Traumatic Head Injury to Infants Can Occur in Car Accidents

Car accidents are painful, expensive occurrences that can cause immeasurable damage and even death. However, never are they more painful than when a child is affected. Head trauma from a car accident is especially dangerous to the small, delicate bodies of infants and young children. 

Approximately 80% of deaths in small children are caused from head trauma and in 5% of those children death occurs instantaneously. Injuries to the head, even an adult head, are complex and complicated. They require long hospital stays and approximately 5% of childhood head trauma accidents require long term medical care afterward.

Head injuries can include a plethora of primary injuries such as concussions, skull fractures, basilar skull fracture, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, scalp wounds and contusions. These types of injuries also occur as a result of child abuse and recreational activities.

Scalp sounds and lacerations are extremely serious in children and infants. An infant or small child with a scalp laceration can experience hypotension and shock. Scalp lacerations are almost always overlaying a skull fracture.

Infant skull fractures can be comminuted, depressed, diastatic or linear. Almost 90% of skull fractures in infants are linear and may or may not have an overlaying laceration. 

In a diastatic fracture the sutures of the skull are widened by a  fracture line that crosses one or more sutures of the skull. This happens to infants because the sutures of their skulls are not fully fused. These types of skull fractures can occur alone or in conjunction with other fractures. 

Infants with a depressed skull fracture experience pressure on the brain from a dislocated slice of bone from the skull. This is especially dangerous for infants. Bleeding on the brain can occur as well as damage to the fragile brain tissue. This type of injury varies in levels of pressure and can sometimes be remedied with surgery if the bone fragment is only slightly pressing on the brain.

A blow to the back of the head causes basilar skull fracture. Symptoms can include seizures, loss of consciousness, and a variety of neurological symptoms. This type of fracture occurs in approximately 14% of pediatric head trauma victims.

Comminuted fractures are those in which the bone of the skull is fractured or splintered into a number of pieces or even crushed completely. This type of fracture usually takes the form of broken noses and facial bones but can be even more serious if the impact was particularly forceful.   

The least dangerous of all infant head trauma issues is the concussion. There are little to no signs of neurological damage, however, infants may demonstrate signs of post traumatic seizures, vomiting and extreme drowsiness. 

Car accidents that include injury or death to an infant or small child are especially harrowing. More often than not, these accidents also require the surviving parents to obtain psychological help and grief counseling. Post traumatic stress may also become an issue. 

While there is no solution to the pain of these incidents, the help of a christian attorney such as Moseley Collins can be a lifesaver.  Someone with compassion and a drive to assist the surviving victims is priceless.