Mild TBIs vs. Severe TBIs: How Severity Impacts Your California Claim
April 22, 2025- Categories: Personal Injury
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) come in all levels of severity. While an especially mild TBI might eventually heal completely, a serious injury can have lasting negative consequences — and those consequences play a role in shaping your personal injury claim. Here’s what you need to know when it comes to understanding mild TBIs, severe TBIs, and the ways both of them can impact your personal injury claim.
Serious traumatic brain injuries often cost up to $100,000 — and sometimes even more — over a victim’s lifetime. If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury, an experienced personal injury lawyer may be able to help you secure the compensation you need for ongoing medical care.
Understanding Mild TBIs
Every traumatic brain injury falls somewhere on a spectrum of severity. Unless you’re a medical professional, it can be impossible to determine the seriousness of your TBI. Symptoms can vary from person to person, and some major traumatic brain injuries may even seem mild at first. You should never attempt to determine the severity of your head injury on your own. Often, mild TBIs present with the following symptoms:
- Nausea or vomiting
- Confusion or trouble thinking clearly
- Trouble focusing
- Dizziness or problems with balance
- Headaches
- Sensitivity to light
- Blurry vision
- Fatigue
- Anxiousness or irritability.
More than 75% of all traumatic brain injuries are considered mild. With a mild TBI, the symptoms will usually disappear on their own in weeks or months. However, you should always follow your doctor’s instructions for healing as completely as possible. One of the most important instructions to follow is to avoid getting another head injury. Second impact syndrome is a condition where your brain rapidly swells if you get a second head injury too soon after an initial one. In many cases, it can be fatal.
Understanding Severe TBIs
In many ways, the symptoms of severe TBIs are similar to those of mild TBIs. However, they tend to be more pronounced and last longer. These are some of the common symptoms of serious TBIs:
- Loss of consciousness
- Problems with balance and coordination
- Issues with any of the five senses
- Short-term memory loss
- Confusion, disorientation, or cognitive difficulties
- Anger, depression, impulsivity, or uncharacteristic mood swings
- Personality changes.
If you have a severe TBI, getting medical treatment as soon as possible is vital. If you do not seek medical treatment or your TBI is treated improperly, you may be at risk for seizures, permanent brain damage, shorter life expectancy, and brain bleeds.
No matter how severe your traumatic brain injury is, the most important thing you can do for yourself after seeking medical treatment is to contact a personal injury attorney. Call 888-407-2955 today to set up a free consultation with Neale & Fhima.
How Severity Impacts Your California Claim
Determining Compensation Is Complex
In general, more severe injuries tend to result in higher personal injury verdicts or settlements. But what exactly makes an injury “severe”? There’s some subjectivity here, and the process of determining how much your case may be worth depends on more factors than you may realize.
It’s a common misconception that you shouldn’t seek compensation for a mild TBI. Some so-called “mild” injuries can still cause you to lose significant income, and they can cost thousands in medical bills. When you book your free consultation with us, we can take a look at your case and determine whether it would be in your best interests to file a claim. Here’s a look at how the severity of your TBI can impact your personal injury claim.
High Medical Bills
When people consider compensation for an injury, medical bills are usually what they think of first. Regardless of severity, a TBI requires medical attention. However, severe TBIs often require stabilization in the ICU, inpatient care, in-hospital rehabilitation, and other more intensive kinds of treatment. They also tend to cause long-term symptoms requiring ongoing medical care. Because the total cost of medical care for a severe TBI is so high, compensation for these claims is often greater.
Assisted Living
In some cases, severe TBIs can make it difficult or impossible for you to take care of yourself. Many people must temporarily hire in-home health care help or stay in inpatient rehab facilities while they heal. If brain damage is severe enough, they may need some kind of assistance for life. This can prove to be extraordinarily costly. At the other end of the spectrum, people with mild TBIs can safely heal at home as long as they are under the care of a doctor.
Loss of Income
A TBI might make it impossible for you to work for a time. It may also permanently diminish your earning capacity. Settlements are meant to compensate you for the wages you’ve lost, but your individual circumstances can have a significant effect. For example, if you are a highly paid doctor who could not work for five months after a TBI, your compensation (or at least the compensation for lost wages) would be greater than compensation for someone who worked at a grocery store before their TBI.
Impact on Quality of Life
Determining compensation for non-economic damages — like the impact on your quality of life — is more complex than reimbursing you for medical costs. The general idea is to offer you more compensation for more significant impacts on your day-to-day life. For instance, you would be likely to receive greater compensation for a TBI that gave you long-lasting blurry vision and balance issues than for one that gave you occasional headaches.
The Role of a Personal Injury Attorney
At Neale & Fhima, We’re Here for You
If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury, you shouldn’t be forced to handle the financial, physical, and social costs of this serious injury alone. Some people might believe seeking compensation is just trying to “take advantage” of a bad situation, but if they understood the sheer cost of a TBI, they would understand why this step is so necessary. The right personal injury attorney will fight to get you every penny of the compensation you deserve.
At Neale & Fhima, we are committed to holding negligent people accountable and ensuring injured people get the compensation they deserve to lead full lives. Call 888-407-2955 today to book your free consultation.
Attorney Aaron Fhima
Aaron Fhima is a trial attorney who has secured numerous settlements and verdicts against large corporations and some of the largest auto manufacturers in the world. Representing consumers and injury victims throughout the state of California, Aaron’s practice areas include personal injury, and lemon law litigation. Aaron has a long record of success taking on large defense firms; and he doesn’t hesitate to take cases to trial when necessary to enforce his clients’ rights. [ Attorney Bio ]
