A brain injury can significantly change your life. It often depends on the part of the brain that was injured.
For instance, an injury to one part of the brain could lead to motor impairments, meaning you don’t have fine motor skills or that you struggle with mobility. The same injury to another part of the brain could affect your memory or your processing abilities. In some cases, brain injuries lead to long-term personality changes that mean the injured party seems nearly unrecognizable to family and friends.
So, if you have suffered such a serious injury, can you get disability benefits?
Will the injury heal?
A big question to ask at this time is whether or not you’re going to see improvement. If the injury is so severe that you can never walk again, you will likely qualify for benefits since the injury will last for life. But there are other cases where brain injuries do heal with time and people regain their skills, so it may just be a short-term issue.
Healing is difficult for the brain, and it’s different in every case. The brain may have lost neurons that can’t be replaced, so it may seek out new connections and neural pathways. Some patients see healing when the brain finds these pathways, while others hit a plateau when there is no way to recreate the skills and abilities that were lost.
If you’re seeking benefits, it’s important to consider the medical evidence showing how severe your injury is, whether or not you can still work and how long it is expected to last. Be sure you know what legal steps to take at this time.