Episode 4 - Traumatic Brain Injury: That was Then This is Now
Las Vegas Brain Injury Blog - Episode 4
THAT WAS THEN THIS IS NOW
Once someone sustains a traumatic brain injury, life changes. The job of the lawyer in proving the “unseen” injury of traumatic brain injury is to provide a believable before and after comparison of the injured person’s abilities. 
Those abilities become the planets in a once familiar galaxy which is now misaligned and, at times, on a collision course with other planets. Acceptance and Creativity are key. Once a person accepts they have new physical difficulties with emotion, cognition components, they can then begin by creatively overcoming them.
Impairments of Traumatic Brain Injury
The Following is a list; not an exhaustive list; but a potential list of abilities that a person may have had change as a result of brain injury. These become manifest due to difficulties with concentration, attention, information processing, irritability and fatigue that is often associated with traumatic brain injury.
1. Job Skills
2. Job Socialization
3. Job Success or Promotion
4. Recreation
5. Social Skills
6. Partner Skills – Spouse/Significant Other
7. Initiation
8. Civic Responsibility
9. Spiritual Commitments
10. Sporting Activities
11. Sexual Intimacy
These are all potential skills that a person may have affected as a result of traumatic brain injury. It is important to note that a person need not suffer alteration in skills in all of these areas. That is something a person who would like to believe there is no injury will point out. People like insurance adjusters, defense attorneys and experts who get paid by the defense. In other words, they submit, if a person can still attend church and go to Sunday school, then the fact that they have been fired from their job due to insubordination, for instance, would make the person unaffected by any potential brain injury.
Impairment Of All Skills Not Necessary to Diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury
However any competent neuropsychologist will tell you that it is not necessary to flunk all tests in a battery to be diagnosed with brain injury. In fact, since all brains and injuries are unique to each person, it is not likely that all test results will be reveal impairment. This is to be expected.
My job is to relate all the data, use all professional and expert evaluations, and expose the misinformation insurance companies create with their manipulation of the data.
