You might have heard of traumatic brain injuries before, which doctors sometimes abbreviate as TBIs. Brain injuries can change someone’s life forever since the brain controls all of the body’s functions and also all of its involuntary responses. We all need our brains to function and survive, but they only have limited healing capabilities following an injury.
If one of your family members suffers a TBI, that can change the entire group dynamic. Let’s look at some of the most critical ways all of your lives might be different if a family member sustains a traumatic brain injury.
You Might Not Have Their Income Stream Anymore
One thing you should understand is that seizures often accompany TBIs, so that is one symptom for which you must be on the lookout. Seizures can occur in up to 50% of the individuals who sustain a TBI.
If one of the adults in your family suffers a TBI, you might not have their income stream anymore because they may not be able to work. Eventually, they might recover enough so that they can return to their former duties. That depends entirely on the injury’s extent.
If they cannot work, then collectively, you’ll need to come up with other revenue streams to support the family. It’s possible that the afflicted person might be able to collect disability payments. That will likely depend on whether the injury occurred when they were at work or doing something work-related.
You Might Have to Take Care of the Injured Family Member
If a family member sustains a TBI, it can impact them in all kinds of different ways. They might not be able to hear as well anymore, or their sequencing and organisational skills may suffer. They may no longer understand spoken language.
Perhaps they can no longer speak or concentrate. Their impulse control might no longer be there, or they might get emotional when very little happens because they can no longer control themselves.
They might have motor skill problems, or perhaps they can’t sleep as well as they used to. It all depends on what brain portion the TBI injured, but whatever the case might be, it’s going to challenge the other family members since this individual will need daily help.
This may mean that one, or multiple, family members need to step up to take care of the individual, or the family instead has to make the hard decision to move the injured family member into an assisted living facility. You can click here to discover more about why it can be extremely beneficial to move a family member suffering with a TBI into a facility designed to consistently meet their needs and improve their quality of life.
It Might Be Hard to Explain to the Younger Family Members What Happened
Perhaps the injured family member is a parent. If there are young children in the picture, they may have known that individual when they were a certain way. Now, the children might barely recognize them because of how differently they act.
It will not be easy for the remaining family members to explain to the kids why their parent is no longer the person that they remember. In time, the children might familiarize themselves with the situation, but they will probably miss the parental relationship that they once had, and now, it is likely gone forever.
You May Not Be Able to Do the Things the Family Once Enjoyed
It could be that the whole family liked to do things that you now cannot. For instance, maybe you’d all planned to go on an exotic vacation somewhere. Now, you may not be able to do that, for fear that the individual with the TBI will not enjoy themselves.
Maybe you all used to like going to ballgames or to the park for picnics. The individual who suffered the TBI may no longer want to do those things or might no longer appreciate them. If the TBI is severe, they might not even know their location when you try to take them along on family outings.
You Might Face Months or Years of Litigation
You might know that the afflicted individual suffered the TBI while at work, in a store, in someone’s home, etc. You could decide that you should pursue a lawsuit on their behalf. For example, if your family member fell in a store, you might pursue a premises liability lawsuit for them.
If you’re in this situation, it can take a long time for a jury to determine liability or for the guilty party to offer a settlement amount. Whether you win the lawsuit or not will matter a great deal since you probably need the money that is at stake to help pay for the injured family member’s daily care.
A TBI can affect not just the injured party. It can also change a family dynamic entirely.
