Brain Injuries in Children

Traumatic brain injuries are injuries to the brain that are caused by external physical forces and may produce physical and cognitive impairments. For parents in East Tennessee, brain injuries to their children may be devastating, particularly if the impairments are expected to be disabling over the course of a child's life. Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of disability and death in children in the U.S. Knowledgeable Knoxville brain injury lawyer Mark Hartsoe can help your child and you seek damages if someone else was at fault for your child's brain injuries.

Brain injuries may dramatically change a child's future as well as the future of their family. They may arise in the context of car accidents, motorcycle crashes, truck wrecks, and dangerous property conditions, among other situations. If your child's brain injuries were the fault of someone else, your child and you may be able to recover compensation for your losses. In most cases, plaintiffs must establish negligence by proving that the defendant's actions lacked reasonable care and that the lack was what caused their injuries. When a brain injury is a result of medical malpractice, we will need to establish a health care professional's negligence by presenting expert testimony.

Brain injuries in children are sometimes a result of an accidental drowning. Landowners owe a duty to lawful visitors to keep their property, including swimming pools, in good repair and to provide warnings about any dangers that are not open and obvious. In Tennessee, a property owner may even be liable for a child trespasser's brain injuries if the property owner maintained a dangerous condition, the owner knew that children were likely playing in the area, the danger was hidden, the usefulness to the property owner of maintaining the dangerous condition and the burden of eliminating it were significantly outweighed by the foreseeable risk that a child would trespass and be harmed, and the property owner failed to use reasonable care to eliminate the danger to children.

If you prove the defendant's liability, you may recover compensatory damages on behalf of your child, including medical costs, lifetime care costs, rehabilitation costs, mental anguish, and pain and suffering. The stress placed on parents after a child suffers a brain injury may be tremendous. As a parent, you may be able to recover damages not only for your child but also for yourself.

If you witness your child suffering a brain injury in Tennessee, you may be able to recover damages for your emotional distress through a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim. You would need to show that your child's accident and your emotional harm were proximate and foreseeable consequences of the defendant's negligence. Foreseeability requires a consideration of several factors. Most importantly, you must have been sufficiently close to the accident that produced the brain injury to observe it with your own senses, and the injury must have been reasonably perceived to be serious or fatal.

If you are concerned about a potential brain injury after an accident, you should consult not only a doctor but also Knoxville brain injury attorney Mark Hartsoe. Call the Hartsoe Law Firm at 865-804-1011 or contact us via our online form to set up a free consultation. Mark Hartsoe represents people who need a premises liability attorney or guidance in other personal injury claims throughout East Tennessee, including in Knox, Blount, Monroe, Loudon, Jefferson, Grainger, Cocke, Campbell, Hamblen, Greene, Anderson, Cumberland, and Fentress Counties.