New York Brain Injury Lawyers

Any form of medical malpractice has the potential to cause severe and life-altering injuries. However, a brain injury that occurs due to the negligence of a medical provider can be among the worst forms of medical malpractice because the brain controls every bodily function.

Walking, speaking, the ability to process complex information and regulation of moods are just some of the many functions controlled by the human brain.

What makes matters worse is that the effects of a traumatic brain injury are often invisible to others, which causes the victim to feel very much alone in a new life that he or she never wanted.

What Is Brain Injury Malpractice?

Medical malpractice brain injury can occur for a variety of reasons. The most common ones include:

• Birth injuries, infant brain injury, or the failure of a doctor to diagnose a brain injury in utero or after the infant’s birth. Common issues caused by negligence in these areas include cerebral palsy, brain damage, and other types of birth defects.

• Prescribing the wrong medication, the incorrect dosage, or failure to account for how the medication might interact with other medications the patient takes. An unexpected chemical reaction can cause a brain injury.

• Failure or delay in diagnosis can prolong traumatic brain injury symptoms or even cause patients to struggle with symptoms for the remainder of their life.

• Anesthesia errors such as giving the patient too much anesthesia or failing to monitor a patient while under anesthesia can lead to brain damage symptoms. Medical personnel administering anesthesia must consider a patient’s current health, past health history, and current medication use when deciding how much anesthesia to use.

• Brain surgery errors can lead to a worsening of the patient’s original problem as well as add new ones. Infection and inflammation of the brain are typical outcomes of professional negligence during brain surgery.

Medical Malpractice – Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

A lack of continuous oxygen to the brain is the cause of many brain injuries. Cerebral hypoxia is a term used to describe partial disruption of oxygen to the brain while cerebral anoxia describes a complete loss of oxygen to the brain.

Medical malpractice brain injury attorneys work with clients on all ends of the spectrum. The general rule of thumb is that greater levels of oxygen deprivation lead to the most serious forms of brain injury. The interruption of oxygen flow to the brain can cause significant issues with cognitive skills such as solving problems, concentration, memory, and recall.

Brain cells can begin dying within five minutes of an interrupted oxygen supply. Long periods of hypoxia can lead to seizures and coma, not to mention death. When a person is declared brain dead, it means that he or she has no discernible brain activity but the heart continues to beat.

Families must make a heartbreaking decision whether to put their loved one on life support to aid in breathing or allow the brain injury victim to pass away. This is something no family should have to experience due to a medical error. If you have lost a loved one or experienced serious brain injury yourself, your best course of action is to contact medical malpractice brain injury attorneys.

Cerebral hypoxia and cerebral anoxia are both medical emergencies that require immediate treatment. Recovery can happen if a doctor can revive flow of oxygen to the patient’s brain. The degree of recovery and whether it happens at all depends on how quickly the patient gets to a hospital and whether the physician completes the right actions in a timely manner.

How Brain Injuries Occur In Healthcare

As mentioned above, infection is a common outcome of surgical error. With a brain injury, a bacterial infection called septicemia can originate in the bloodstream and lead to a life-threatening condition known as sepsis.

This causes almost immediate and very rapid inflammation throughout the body that spread to its organs, including the brain. People who survive sepsis may live with the effects of improper head injury treatment for the remainder of their life.

Sepsis is most common in people who already have a compromised immune system as well as severe wounds, severe burns, or chronic illness. Common ways that an infection spreads in a hospital include operating with non-sterile equipment, central line infections, and urinary catheter infections. Residents of nursing homes can develop sepsis when an infection enters the body through an open bedsore, a problem that can only occur due to neglect.

Common Signs Of Brain Damage Caused By Medical Malpractice

Bleeding on the brain from head trauma can occur when a patient or nursing home resident falls out of bed, falls when walking due to negligent supervision, or is a victim of physical abuse from staff, other patients, or other residents.

These situations can also cause skull fractures. Hypoxia and anoxia are most common when a patient loses oxygen after a stroke or heart attack or a fetus in distress are not promptly delivered.

It can be impossible to predict the types of symptoms someone may suffer due to a head injury because every brain injury is unique. The number and severity of symptoms depend on which part of the brain sustained injury and individual factors such as age and overall health.

Nevertheless, some of the most common brain injury symptoms that necessitate the need for a brain injury attorney include:

• Aggressive behavior
• Chronic headaches
• Cognitive issues such as difficulty remembering, solving problems, and concentrating
• Difficulty with reading or writing
• Dizziness
• Hallucinations or changes in vision
• Impaired spatial orientation and slower eye-hand coordination
• Involuntary body movements
• Loss of speech or slurred speech
• Mood swings that may include anxiety, depression, or irritability
• Nausea
• Problems with fine or gross motor coordination
• Sexual performance and libido issues
• Tremors

Unfortunately, these only represent a handful of symptoms. If medical malpractice has caused you to suffer a brain injury or resulted in the death of a loved one, contact a New York medical malpractice lawyer at Jacob Fuchsberg Law Firm to learn more about your legal rights and holding the negligent provider financially accountable.

When A Life-Changing Injury Is Caused By Medical Negligence

Some strokes and brain injuries are unfortunate events. Others are caused by preventable mistakes made by doctors and hospitals that did not uphold accepted standards of care. If you or a loved one suffered a preventable brain injury or stroke, our attorneys can help. We are well-versed in cases related to:

• Loss of movement or speech
• Blood clots (emboli) and strokes
• Hemorrhages
• Aneurysm in the brain
• Necrosis (tissue death) in the brain
• Surgical malpractice that results in brain injury

Free Consultation With Our New York Brain Injury Attorneys

Our attorneys handle traumatic brain injury, infant brain injury, and stroke cases in New York City and all of New York State, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

If a brain injury has impacted your family contact us today  by calling 212-869-3500 to discuss your legal rights and options.

We charge no fees until we recover compensation for your family.