Car crashes can happen in the blink of an eye, but their effects can ripple throughout your whole life. This is especially true when they involve head injuries. Many people walk away from crashes feeling “fine” only to develop concerning symptoms hours or days later.
Brain injuries often hide behind common complaints like headaches or fatigue that you might dismiss as normal post-accident stress. Recognizing the warning signs of traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a car crash could make a critical difference in your recovery and legal case.
Watch for these warning signs after your crash
Your body often signals when something serious has happened to your brain, but you need to know what those signals mean. Watch for these common TBI indicators:
- Persistent headache: A headache that does not improve with medication or worsens over time may indicate pressure or damage in your brain.
- Sleep disturbances: Sleeping much more than usual, having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep might reflect brain trauma rather than just stress.
- Mood changes: Unusual irritability, sadness or emotional outbursts can stem from brain injury affecting emotional regulation centers.
- Memory or concentration problems: Forgetting conversations, appointments or struggling to focus on simple tasks might signal cognitive impacts from brain trauma.
- Balance issues: Feeling unsteady, dizzy or having coordination problems when walking or standing could indicate your brain’s balance centers took some damage.
These symptoms might appear right away after a crash or develop gradually over days or weeks, making them easy to miss or attribute to other causes.
When to seek medical attention
You should never ignore potential brain injury symptoms, even if they seem minor at first. Take these important steps:
- Get emergency care if you experience severe headaches, repeated vomiting, seizures, slurred speech or increasing confusion
- Document all symptoms in a daily journal to track changes and patterns
- Follow up with your doctor even if emergency scans were initially “clear“
- Consider seeing a neurologist who specializes in traumatic brain injuries
TBIs from car accidents require swift medical attention and proper documentation to protect both your health and your legal rights. Medical professionals can provide appropriate treatment while creating the records you may need for insurance claims or legal action.