Brain trauma occurs due to a wide variety of causes. This injury may cause disability or death. It sometimes also causes problems with communication, damage to cognitive abilities, difficulty concentrating, problems with mobility, faulty decision making and memory loss. About 200,000 people in America die each year due to brain trauma, notes Brainline.
Car Accident
When a motor vehicle accident occurs a person may bang their head against the car's steering wheel or dashboard. This may cause injury to the brain, notes Brainline. The brain injury may be readily apparent due to lack of consciousness or bleeding. However, some head injuries only cause problems after time has passed. The Centers for Disease Control notes that car accidents cause 31.8 percent of all traumatic brain injury linked deaths.
Object Penetrates Brain
Some forms of brain trauma are due to an object penetrating the brain matter. Items such as bullets, a knife, a pen or pencil and many other items may suddenly penetrate the brain and cause trauma. An object may be propelled into the brain intentionally during violence or by accident such as being hit in the head by a bullet while hunting.
Child Abuse
Child abuse causes far too many brain trauma injuries. When an infant is shaken vigorously, closed head damage may occur to the brain; it may be fatal. Also, children of all ages may suffer brain trauma due to child abuse when an adult hits them in the head with a fist or a blunt object. Child abuse is endemic. Too many children die due to brain injuries that occur during child abuse.
Teen Violence
Teenagers are often very rough with each other. During fights at school a student may be knocked down and kicked in the head or hit in the head with a school book or something like a baseball bat. These injuries to the head may cause brain trauma and even death.
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence too often results in very serious injuries, including brain trauma. Blows to the head with fists or a blunt object may cause severe brain damage. Being knocked over and banging the head on the floor, a counter or the hard edge of a table may also cause brain trauma. Accidents and brain trauma happen very quickly if someone is enraged and takes that anger out on a domestic partner or spouse.
Athletic Injuries
A sharp blow to the head by another player's foot or the ball may result in concussion and also other types of brain trauma. Slamming into the ground during a tackle or a fall may also injure the brain of an athlete. Also, in sports like skiing or bike riding brain trauma may occur when the athlete may slam into a tree, the ground or another person at high speed. This may cause severe brain damage.
A Fall
A fall in the home and outdoors are a common cause of brain trauma. The Centers for Disease Control states that falls are the leading cause of traumatic brain injury. When kids are running in the house they may slip and go flying into a hard object; this may cause brain trauma. The elderly may trip on something like a rug or an object on the floor. Then when the head hits a hard floor or other object during a fall brain trauma may occur. People of any age may suffer a fall outside when winter brings icy sidewalks or by slipping on wet leaves, debris or other items on a lawn or sidewalk.
Crime
During an assault or a robbery the head may be hit with a weapon or penetrated by an object. Criminals often attack from behind with a blunt object to knock out the person to obtain any jewelry he or she is wearing or the person's wallet. Thus, brain trauma may occur and is sometimes deadly.
Brain Tumor
When a tumor (benign or malignant) arises in the brain, injury to the brain may occur. The tumor may damage nearby cells and brain structures.
