Can You Suffer a Traumatic Brain Injury Without Impact?
While the Centers for Disease Control reports that falls are the single biggest cause of traumatic brain injury, motor vehicle accidents are also a significant factor, leading to about one in every seven TBIs. If you’ve been involved in a collision and bumped your head on the dashboard or windshield, chances are good that you’ve suffered some level of TBI. But what if it’s a collision at a relatively slow speed? What if you were able to stop in time to avoid impact with another vehicle, but the sudden stop snapped your head back and forth? Can you still have a TBI?
The Nature of Most TBIs
Though a TBI may involve a penetrating injury, where a foreign object pierces or fractures the skull, the most frequent cause of TBI is the collision of your brain with the inside of your skull. Your brain is a delicate organ and can easily be bruised by contact with your skull. The force of the impact can also cause tearing of nerve fibers or bleeding.
In addition, your brain may respond to the trauma with inflammation or swelling. Because your skull is an enclosed space, swelling can put significant pressure on tissue and nerves and lead to serious complications.
Accordingly, while direct impact with a foreign object in a car accident often results in traumatic brain injury, the more common cause of TBI in such accidents is whiplash, where your body remains stationary, but your head snaps violently forward and back. Because even minor impact with the inside of your skull can result in bruising and/or bleeding, you should seek medical treatment for a potential TBI after any type of motor vehicle accident.
Contact Core Medical Center Today
At Core Medical Center, we offer comprehensive treatment for any type of traumatic brain injury, from concussions to severe TBIs. We can quickly assess the severity of your injuries, and we have the tools, experience, and skill to help maximize your recovery. To learn more, contact Core Medical Center online or call our offices in Blue Springs, Missouri, at (819)229-1941.
