If you have a toddler, you undoubtedly are enjoying watching him or her develop mentally and emotionally. Unfortunately, though, a traumatic brain injury during childhood can interfere with your child’s normal brain development. It also can lead to a lifetime’s worth of complications.
While your child may be vulnerable to a TBI during a fall or sporting accident, motor vehicle accidents continue to be a primary cause of them. If your child has suffered a TBI in a car accident, you should be on alert for the following complications to arise.
Brain functionality
It is not uncommon for children who have severe TBIs to experience lapses in brain functionality. Indeed, after sustaining a head injury, your child may struggle to move, speak, see, hear and taste. If so, your child may require long-term rehabilitation or even round-the-clock care.
Mood changes
As your child naturally develops, he or she may experience mood swings and behavioral changes. For this reason, it can be difficult to identify a TBI until your child falls behind developmentally. Still, if your child’s mood changes drastically in the aftermath of a car accident, he or she may have suffered a TBI.
Death
According to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, car accidents are the top cause of TBI-related deaths for children between the ages of 5 and 18. Even if your child seems mostly fine in the hours or days after a car accident, he or she may have an increased chance of succumbing to a TBI.
Ultimately, because you and your child may forever have to deal with the fallout of a pediatric TBI, it is imperative for you to seek significant financial compensation from the driver who caused the accident that injured your child’s brain.