Acquired Brain Injury

Acquired Brain Injury Compensation

An acquired brain injury occurs during life, as opposed to one that you are born with. If you or a loved one has suffered an acquired brain injury due to the negligence of a medical professional, we can help you claim compensation.

What Causes An Acquired Brain Injury?

Acquired brain injuries (ABIs) can be caused by an accident, an infection, a stroke, or a lack of oxygen to the brain. There are occasions when negligent medical treatment from doctors, dentists, and other health professionals can result in varying degrees of brain damage to their patients.

That’s where we can help. We help people get the compensation they deserve for brain injuries caused by medical negligence.

We Can Help You Claim Compensation For:

• Failure or delay in diagnosing subarachnoid haemorrhage
• Failure or delay in diagnosing strokes
• Delay or failure in diagnosing aneurysms (widened blood vessels)
• Failure or delay in diagnosing tumours
• Surgical errors
• Anaesthetic errors
• Failure to diagnose and treat infections e.g. meningitis in children and adults
• Blocked shunts leading to hydrocephalus (a build-up of fluid on the brain)

The consequences of a brain injury can be catastrophic to the individual, and to their family and friends. They can become totally dependent on others for all activities of daily living. This may involve consideration of finances, 24-hour care, and adaptations to the home. Although a financial award does not compensate for the life-changing effects of a brain injury caused by negligence, it does help to relieve some of the concerns that need to be addressed.

Could You Make a Compensation Claim?

Due to the complex medical and legal issues involved you need to talk to a specialist brain injury negligence solicitor. We understand all the implications of an acquired brain injury and can maximise your compensation if your claim is successful.

Our specialist team is led by Linda Schermer-Jones, who is a dual qualified doctor/Solicitor. With the benefit of medical knowledge and experience dealing with brain injury claims, we can help you with all aspects of your compensation claim.

We are happy to offer free confidential and professional advice on potential clinical negligence claims. Just give us a call on 01244 354688 or visit our contact page.

Delayed or Failed Diagnosis of a Stroke?

A stroke is a serious condition and happens when the blood supply is cut off to part of the brain. If a medical professional fails to diagnose and treat a stroke correctly and in a timely manner, then the patient may suffer from an acquired brain injury. If you believe that you have suffered from an acquired brain injury due to the negligence of a doctor, please contact us.

There are two main types of stroke;

• Ischaemic (which is when the blood flow through a blood vessel is blocked – by a clot for instance).
• Haemorrhagic (which is when a blood vessel bursts and there is a bleed).

However, in both instances an area of the brain is starved of blood supply and thus of oxygen. This causes an injury to that part of the brain.

The sooner the blood supply can be restored, the smaller the brain injury and the better the outcome. This means that you must be diagnosed urgently so that the appropriate treatment can be started as soon as possible.

It is also very important that doctors determine the type of the stroke before they begin treatment. This is because ischaemic strokes are treated differently than haemorrhagic strokes. Treatment also depends on what part of the brain has been affected. Most strokes can be treated with medication but some patients will require an operation.

Common symptoms of a stroke:

• Facial droop on one side of the face
• The inability to lift one or both arms
• Slurred speech or the inability to talk
• Dizziness
• Sudden loss of vision
• Severe headache
• Numbness down one side of the body

The timing of investigations and the treatment of suspected strokes have been the subject of national guidelines so that doctors and nurses know what to do. You can find these guidelines by clicking on the following link: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG68

If you think you may have a claim, give us a ring on 01244 354688. We will give you free, confidential, and professional advice.

Case studies:

We help lots of clients every year just like you claim the compensation they deserve. Below is a case study. This demonstrates how we have helped clients claim compensation for acquired brain injuries in the past. Please be aware that the compensation amounts depend on the client’s individual situation and experiences. Therefore, to see how much your claim could be worth, please contact us directly.

Case Study: £2,000,000 in Compensation

• We investigated a claim on behalf of a female 31-year-old client. She suffered from severe headaches and nausea and subsequently underwent brain scans six years ago. She was told that the scans were normal and was not given any follow up at the hospital.
• Our Client’s headaches continued but she tried to get on with her life as normal. Tragically, three years after the scan and just 2 days after giving birth to her baby, she collapsed. She had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage as a result of a ruptured aneurysm in her brain.
• The illness caused our Client to be paralysed down her left side and she is permanently disabled. Our experts were of the opinion that at least one aneurysm was visible on the previous scans. Had this been correctly diagnosed, the aneurysm would have been coiled. Our client would therefore have avoided the ruptured aneurysm and subarachnoid haemorrhage.
• Liability was resolved in our clients favour.
• She achieved £2 million in compensation.