...for Your Traumatic Brain Injury ("TBI") Lawyer

The Attorneys at McNamara Goldsmith, P.C. would be pleased to answer these and many other frequently asked question about TBI or Acquired Brain Injury for you at a free consultation.

We can do more than talk about the answers with you.

We will show you typical hard copy and electronic trial exhibits we have used to education juries about these very issues.

1. What percent of "MILD" traumatic or acquired brain injury patients are deemed functionally disabled?
2. What is the Glasgow Coma Scale and why is it so important in TBI cases?
3. Who is Phineas Gage, why is he known to every true TBI expert and why is he important to every TBI case?
4. Explain in detail what is known as "Diffuse Axonal Injury," why is an understanding of the same critical to every TBI case, and how is it proven?
5. Explain "Cavitation," why is it critical to every case, and how is it proven?
6. What are the most significant anatomical features of the skull, and how are they related to biomechanics of TBI?
7. What is rotational shearing injury and what is its significance in terms of the biomechanics of TBI, and TBI prognosis?
8. What areas of the brain are most vulnerable to TBI in terms of the frequency and severity, and why is this important to proving a case?
9. What is the difference between white and gray brain matter, and explain the importance of the relationship of this tissue to the biomechanics of TBI?
10. Which is worse: diffuse or focal brain injury and why?
11. What is the difference in the vulnerability of the pediatric versus the adult brain to TBI and why is this important to TBI prognosis?
12. How are TBI and stroke related, and what are the known specifics about the relationship between time of treatment for these conditions and prognosis?
13. What is the standard of care for athletic coaches and medical professionals when coping with post concussion syndrome ("PCS") and what are the accepted new guidelines for meeting this standard?
14. What are the affects of mild, moderate and severe closed head injury on life expectancy?
15. What is the known association between TBI and dementia and alzheimers disease?
16. Define anosognosia?
17. What is the significance of amnesia in proving TBI prognosis?
18. What is the difference between primary and secondary TBI and which typically cause more permanent jury?
19. What is the medical standard of care for coping with secondary TBI?
20. Explain the pathology of closed head injury in terms of metabolic changes resulting from secondary neurochemical injury?
21. Explain why TBI and Acquired Brain Injury cause delayed injury in the form of white matter degeneration, cerebral atrophy, hydrocephalus, and seizures?
22. What is the function of the corpus colosum, and how is it typically involved in TBI cases?
23. What is the role and what are the limitations of neuropsychological testing and TBI?
24. What are the psychosocial implications of TBI?
25. Explain how TBI affects the pediatric and adolescent brain development, and the adult aging process of the brain?
26. Describe the basic function, differences, benefits and limitations of neuroimaging diagnostic tests including:
    • computer tomography ("CT")
    • structural magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI")
    • Telsa 3 and other enhanced MRI
    • functional MRI
    • positron emission tomography ("PET")
    • single photon emission computerized tomography ("SPECT")
27. Describe the significance of advanced neuroimaging, such as Diffuse Tension Imaging (DTI), and Voxel Based Morphometry ("VBM"), and its importance in proving TBI?
28. What are the typical psychiatric complications associated with TBI?
29. What is the significance of enlarged or asymmetrical ventricles in TBI cases?
30. What is the primary psychopharmacological options in TBI cases?
31. What is the correlation between TBI and alcohol and drug abuse?
32. Describe the critical social issues for the family system in TBI cases, and in particular basic statistics as to the correlation between TBI and divorce?
33. What is the correlation between TBI and neuropsychiatric symptomatology such as mood and personality disorder, fatigue and sleep problems, impaired awareness of dysfunction, and slowed or disturbed executive skills?
34. What is the correlation between seizure disorders and TBI?
35. What is the correlation between TBI and suicide?
36. What is an electroencephalography ("EEG") and what can it prove in TBI cases?
37. How and why does TBI cause hormonal disturbances?
38. Is possible to have a normal MRI, CT and other nueroimaging and still have a disabling TBI injury?
39. What is the correlation between TBI and sexual disorders?
40. How is that a newborn can suffer a profoundly disabling Acquired Brain Injury during labor and delivery, or shortly thereafter and yet still have a normal MRI? When will the injury be seen?
41. Explain complex memory function, what parts of the brain are involved, and why it is different from the layman's understanding of memory?
42. Describe how TBI interrupts memory function, and how this affects personality and executive function.
43. Explain the basics components of a brain cell, its size, whether it can regenerate or be replaced, and what all this means about the permanency of brain injury.
44. Discuss the special challenges of proving causation in cerebral palsy and hypoxic birth injury cases?
45. At the height of the Vietnam war, which caused more fatalities per year in this country: the war or deaths due to entirely preventable meningitis in newborns? Why?