When workers on a construction site fall from a scaffold or through a weak foundation, one of the injuries they may suffer is a traumatic brain injury. Our team at McGowan & Cecil LLC see many people who have been injured in this manner and we know only too well how difficult brain trauma can be to treat.
The human brain is essentially a living computer, calculating and sending out messages or controls to the rest of the body. It is responsible for heart rate, blood, and oxygen flow, limb movement, thought, personality, language, and learning. Due to the complexity of the human brain, no current treatment exists to reverse damage that is caused to it. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke states that the only real actions that doctors and medical staff can take is to prevent further damage from occurring and more cells from dying.
When someone is brought in with a serious brain injury, the person is often put through imaging procedures such as a CT scan to see the state of the damage. Additionally, the person may be placed under a monitoring process that includes watching blood pressure, blood flow and oxygen flow. This is to make sure that the person’s life-sustaining systems are functioning as they should. In some cases, where the person is brought in unconscious, it may be decided to put the person into a chemically-induced coma in order for the brain to rest.
Once the initial dangers are over, then the treatment will switch to a program with a focus on rehabilitation or learning to cope with the effects of the brain injury. This may include going to a physical therapist to learn how to walk again, a speech therapist to rebuild language skills or cognitive therapies. For more information concerning workers who are injured on the job, please visit our web page.
