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MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury that can happen when your head receives a hard blow. Your brain is the most fragile organ in the body with the same texture and consistency as gelatin. Your skull provides a hard protective shell around your brain. A watery substance called cerebrospinal fluid surrounds your brain. Cerebrospinal fluid cushions your brain against impacts with the wall of your skull during everyday head movements. This cushioning effect protects the billions of nerve cells called neurons inside your brain. Each neuron communicates with other neurons through electrical signals that travel down a long, thread-like extension called an axon. A hard to blow to your head can cause your brain to strike the inside of your skull. During the impact, your brain squeezes against the inside of your skull sending shock waves through your brain. These shock waves tear or stretch the axons of some neurons. This trauma is called diffuse axonal injury or axonal shearing. The damaged axons reduce normal brain function by interrupting communication between the neurons. Depending on where your brain is injured, physical symptoms of concussion may include headache, nausea, dizziness, poor muscle coordination, light sensitivity, blurred vision, ringing in the years, slurred speech, and loss of consciousness. You may have mental and emotional symptoms, including disorientation, confusion, memory loss, inability to focus and concentrate, irritability and depression. For a mild concussion, your doctor will advise you to rest and monitor your symptoms to make sure they don't get worse. You may receive prescriptions for mild pain medication, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Only take drugs recommended by your doctor as others, such as alcohol, may slow the healing of your brain. Whether or not you've been to the doctor, if you experience loss of consciousness, a headache that won't go away, vomiting, or slurred speech, you should seek emergency medical attention. These symptoms are danger signs for serious complications of concussion.
"I have a medical illustration created by Medical Legal Art at the beginning
of every case to tell the client's story, usually before I depose the
defendant doctor. The work product and cost-efficiency are outstanding. It
is a situation where, as a trial lawyer, I don't leave home without it."
Rockne Onstad
Attorney at Law
Austin, TX
"Our firm was able to settle our case at an all day mediation yesterday and
I am confident that the detail and overall appearance of the medical
illustrations significantly contributed to the settlement. When we require
medical illustrations in the future, I will be sure to contact [MLA]."
Noel Turner, III
Burts, Turner, Rhodes & Thompson
Spartanburg, SC
"This past year, your company prepared three medical illustrations for our cases; two in which we received six figure awards; one in which we received a substantial seven figure award. I believe in large part, the amounts obtained were due to the vivid illustrations of my clients' injuries and the impact on the finder of fact."
Donald W. Marcari Marcari Russotto & Spencer, P.C. Chesapeake, VA
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exhibit quality. In fact, many of the doctors I work with request color
copies of your outstanding artwork to show to patients during the informed
consent process."
Jeanne Dolan, BSRN, AlNC Legal Nurse Consultant Golden Valley, MN
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.
