Does aging have an impact on brain injuries?
One difficulty of brain injuries, particularly among youth, is that as individuals grow and age, they impact victims in unknown ways. Initially, when a child has a brain injury, it may not significantly impact his or her day-to-day life due to his or her parents being present to care for him or her. Later in life, when the individual has to live independently, the brain injury’s symptoms could turn out to be significant enough to impact daily life.
As someone ages, he or she naturally spends less time practicing his or her skills. As children, for instance, you spend time reciting the alphabet and reading. As an adult, you retain that knowledge. For someone with a brain injury, the knowledge and rehabilitation efforts that worked well as a youth could begin to dissipate if they’re not implemented regularly as an adult.
This is part of the reason why it’s vital for those injured to obtain payments that can help them get treatment throughout life, and not just initially following an accident and injury. Further medical treatment also helps reduce the risk of other injuries related to cognitive or judgment issues, which are problems may individuals with brain injuries deal with on a regular basis.
Those with brain injuries may also have trouble with physical strength. As long as the individuals keep up on therapy, weakness is addressed. However, without persistent care, a person could find that weakness begins to permeate life and makes it difficult to participate in activities.
As someone with a brain injury, remember that your claim can affect the rest of your life and your ability to obtain medical treatment. A good Sacramento brain injury lawyer and claim take aging into consideration.
Source: Brainline, “Aging with a Brain Injury,” Marti Spicer, M.S, OTR/L, accessed Nov. 22, 2017