What You Need to Know About Workplace Traumatic Brain Injuries
A head injury at work can affect memory, focus, mood, balance, sleep, speech, and the ability to return to the same job. Even a concussion can disrupt daily life long after the accident.
Workers’ compensation may pay medical bills and partial wage benefits. But a third-party claim may also allow recovery for pain and suffering, full wage loss, future medical and therapeutic care, and reimbursement for future reduced earning ability. The CDC reports approximately 214,110 TBI-related hospitalizations in 2020 and 68,663 TBI-related deaths in 2023. Those figures do not include many TBIs treated only in emergency departments, urgent care, primary care, or not treated at all.
Types of Brain Injury Cases We Handle in Boston
Attorney John J. Sheehan uses his advanced knowledge to represent workers and accident victims with serious head injuries across Boston and Massachusetts.
A concussion may be called “mild” on paper, but the symptoms can interfere with work, driving, sleep, and family life. Headaches, dizziness, light sensitivity, brain fog, and memory issues should not be dismissed.
Some people continue to struggle weeks or months after the accident. Ongoing headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating, irritability, and sleep disruption can affect job performance and earning capacity.
A blow to the head can cause bleeding, swelling, or pressure inside the skull. These injuries may require emergency care, imaging, hospitalization, surgery, and long-term follow-up.
A fractured skull can involve bleeding, nerve damage, seizures, infection risk, and lasting neurological problems.
A serious TBI may cause permanent cognitive, emotional, physical, or speech-related impairments. These cases often require future medical planning, vocational evidence, and strong proof of lost earning capacity.
When a workplace accident or third-party act causes a fatal brain injury, the family may have workers’ compensation death-benefit rights and a separate wrongful death claim, depending on the facts.
Work Accidents Our Boston TBI Lawyer Commonly Handles
Brain injuries happen in many types of workplace and construction accidents, including:
- Falls from heights: aLadders, roofs, scaffolds, staging, lifts, and unprotected edges;
- Falling objects: Tools, beams, debris, building materials, and unsecured loads;
- Struck-by equipment accidents: Forklifts, loaders, cranes, trucks, and jobsite machinery;
- Work-related vehicle crashes: Delivery routes, construction vehicles, company cars, and third-party drivers;
- Slips, trips, and falls: Wet floors, ice, debris, uneven surfaces, and unsafe walkways;
- Workplace assaults: Blows to the head during a job-related assault;
- Equipment failures: Defective ladders, scaffolds, helmets, lifts, machinery, or safety gear.
NIOSH reports that work-related TBIs account for 20% to 25% of work-related trauma and that the construction industry has the greatest number of fatal and nonfatal work-related TBIs among U.S. workplaces.
NIOSH also notes that construction workers face TBI risks from falling or flying objects and falls from elevation, with falls from roofs, ladders, and scaffolds leading to more than half of fatal work-related TBIs.
Symptoms Are Evidence. Start Tracking Them Now.
Headaches, dizziness, memory problems, mood changes, sleep issues, and confusion can shape the value of a TBI claim. A traumatic brain injury lawyer in Boston can help document symptoms before the injurer argues they are unrelated.
Your Two Legal Pathways: Workers’ Compensation AND Third-Party Claim Lawsuits
A workplace TBI may involve more than one claim. If the injury occurred while on the clock, workers’ compensation can provide medical care and some wage benefits. A third-party lawsuit, however, may be available when someone other than your direct employer caused or contributed to the accident.
Massachusetts law (Section 30) requires the workers’ compensation insurer to furnish adequate and reasonable health care services and needed medicines for an injured employee.
If the injury was caused by someone other than the insured employer, though, Massachusetts law (Section 15) allows the employee to receive workers’ compensation benefits and also pursue liability against that outside party.
Who Can Be Liable for a Workplace TBI
A third-party claim may involve:
- General contractors
- Subcontractors
- Property owners
- Equipment manufacturers
- Equipment rental companies
- Maintenance companies
- Delivery drivers or commercial vehicle companies
- Other contractors on the jobsite
This is where an experienced Boston brain injury lawyer can make a major difference: the attorney must separate what workers’ comp pays from what a third-party lawsuit may recover.
When Safety Failures Cause Brain Injuries
Many TBIs are preventable. A fall, a falling object, a missing guardrail, an unsafe scaffold, a defective ladder, an unmarked floor opening, or a poorly controlled work zone can leave a worker with lifelong symptoms.
A traumatic brain injury lawyer in Boston will look for:
- Missing or defective fall protection
- Unsafe scaffolds, ladders, lifts, or platforms
- Unguarded holes or floor openings
- Falling-object hazards
- Missing helmets or wrong helmet type
- Lack of site supervision
- Unsafe work sequencing between trades
- Defective tools, machinery, or equipment
- Prior complaints or ignored hazards
- OSHA reports, photos, witness accounts, and safety records
The goal is to connect the injury to the safety failure and identify every party that had the power to prevent the accident.
Brain Injury Symptoms That Should Be Documented
TBI symptoms can appear right away or hours or days later. The CDC states that mild TBI and concussion symptoms may affect how a person feels, thinks, acts, or sleeps.
Document symptoms such as:
- Headaches
- Dizziness or balance problems
- Vision problems
- Nausea or vomiting
- Fatigue
- Light or noise sensitivity
- Trouble concentrating
- Memory problems
- Brain fog
- Slowed thinking
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Mood changes
- Sleep problems
- Slurred speech
- Seizures
- Confusion or unusual behavior
Emergency care is needed for danger signs such as a worsening headache that won’t go away, repeated vomiting, seizures, weakness, numbness, slurred speech, unusual behavior, confusion, loss of consciousness, or inability to wake up.
Find Out Who Had the Power to Prevent the Accident
Struggling with a brain injury? Our experienced Boston traumatic injury attorney operates on a contingency basis, so you pay nothing unless we win compensation for you.
