related deaths in the United States in 2021, roughly 190 every day, and approximately 214,000 TBI-related hospitalizations in 2020. Those figures exclude the far larger number of people treated and released or never seen at all.
TBI is classified by severity:
Mild TBI, or concussion. Brief alteration of consciousness or none at all, with headaches, dizziness, confusion, memory and concentration problems, light and noise sensitivity, nausea, irritability and sleep disturbance. A meaningful minority develop persistent post-concussive symptoms lasting months or years.
Moderate TBI. Loss of consciousness from minutes to hours, confusion lasting days to weeks and lasting cognitive deficits.
Severe TBI. Extended unconsciousness, profound impairment and lifelong care requirements.
Types of Brain Injury
Concussion. Functional disruption of brain activity without visible structural damage on routine imaging. Diffuse axonal injury. Rotational forces shear axonal connections throughout the white matter. Frequently invisible on CT and often devastating. Contusion. Bruising where the brain strikes the interior of the skull, including coup and contrecoup patterns. Hematoma. Epidural, subdural and intracerebral bleeding, sometimes requiring emergency decompression. Skull fracture, including depressed fractures driving bone into brain tissue. Second impact syndrome, where a second injury before the first has healed produces catastrophic swelling.
Why “The CT Was Normal” Proves Nothing
This is the defense argument in nearly every TBI case, and it misunderstands what a CT scan does. A head CT is designed to detect bleeding and fractures that require emergency intervention. It is not designed to detect diffuse axonal injury or the functional disruption of a concussion. A normal CT means the patient did not need emergency neurosurgery. It does not mean the brain was not injured.
What does establish a brain injury:
Neuropsychological testing. A battery of standardized, validated instruments measuring memory, attention, processing speed, executive function and language, with embedded validity measures that address any suggestion of exaggeration. This is the objective evidence.
Advanced imaging. Where indicated, MRI with susceptibility-weighted sequences and diffusion tensor imaging can show what CT cannot.
Clinical course. Emergency records, symptom documentation, referral history and treatment response.
Before-and-after witnesses. Partners, coworkers, managers and friends who can describe concretely what this person could do before and cannot do now. This testimony is enormously persuasive, because it is specific and it is not paid for.
Long-Term Consequences
Cognitive. Memory, attention, processing speed, executive function, word finding and problem solving. Physical. Headaches, dizziness, balance problems, fatigue, vision and hearing changes, post-traumatic seizures. Emotional and behavioral. Depression, anxiety, irritability, disinhibition, emotional lability and personality change. Functional. Loss of the ability to work at a prior level, loss of independence, and severe strain on relationships. For people working in creative, hospitality or client-facing fields, which describes much of West Hollywood’s workforce, even a modest deficit in memory or processing speed can end a career.
Building the Damages Case
Life care planning projecting attendant care, therapy, supervision, medication and equipment across a lifetime. Vocational assessment of residual work capacity and realistic employability. Economic analysis reducing lifetime earning loss and care costs to present value. Medical expert testimony from neurologists, neuropsychologists, physiatrists and life care planners.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can people recover from a brain injury?
Many concussion patients recover substantially within weeks to months. Some do not. Moderate and severe TBI generally involves permanent change, because destroyed brain tissue does not regenerate.
I never lost consciousness. Can I still have a TBI?
Yes. Loss of consciousness is not required for a concussion diagnosis, and a large share of concussions occur without it.
My symptoms started days later. Does that hurt my case?
No. Delayed onset is well documented, particularly for cognitive and emotional symptoms that only surface once the person returns to work.
How do we prove cognitive impairment objectively?
Neuropsychological testing with validity measures, which is the standard tool designed for exactly this purpose.
What if I was assaulted at a bar or club?
You may have a claim against the assailant and a separate premises liability claim against the venue for inadequate security, overservice or failure to intervene. These are commonly the more collectible claims.
What compensation is available?
Past and future medical and rehabilitation expenses, attendant care, lost income, loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of consortium.
Contact a West Hollywood Brain Injury Attorney
If people keep telling you that you seem fine and you know you are not, that is exactly the case we know how to prove. Call 818-530-0000 or contact us.
