Communication Disabilities from Traumatic Brain Injuries

When a person suffers a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, he or she may lose certain mental abilities as a result of the damage to the brain. In particular, an individual can develop language disorders that prevent him or her from communicating effectively. This can be frustrating and often life-altering, as a communication disability may prevent a person from returning to work or participating in activities that he or she once enjoyed. Although medical treatment may be available to mitigate the damage, treatment costs may be prohibitively expensive.

What Causes Language Loss?

When a person sustains significant brain damage, they may experience a loss of their basic language skills. These communication skills are crucial for many peoples’ jobs and can quickly make life more difficult at home if they’re lost due to an unexpected disability. Language disorders occur for various reasons, but some people may develop these serious hardships due to someone else’s negligent errors. Some of the following negligent mistakes may lead to an injured individual developing a range of serious language disorders or disabilities that can dramatically affect their life and well-being:

• Traumatic brain injuries, such as from slip and fall accidents or vehicle collisions
• Traumatic injuries to the speech organs or nearby nerves
• Traumatic injuries to the fingers or nearby nerves, which can affect written language skills
• Medical malpractice leading to excessive swelling around the brain or tissue death

In addition to these problems, other disabilities can lead to a loss or detriment of certain Language skills. Blindness and deafness, for example, can make reading or listening impossible, although a person’s actual language creation and comprehension skills may go unaffected.

Common Types of Communication Disabilities From Traumatic Brain Injuries

Communication disorders resulting in language loss can vary greatly depending on the severity of the traumatic brain injury and the area of the brain that suffers damage. The following are common communication disabilities that can result from a TBI:

• Loss of fluent speaking abilities
• Loss of language comprehension, but not hearing loss
• Inability to write legibly
• Inability to write without severe pain
• Inability to read
• Weakened mechanical speech functions, causing pitch, tone, and volume problems

These language problems can directly affect an injured individual’s professional and personal lives.

The Costs of Language Loss

Traumatic brain injuries can cause serious, life-altering damage to certain brain areas responsible for creating and understanding language. Losing the ability to properly communicate can be extremely devastating, not only in a person’s personal life, as they may find themselves unable to communicate with loved ones, but also in their professional life, as it may cause them to lose their current job or be unable to work at all. Sadly, these injuries often occur due to a negligent mistake, such as a dangerous safety error at work or an automotive accident.

The Financial Strains of Language Loss

The consequences of losing important language abilities can seriously disrupt a person’s life, both in terms of personal and professional aspirations. In particular, the following costs and treatments may be necessary, depending on what kind of disability a person develops as a result of their injuries:

• Cognitive therapy to restore language creation abilities
• Speech therapy to retrain the speech organs to work correctly
• Use of medications that make the brain more receptive to therapy
• Surgical intervention in particularly serious cases
• Job and career changes, if necessary
• Inability to collect wages while recovering

Fortunately, compensation may cover the full medical costs, from direct treatments to long-term rehabilitation, when another person caused the traumatic brain injury responsible for language loss.

Contact Us

At Hach & Rose, LLP, you should not be forced to shoulder the financial burdens of an injury caused by someone else’s negligent or reckless conduct. If you have sustained a brain injury that leads to a language disability, you may be able to hold the other party financially accountable for their actions. Our traumatic brain injury attorneys can help you take legal action to fight for the compensation you deserve. To learn more about your rights to remuneration, contact a New York personal injury lawyer at our offices today by calling 212-779-0057.