There are a number of things that can cause a person to sustain a brain injury. Some of these things are the result of negligence, some are the result of malice, and some may even be the result of an unfortunate, blameless incident. Who, or what, causes the brain injury is going to be an important factor no matter what, and understanding exactly what kinds of things cause brain injuries in the Asheville, NC area is just as important.
What Are Common Causes of Brain Injuries in Asheville, NC?
North Carolina is no slouch when it comes to sports, and sports are no slouch when it comes to causing injuries. Some sports are less risky to participate in than others, at least as far as brain injury goes. For example, a relaxing game of badminton is not likely to cause brain damage (although it’s theoretically possible), nor is a tennis game. It is more high-impact games such as basketball, football, and soccer that truly pose a heightened risk of a brain injury. Contact sports are generally going to carry that risk, though football is perhaps the most infamous for it, due to the recent discoveries on just how devastating football is for those who have spent many of their years playing it. These damages range from things such as brain damage, concussions, and other invisible injuries that people never noticed until it was far too late. While this is a problem that is observed too often in both the National Football League (NFL) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), it has become significantly more concerning due to the participation of younger children in contact sports like football. Children are still developing, and as a result, they are going to be at greater risk of injury than adults of a certain age.
Sometimes, the brain injury may come about from something as simple as falling down, depending on how you take the fall. For example, it is easier than you may think to flat out die from falling on your head, let alone simply suffer from a traumatic brain injury. Some falls may not result in any long-term damage, but due to the damage to your head typically being internal, it may be difficult to discern that brain damage has occurred visually. There are various signs that you need to look out for if you think it is possible that you are suffering from brain damage. For example, if you find yourself losing consciousness shortly after experiencing an injury to your head, this may be indicative of brain damage, no matter if you lost consciousness for mere minutes or for hours. You may also notice that headaches have become more common following the injury, so if that is the case, mark it down and let your doctor know. There are a number of other early symptoms of a brain injury that you should be mindful of, including nausea, vomiting, seizures, eye dilation, difficulty waking up, clear fluids coming from your nose and/or ears, and more.
Some job sites may have a greater likelihood of injuries across the board when it comes to brain injuries. For example, a construction job has an increased risk of falling accidents due to the extent of work that they have to do. The sheer size of some buildings should be proof enough of that. Asheville, NC is not exactly the epicenter of North Carolina, and as such, you will not see the kind of construction as you might see in Charlotte, NC, but construction does happen nonetheless, and things need to be done to help reduce the risk of injury on the construction site, as well as other kinds of job sites. If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury, contacting an Asheville brain injury lawyer is the best bet for you, particularly if there is negligence on another party for the injuries you sustained.
For all of these relatively benign situations, there is one situation that is anything but benign: violence. Violence, as we are all aware, happens all too often. Some violence comes in the form of domestic abuse, either committed against a spouse or against a child. One all-too-common damage type comes in the form of shaken baby syndrome, where someone shakes a baby violently, resulting in the baby’s brain being knocked about, potentially causing brain damage. Other kinds of violence that may lead to a form of brain damage include gunshots, blunt-force trauma, and other types of violence.
It is also important to consider the various factors that affect the likelihood of suffering brain damage from the above-mentioned causes. As mentioned above, children are at a heightened risk due to still developing, but that does not mean that everyone older than them is at less risk. After a certain point — usually defined by adults 60 years or older — an adult’s capability to experience these things with a standard risk begins to diminish. The elderly have to take greater care than other adults when they participate in things in general, especially if they want to keep their brains in as good of health as possible. Men are also more likely to be involved in a traumatic brain injury incident, though this is simply because men are more likely to be involved in the above-mentioned situations than women and other people. They are more likely to commit violence, but at the same time, they are also more likely to be a victim of violence. They are also that much more likely to participate in contact sports than women.
