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Brain injury

The brain is the most complex and arguably the most important organ in the human body.

Managing our central nervous system (CNS), it is essentially a command centre controlling our thoughts, memory, speech, movement, vital organs and senses. Optimal brain function is fundamental to our overall health and longevity. Any damage to the brain can be detrimental.

Brain injuries have many causes and can affect anyone at any age from birth to old age. Congenital brain injuries develop before birth. Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is an injury to the brain that occurs after birth. Most ABI’s are either caused by an external impact or force leading to a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (examples include falls, sports injuries, being struck on the head or a road traffic accident) or the result of an internal illness (such as an infection, abscess, stroke, aneurism, tumour, encephalitis, hydrocephalus and anoxia/hypoxia) causing a Non-Traumatic Brain Injury. Both types of brain injuries cause physical, perceptual, cognitive and behavioural impairments that can range from mild to severe and can be temporary (temporary damage can take several years to recover from) or long-term. Those in a coma, vegetative state or minimally conscious state (this can be permanent) will possibly be dependent on 24 hour care for the rest of their lives.

Brain injury symptoms can be instantaneous or in other cases symptoms can progress over a period of days, weeks or months. Symptoms of brain injury can range in severity and include: loss of consciousness (coma), physical incapacities including paralysis, seizures, memory problems, loss of muscle control, speech / swallowing difficulties, fatigue, headaches, sight problems, behavioural problems, confusion and personality change. Brain injuries are very complicated and outcomes are difficult to assess in many cases.

Any diagnosis of a brain injury is extremely upsetting for both sufferer and family whatever the cause, but if a brain injury was medically preventable and happened whilst under the care of health professionals who you have put your trust in, it is even more distressing to come to terms with.

Brain injury medical negligence means the care you received either diagnostically, during your birth, during treatment/surgery or in a post-treatment period fell below medically acceptable standards and this directly injured you either physically or/and psychologically short-term or long-term. Medical negligence that has caused a brain injury can result in devastating, debilitating, complex life-changing consequences both physically and financially (often requiring multifaceted nursing needs; neurorehabilitation; psychological therapy; physiotherapy; occupational therapy; speech and language therapy for the rest of life) or even death. When this happens you or your loved one may have a cause for brain injury medical negligence claim.

  • Common brain injury claims
    • Delayed or failure to diagnose / treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

    A delay in diagnosis of any TBI brain injury can lead to a delay in treatment causing further injury or even death.

    • Delayed, misdiagnosed or failure to diagnose and treat non-traumatic brain infection,  disease or cancer

    Any delay of non-traumatic brain injury diagnosis and treatment can lead to worsened brain injury or can be fatal.

    Symptoms of acute illnesses such as a stroke, brain aneurism, haemorrhage, encephalitis, hydrocephalus, TB or meningitis should be recognised rapidly by doctors. Quick diagnosis followed by urgent treatment is vital, giving better recovery outcome and can mean avoidable long-term brain damage.

    Similarly, failure to diagnose or a delay in diagnosis at an early stage of a brain tumour can leave the sufferer with additional injury, fewer treatment options due to disease progression and possible terminal illness of what could have been treatable disease if diagnosed in a timely manner.

    • Cerebral Palsy

    Cerebral Palsy is brain injury which happens before, during or soon after birth. Although the cause of Cerebral Palsy is not always known there are cases of Cerebral Palsy that are caused by medical negligence. Some examples of this are failure of fetal monitoring, injury to the baby’s head on delivery, unreasonable delay of delivery – vaginally or caesarean section - leading to anoxia/hypoxia (oxygen starvation), failure/delay in diagnosis of infection (of mother or baby), inappropriate or incorrect use of medications in labour and poor treatment of jaundice. A diagnosis of cerebral palsy can take up to 2 years because symptoms may not be apparent at first.

    • Surgical / anaesthetic error

    There are risks involved undergoing any surgical or anaesthetic procedure all of which should be explained by the consultants clinically responsible for a patients care. Surgical or anaesthetic error can potentially cause brain injury. Mistakes (such as failure to gain fully informed or appropriate consent of the risk of surgery, peri-operative surgical mistakes, anaesthetic mistakes and inadequate recovery and post-operative care) can lead to injuries such as strokes, cardiac issues, injury to other organs and post-operative infection, all of which can leave the patient with brain damage.

    Neurosurgery carries additional risks. Neurosurgery is carried out for a number of reasons in relation to the brain including brain, spine and skull tumour surgery (neuro-oncology), head trauma surgery, brain abscess surgery, stroke / haemorrhage surgery, aneurysm surgery, epilepsy surgery and hydrocephalus shunt surgery.

    • Hypoxic / anoxic brain injury (oxygen starvation)

    Shortage of oxygen (hypoxia) or complete lack of oxygen (anoxia) to the brain even for short periods cause brain damage. Some people with mild hypoxic injury can make a full or partial recovery but severe hypoxic injury can leave permanent, non-treatable damage. Oxygen starvation can be due to a number of causes including child birth complication, anaesthetic errors, mismanaged respiratory illnesses, mismanaged stroke care and drug administration errors.

    • Medication brain injury

    Medication errors (anaesthetic errors, wrong dosage or incorrect medication) can result in brain injury.

  • How we can help you claim compensation for a brain injury

    It can take courage and can initially feel daunting approaching a medical negligence solicitor. This is particularly so when wishing to challenge the treatment and care provided by a highly qualified professional such as a surgeon, who we hold in high regard and who we place our health and trust in. 

    It is important to appreciate that mistakes happen in any situation involving human beings, regardless of how well trained, skilled, experienced and caring they are. Where mistakes are made and harm is caused with regard to patient care there are consequences that may lead you to consider instructing a solicitor to bring legal action on your behalf.

    You may not be considering financial compensation once medical negligence has arisen - you may want to make sure that nobody else experiences the same injury that you did. This is entirely understandable. As humans, we trust in the training and expertise of our healthcare professionals and don’t expect harm to be caused. Many patients want lessons to be learned to prevent further harm for others.

    Pursuing a claim against a healthcare professional (public and private) does raise awareness. Pursuing a claim leads to investigation and scrutiny and consideration of existing policies and procedures and to further training. It also allows for a financial settlement to be awarded which places a patient in a better position than they may have otherwise been. 

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