Strokes and Infarctions
Strokes and infarctions can cause serious brain injuries that can leave a victim with a lifetime of disability, unable to work to support their families, and unable to take care of themselves. The cost of the medical care required for the lifetime of a severely impaired victim of a stroke injury is also astronomical. These serious medical emergencies can result from chronic pathologies such as heart disease (including high blood pressure and high cholesterol), and can also result due to direct trauma to the brain that causes a traumatic brain injury or trauma to the vascular system of the body that causes a blood clot or other intravenous debris (such as arterial plaque) to break off and travel to the brain.
If you or a loved one have suffered a stroke or infarction that has caused a serious brain injury, the expert brain injury attorneys at Jesse Minc Personal Injury Law are standing by to help you get the answers you deserve, and may also be able to obtain substantial compensation if negligence – whether in the form of medical malpractice, or in connection with a serious accident – is to blame. Call us today at (718) 354-8000, or contact us online, to learn more about whether you may be entitled to compensation if you suffer a brain injury. If we accept your case, our Bronx stroke attorneys will help you determine the exact cause of your stroke injury, will help you to hold those responsible accountable, and will hire the proper experts – ranging from expert physicians to prove the cause of your injuries, to life care planners and rehabilitation experts to explain your lifetime medical needs, to financial professionals to quantify the economic effect of your lifetime lost wages and medical costs – to make sure that your case is properly proven if you suffer a stroke or cerebral infarction injury due to negligence.
What is a Stroke? What is an Infarction? How do These Medical Emergencies Cause Brain Damage?
A stroke refers to the death of brain tissue due to a lack of blood flow to the brain. Strokes can be caused by a rupture of an artery that carries blood to the brain, which prohibits oxygen-rich blood from reaching brain tissue and thus causing brain damage and brain tissue death. Strokes can also be caused when a blood clot or other piece of intravenous material (such as arterial plaque) is caused to get stuck in the arteries and capillaries feeding blood to the brain, cutting off blood flow and causing damage and tissue death in the brain due to a lack of oxygen. These pieces of intravenous material are often referred to as “emboli” or “thrombi”, depending upon the type of material (i.e., whether the material is a blood clot or other type of intravenous material).
An infarction, referred to as a “Cerebral Infarction” in context of a brain injury, refers to the death of brain tissue due to the restriction of blood supply to the brain. Strokes, whatever their cause, can cause Cerebral Infarctions if they are not promptly diagnosed and treated. Once a Cerebral Infarction occurs, if blood flow is not restored to the area of damaged brain tissue quickly, the dead tissue can swell and the infarction can grow (i.e., more of the surrounding brain tissue in the area of the Cerebral Infarction can die), causing more severe functional damage to the brain. The effects of a Cerebral Infarction on a brain injury victim will vary depending upon the exact location within the brain of the infarction, as well as the length of time in which the brain is deprived of adequate blood flow.
Can Strokes and Infarctions Be Caused by Medical Malpractice?
Strokes, and resultant Cerebral Infarctions, are often the product of medical malpractice including failures to diagnose that a patient is experiencing a stroke, or due to surgical errors or prescription medication errors that cause a stroke to occur in the first place. Often, strokes are considered to be accepted risks of surgeries and the use of certain prescription medications; however, it is most often the failure of doctors to recognize and properly treat stroke conditions as they are occurring, or after they have occurred, that forms the basis for a strong medical malpractice case involving a stroke or infarction. Unfortunately, another common cause of a stroke due to medical malpractice is mismanagement of an orthopedic injury requiring that an injured accident victim wear a cast, which can cause blood clots (thrombi) to develop in the injured appendage under the cast, break off, and travel to the brain if the injured patient is not properly monitored.
Contact our Bronx stroke lawyers today at (718) 354-8000 if you believe that you or a loved one has suffered a stroke or cerebral infarction due to medical malpractice. We will help you determine whether medical malpractice is the culprit, and will help you obtain the compensation to which you are entitled if medical malpractice causes you to suffer a stroke.
An example can best illustrate how a failure to diagnose an impending stroke can result in a severe brain injury. Imagine a situation in which a patient walks in to a hospital emergency room with complaints of severe pain in his left groin and leg areas, which is exacerbated by exercise, as well as a “pins and needles” feeling in the left hip and groin area which causes him to have an unsteady gait (i.e., he has trouble walking). He tells the doctors that this has been ongoing for approximately a year, and has been getting worse recently. The physicians at the emergency room diagnose him with muscle spasms and send him home with a prescription for muscle relaxers. The patient follows up with his primary care physician, and relays the same complaints, and receives the same diagnosis. The patient, having done some research online, requests a referral to a cardiologist, and his primary care physician reluctantly provides the referral. The patient goes to the cardiologist, who examines the patient and explains to the patient that he believes the patient is simply experiencing muscle spasms, the very same diagnosis as was provided at the hospital and by the patient’s primary care physician.
The day after seeing the cardiologist, the patient begins experiencing drooping of his face and slurred speech, and goes immediately to an emergency room where he is diagnosed with a serious stroke that resulted from a blood clot in his left groin embolizing and traveling to his brain, causing a stroke and cerebral infarction. In this example, the first emergency room (both the hospital itself, as well as the doctors at the emergency room), the primary care physician and the cardiologist would all be guilty of medical malpractice for filing to diagnose that this patient was symptomatic of a blood clot that would ultimately cause a stroke.
How Can Serious Accidents Cause Strokes and Infarctions?
Traumatic accidents such as serious car accidents are often the cause of strokes and resultant ischemic cerebral infarctions. When a person’s body is subjected to trauma, this can directly cause a blood clot to form and embolize, or can knock intra-arterial matter such as arterial plaque loose, allowing it to travel to the brain and cause a stroke. Also, when a serious accident causes a broken bone that must be treated with a cast or otherwise immobilized, blood clots can form under the cast, and can break loose and travel to the brain, causing a stroke. Traumatic brain injuries are also commonly associated with strokes, as direct head trauma can also cause blood clots to form which cause strokes to occur in addition to the direct damage done to the brain when a traumatic brain injury occurs.
Contact Our Team of Expert Brain Injury Lawyers Today for a Free Consultation
Our team of expert Bronx brain injury attorneys has a long track record of obtaining compensation for victims of strokes, cerebral infarctions and traumatic brain injuries caused by the negligence of others. Whether due to medical malpractice, a serious car accident, or any other type of accident, our brain injury lawyers are standing by to help you and you family in your time of need. We offer peace of mind to our clients by ensuring that every client has his or her attorney’s cell phone number so that questions about their cases are answered promptly, and the client is kept informed of all major developments in their case in a timely manner. We believe that our “human touch” is among the attributes that separates us from many other personal injury law firms, and offer to lend a helping hand to you and your family if you are the victim of negligence that causes a brain injury such as a stroke, infarction or traumatic brain injury.
