With some injuries, the healing times are fairly standard. If you have a broken leg, for instance, your doctor can probably tell you how long it should take for that leg to heal. Once it does, you should regain complete functionality, as if the injury hadn’t happened. Of course, leg fractures can be different and unique from one case to the next, but this is generally the type of outcome people expect with modern medical treatment.
With brain injuries, though, things can be much different. Some healing may happen right away, but that healing may stop or reach a plateau before the person feels like they have fully recovered. Why has their brain injury stopped healing too early? Are they going to have to deal with this for the rest of their life?
The brain can’t always replace lost cells
A major part of the issue is that the human brain typically can’t create new neurons. People are born with most of the brain cells that they will ever have. There are some rare exceptions, but the brain doesn’t operate like other parts of the body – where cellular reproduction is common and can be used as a method of healing.
Because it can’t create the new cells necessary for healing, your brain will try to find different connections or neural pathways. This is why you sometimes see healing for a few months or even years after the injury, but it then stagnates. The brain may be able to find some neural pathways, but not enough to completely replicate the connections that were lost.
This means that you could be dealing with symptoms of your brain injury for the rest of your life. If so, be sure you know how to seek financial compensation from those responsible.