Brain injuries commonly occur as a result of Miami car accidents, falls, and other accidents. Any serious brain injury can result in loss of cognitive function, memory, and other skills. Many Miami brain injury patients, however, suffer permanent injuries, while others spend many months or years trying to recover from their injuries.
While any brain injury can be devastating, there is evidence that teens may be more vulnerable to brain injuries when compared with adults and young children. According to research published in the Brain Injury journal, teens who had sustained traumatic brain injuries fared worse on tests checking working memory six months after their accidents than children and adults in the same situation. The tests administered to the brain injury victims tested the ability of the brain to store and handle short-term information. This skill is very important in learning.
The study was authored by David Ellemberg of the University of Montreal. According to Ellemberg, one reason why teens may suffer more from a traumatic brain injury is that the frontal lobe goes through a growth spurt during the teen years. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain in charge of working memory and when it grows suddenly during the teen years, Ellemberg believes that it is more delicate and more vulnerable to concussions and other types of injury.
According to Ellemberg, one of the concerns with the research is that it shows that much traditional thinking about brain injury is incorrect. For example, many people assume that children’s brains and teens’ brains are less vulnerable because they are still growing, whereas the new research shows that the opposite is true. Another concern for Ellemberg is that working memory is essential for everyone – problems with working memory can make it very hard for brain injury patients to multitask, learn, and take part in everyday activities.
There are other concerns with the research, too. Florida teens are already very vulnerable to brain injuries. The teen years are usually a time of trying new things, getting a driver’s license, and branching out. Unfortunately, many teens each year are injured in Miami truck accidents, traffic accidents, and sports-related accidents. In many cases, these types of accidents lead to traumatic brain injury. If the new study is right in finding that teens may suffer from brain injuries more than adults, teen Miami brain injury victims may find themselves with a longer recovery time, higher medical costs, and more symptoms, just because of their age.
If you have sustained a Miami brain injury, contact the Flaxman Law Group today for a free accident consultation to discuss your case. The Flaxman Law Group has phones staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that you can always reach a live person. As a full-service law firm, the Flaxman Law Group has already worked with thousands of South Florida personal injury and brain injury victims. Call today to find out what the legal team at the Flaxman Law Group can do for you. Your case could be worth more than you realize.