Each brain injury is unique. However, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) doesn’t discriminate. It can impact anybody, potentially changing their life forever. For high-income professionals and those who are used to juggling multiple tasks, managing teams, and performing high-stakes work, a TBI can be both frustrating and limiting.
TBIs are one of the top reasons cyclists are sent to emergency departments across the country. While some people experience a minor head injury that heals within a few weeks, others can experience symptoms for far longer. These symptoms range from headaches and dizziness to more subdued but equally frustrating experiences like brain fog, memory problems, and behavioral changes.
For anyone experiencing a TBI, any of these symptoms can be troubling and a disturbance to everyday life, both at work and at home. If you’re struggling at work after a TBI from a bicycle crash, it’s important to understand that this can be common, that seeking health care is important, and that your experience may be crucial to calculating loss of earning capacity.
READ MORE: What to Do After a Cycling Crash Involving a Head Injury
TBI symptoms that affect professional life
TBIs range in severity. Most often, clinicians use the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) to assess brain injuries. A score of 13-15 usually indicates a mild TBI, or concussion, and the lower the score the more intense the injury. The scale evaluates three aspects of responsiveness: eye-opening, verbal, and motor responses. Scores from each component make up the final score.
If you visit an ER and are told that your GCS score is high and you’re only exhibiting mild symptoms, you could still find that they are impactful to your life and work.
Concussion symptoms include:
- Headache
- Sensitivity to light and/or sound
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Dizziness
- Issues with balance
- Confusion and/or memory loss
- Tiredness or grogginess
- Changes in sleep
- Issues with focus
- Mood changes, such as feelings of anxiety or depression
On the surface, these do seem to be mild symptoms to many people. However, when they persist for weeks, months, or longer, it can be a huge problem in professional life. High-income professionals will face challenges at work when their sleep is affected, they experience lapses in memory, or have trouble focusing. This may mean they lose out on work opportunities, such as gaining new clients, getting a promotion, or hitting goals they’ve previously reached.
Not being able to perform at the same levels as they previously could is not the cyclist’s fault. Brain injuries affect each individual differently.
“Some people with a TBI can return to work within a couple of days of their injury and may only need short-term support or accommodations during their recovery, like rest breaks during the day or earplugs to limit sensitivity to noise,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes on the topic. “Others may need weeks, months, or longer before returning to work. Some people may not be able to return to work (or the same type of employment) due to long-term disability or persistent symptoms.”
The agency says factors that may impact work and require more time off or changes to tasks include:
- Attention or concentration
- High-stress or safety risks, such as work with hazardous materials
- Driving
- Intense physical activity
- Operating machinery or heavy equipment
The brain’s ability to heal
Developing research is helping to explain why every individual TBI is a bit different and why some experience symptoms much longer or more intensely than others.
“Researchers have found that brain injuries that have the same cause, that result from the same amount of force and intensity of impact, and that affect the same exact regions, can lead to very different symptoms in different people,” says the American Brain Institute.
This may be because of neuroplasticity and the brain being far less static than originally assumed. Neuroplasticity also plays a key role in cognition and learning.
While possible for some people to heal completely from a TBI, there may still be risks for later in life, such as dementia. Researchers are still investigating these links and ways to address them — which is why it’s best to consult a trusted health care provider when you experience a TBI.
Often, TBIs are misdiagnosed or under diagnosed, especially in busy emergency departments. There’s also developing research on the best ways to heal from a TBI. Generally for concussions, it’s recommended to rest for a few days, limit screen time, bright lights, and intense concentration. These may slow your healing progress.
For high-income professionals, it can be tempting to return to work as soon as possible, especially when there are deadlines, but taking the necessary time to heal will be more beneficial in the long run.
Do you need a lawyer?
Dealing with a TBI and returning to work as a high-income professional is understandably frustrating, especially when you cannot complete tasks you once had no problem with. When you’re hurt in a crash at the hands of another person, you’re entitled to compensation for that injury and what it costs you.
Staff at Bay Area Bicycle Law are experts in how cyclists are affected by crash injuries such as TBIs. Our promise to our clients is that we always work in their best interest, empathize and include clients in the decision-making process, and work to maximize the take-home settlement.
An informed lawyer in this specialty can make a difference. Call (415) 466-8717 or email [email protected] today for a free consultation.