Brain Injury to Children compared to Adults

Is there a difference?

Children are precious, but there are times you have to hand them over to be cared for by others: to a teacher or sports coach, or to a friend or playmate's parents. Your child is sometimes reluctant to go, but you are assured all will be fine, and you convince your child of the same. "Give your child to me," they say, and you do. Except, something goes wrong.

Your son or daughter may even be in your own care but hurts his or her head due to the fault of another: a defective product, a slippery substance on the floor not yet cleaned up, or a road accident.

What is the difference between when an adult suffers serious brain injury and when a child suffers serious brain injury?

Besides both needing immediate, and sometimes long-term medical care, and both needing an understanding support infrastructure to assist them and their families with the new challenges they face, there are many differences:

There is nothing more precious to caring parents than their children. It is devastating when a child who has not yet fully had a chance at a normal life, is rendered incapable of living a normal life, even if just temporarily. Mothers and fathers have hopes and dreams for their young children, even sometimes from the moment they're born, and to have those hopes and dreams snatched away from them, and from their children, isn't fair. It's cruel.

When comparing an adult to a child who has had an accident and is suffering from brain injury, the differences mostly center around the fact that children's frontal lobes do not fully develop until children are in their late teens. The extent of damage done to frontal lobes may not be evident until the child is older, or even only when that child is an adult, in a working environment. Not helping much is also the fact that skulls of children are much weaker than skulls of adults. Frontal lobes are more easily damaged if the skull does not offer much protection.

Kids usually bounce back from head injuries as easily as they bounce off the wall that hurt their head, but the frightening thought is that the little bump on their head, which you carefully treated with an ice pack, might cause trouble in the future. You might not even remember that your son or daughter hurt his or her head when still just a toddler, but you become concerned and confused when your child struggles to grasp reading, writing and math, and other milestones that kids of the same age reach and cope with, but are not being reached by your own child.

It is easier to determine the decrease of quality of life in an adult after a brain injury, than it is in a child. Adults may not be able to do everything they were capable of doing before, but if a child's frontal lobes have not yet reached that same level of maturity, parents only discover the true damage later.

Another difference between adult and child traumatic brain injuries is that adults are responsible for their own safety, while children rely on their parents to be responsible on their behalf. A mother or father may feel responsible for an accident that causes damage to the brain of a child. It doesn't matter if everything points to the fact that nothing could have been done to prevent an accident, a parent will still feel guilty. The entire family is affected, and trusting anybody else with the children is a hurdle parents struggle to leap over. If your son or daughter has suffered traumatic brain injury while in the care of others, a sound support infrastructure can lower that hurdle for you.

Discuss your child's head injury with me. The first consultation is free, and if I am able to accept your case, there will be no costs at all, unless a financial settlement is attained.

The purpose of this web article is not to make comment about an individual's personal choices, but is intended to educate you about brain injury to children, compared to adults.

This website is provided as a public service regarding the topic of Brain Injury and is not to be relied upon as medical or legal advice. The information supplied is of a general nature only, and is not intended to be relied upon. This information is not represented to be the most up to date or to cover your particular circumstances.

Before deciding to obtain care, treatment, or to determine a diagnosis, please consult with a licensed physician, and concerning your legal rights please consult with a lawyer. Warning: Do not let any medical or legal concerns wait because of any information you have read on this website.