Alabama Brain Injury Lawyer

Epidural Hematoma

The legal team at McAleer Law often assists clients who are faced with the lifelong changes a brain injury can bring about. Brain injuries can be caused by any trauma to the head and can be caused even if there is not a direct blow to the head, such as in a severe case of whiplash.  In the context of a nursing home, falls often lead to severe head injuries and an lawyer should be consulted to review such a case to determine if the nursing home negligence caused the fall.  In severe motorcycle accidents brain injuries are common and an Alabama personal injury attorney is an advisor you need in your corner when dealing with the party at fault for causing a loved one a severe head injury.   

Often, there is initial unconsciousness, temporary recovery, and relapse in this type of injury. Unfortunately the severity of the injury is not immediately recognized and patients are not taken directly to the hospital.  The bleeding can be slow but insidious.  Furthermore, fluid in a closed space cannot be further compressed.  The fluid-blood in the case of a hematoma-can build up between a rock-like skull and the soft, pudding-like substance of the brain.  The blood can only compress the brain as there is nowhere else for it to go. As the pool of blood grows, symptoms worsen. The red flags in these cases included the following:  initial unconsciousness after the injury, nausea, a "lucid interval" during which the victim is walking and speaking, a second loss of consciousness, and anisocoria (unequal pupil size) with an unresponsive pupil. 

The dura is very adherent to the inside of the skull.  When the skull is indented, or a bone fragment moves inward, the branches of the middle meningeal artery may be torn. Like the superficial temporal artery in the scalp, the middle meningeal is a branch of the external carotid artery.  If underlying tissue is not disrupted, only epidural bleeding occurs.  If the vessels beneath the dura mater are injured and begin to bleed, the blood spreads out over the brain between the dura mater and the spiderweb-like arachnoid mater. This is called a subdural hematoma because it is under the dura mater.  The veins draining into the superior venous sinus are often injured in cases of traumatic subdural hematoma. 

The epidural hematoma can grow until the dura is torn away from its adhesions to the skull. As blood continues to collect in this newly formed "epidural space," it compresses the brain.  As the brain is pushed inward by the blood, the medial portion of the temporal lobe is forced under part of the dura mater called the tentorium cerebelli.  This small herniation causes pressure on the reticular formation, the part of the brain stem that is partly responsible for our state of consciousness.  When one losses consciousness a second time, other symptoms of intracranial pressure appear.  One of these symptoms was a dilated pupil on the injured side. This is common in epidural hemorrhage since the oculomotor nerve (cranial nerve III), which controls pupil contraction and most of the eye movements, is near the site of brain herniation and as a result is compressed.

If you've suffered a severe brain injury, contact an Alabama Brain Injury Attorney at McAleer Law for the aggressive legal representation you will need to help you fight for the maximum possible monetary compensation for your injuries.