The “invisible” nature of the injury means that victims of TBI do not always receive timely treatment to prevent any possible physical and/or cognitive handicaps. This is just one of many reasons why you should contact a San Diego brain injury lawyer if you have sustained an injury. The medical charts of TBI victims often make no mention of a “head injury” or a “cognitive impairment”. Only after a health care professional has diagnosed the victims with TBI–and this often occurs much later–does treatment for the injury begin. Another reason to contact a San Diego brain injury lawyer immediately is that many will argue your conditions were preexisting. According to the CDC database, only persistent mental illness and mental retardation top the number of TBIs per year in the United States:
- Persistent mental illness: 5.4 million;
- Mental retardation: 7.2 million.
The estimate is for around 2 million people per year who end up suffering a traumatic brain injury. One person every fifteen seconds in the United States will sustain a TBI. Moreover, around 1 million people are treated for traumatic brain injuries and then released from hospitals, most often the emergency room, each year. Of these folks, 230,000 Americans require hospitalization (not just emergency room treatment); 80,000 Americans suffer from long-term disability as a result of a TBI; and more than 50,000 people die from TBIs each year.
