Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most undervalued injuries in Nevada car accident claims. Insurance companies routinely argue that a normal CT scan means no significant brain injury occurred — a medically inaccurate position that allows them to offer far less compensation than TBI victims deserve. Understanding how to prove TBI when imaging is normal, and how to fully document the economic and non-economic losses TBI causes, is the foundation of a successful Nevada TBI claim.
The Normal CT Problem
A CT scan at the emergency room is optimized to detect acute bleeding, fractures, and large structural abnormalities — not the microscopic axonal shearing and white matter disruption that cause most post-concussive symptoms. A normal CT is not evidence that no significant brain injury occurred; it is evidence that no hemorrhage or skull fracture occurred. The injuries that cause cognitive fog, memory deficits, processing speed slowing, emotional dysregulation, sleep disruption, and persistent headache are not visible on standard CT and often not visible on standard MRI. Advanced neuroimaging tools — diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) — can detect white matter tract disruption and microhemorrhages invisible on standard imaging. Neuropsychological testing provides objective, standardized measurement of cognitive deficits across domains including attention, working memory, processing speed, and executive function. These tools, combined with expert testimony explaining why normal CT findings do not rule out significant brain injury in symptomatic patients, are the core of a well-presented TBI case.
Economic Damages in Nevada TBI Cases
TBI economic damages include acute medical care, neurological consultation, neuropsychological evaluation, cognitive rehabilitation, and ongoing neurological follow-up. For moderate to severe TBI, a life care plan projects future medical and support needs including periodic neuropsychological monitoring, medication management, and in severe cases, residential or supported living costs. A forensic economist calculates the present value of lifetime care costs and lost earning capacity based on the vocational rehabilitation expert assessment of residual work capacity. For younger professionals with severe TBI, lifetime economic damages routinely exceed $2 million. Nevada does not cap compensatory damages in personal injury cases — the full economic loss is recoverable.
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Marathon Law Group represents Nevada car accident victims with traumatic brain injuries. Contact us for a free consultation.