Mild Traumatic Brian Injuries Can Be Anything But Mild

Mild Traumatic Brian Injuries Can Be Anything But Mild
Posted by: Daniel Sloane
May 29, 2008

As the Past President of the Brain Injury Association of Colorado and an attorney who represents people with traumatic brain injuries, I abhor the use of the word "mild" when talking about a person's brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury is a label that can do more harm than good, from a personal, medical and legal perspective. The term mild traumatic brain injury is simply a label arrived at through medical diagnosis based primarily on the amount of time a person was unconscious or suffered post-traumatic confusion after being injured in an accident.

Basically, the longer the person was unconscious or confused the worse his or her traumatic brain injury is presumed to be. The categories assigned to traumatic brain injuries are mild, moderate and severe. If one is unconscious for less than 20 minutes or confused for less than 24 hours, their traumatic brain injury is considered to be "mild". Based upon my experience representing people with all levels of traumatic brain injury, there is nothing mild about any traumatic brain injury, regardless of how it's labeled or categorized. Time of confusion or unconsciousness is not necessarily an accurate indicator of the severity of a traumatic brain injury.

A better indicator is the effect the traumatic brain injury has on the person. In fact, labeling a person's traumatic brain injury as mild based upon the above criteria is often a disservice to the injured person, their family and friends.

The problem with a system that categorizes traumatic brain injuries based upon time of unconsciousness or confusion is that it completely ignores the actual effect a traumatic brain injury can have on the injured as a person. A mild traumatic brain injury frequently impacts the injured person's family, professional, social and recreational lifestyles. A mild traumatic brain injury can also impact an injured person's ability to perform activities of daily living and essential job functions. If a brain injury has a devastating impact on a person's life it is not at all mild, regardless of how it may have been labeled.

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