A Normal CT Scan Does Not Mean Your Brain Is Fine
This is the sentence most brain injury clients wish someone had told them in the emergency department.
A CT scan is designed to rule out a bleed or a skull fracture, the things that will kill you tonight. It is not designed to detect diffuse axonal injury, the microscopic shearing of nerve fibers that causes most lasting deficit after a concussion. A person can have a completely normal CT, be discharged in four hours, and spend the next two years unable to hold a conversation in a noisy room or work a full day without collapsing.
Insurers use that normal scan relentlessly. Vaughn A. Wamsley handles brain injury claims across Carmel and Hamilton County. Call 317-846-1080 or request a free case review.
You Do Not Have to Hit Your Head
Brain injury is caused by acceleration and deceleration, not only by impact. The brain is suspended in fluid, and when the head stops abruptly the brain continues moving and strikes the inside of the skull, then rebounds. Nerve fibers stretch and tear.
This means a rear-end collision at moderate speed can produce a real brain injury with no head strike, no loss of consciousness, and no mark on the scalp. Loss of consciousness is not required for a diagnosis, and its absence is not evidence that nothing happened.
How Brain Injuries Happen in Carmel
Motor vehicle crashes across the roundabout network, US 31, and Keystone Parkway, including intersection and side impacts where the head strikes the door pillar or window. Motorcycle, bicycle, and pedestrian crashes, where a helmet reduces but does not eliminate the risk. Falls, which are the leading cause of brain injury overall and the leading cause among older adults, including slip and fall incidents onto hard floors. Construction falls and struck-by events. Anoxic injury from near-drowning at a swimming pool.
Symptoms That Are Easy to Dismiss
Cognitive. Memory problems, particularly short-term. Difficulty concentrating or following conversation. Slowed processing. Word-finding difficulty. Trouble with multi-step tasks or planning.
Physical. Headaches, dizziness, balance problems, fatigue that is disproportionate to activity, light and noise sensitivity, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, and changes to taste or smell.
Emotional and behavioral. Irritability, uncharacteristic anger, anxiety, depression, emotional volatility, and reduced tolerance for stimulation.
Sleep. Insomnia, sleeping far more than usual, or disrupted sleep architecture.
Family and coworkers usually notice first, not the injured person, because the same injury that causes the deficit also impairs the ability to recognize it. That phenomenon has a clinical name, anosognosia, and it is one reason family observations belong in the record.
Proving an Injury That Does Not Show on a Scan
Advanced imaging. MRI with susceptibility-weighted sequences, DTI, and functional imaging can reveal findings a CT cannot. These are not ordered routinely in an emergency setting and usually require a referral.
Neuropsychological testing. A comprehensive battery administered by a neuropsychologist measures memory, attention, processing speed, and executive function against normative data and against your own estimated baseline. This is often the single most persuasive evidence in a mild TBI claim.
Before and after evidence. Performance reviews, work product, academic records, and testimony from people who knew you. A supervisor describing a reliable employee who now misses deadlines carries more weight than any imaging study.
Contemporaneous documentation. A symptom journal kept from early on, noting specific failures rather than general complaints.
Treating specialist opinions from neurology, physiatry, neuropsychology, and vestibular or cognitive therapy providers.
The Arguments You Will Face
Expect the insurer to argue that the CT was normal, that you never lost consciousness, that your symptoms are attributable to stress or depression rather than injury, that you had a prior concussion, or that the symptoms should have resolved within the typical recovery window. Each of these has a medical answer, and each requires a specialist rather than a general practitioner’s note.
Expect surveillance and social media review as well, because a photograph of you at a family event will be offered as proof of full function.
What These Claims May Cover
Emergency and ongoing treatment, advanced imaging and neuropsychological evaluation, cognitive and vestibular rehabilitation, medication, future medical care, lost wages, diminished earning capacity where you cannot return to the same work, vocational retraining, in-home support, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. Severe cases overlap with catastrophic injury and require a life care plan.
Deadlines
Two years from the date of injury under Indiana Code 34-11-2-4. Comparative fault under Indiana Code 34-51-2-6 applies. Where a government entity may be responsible, tort claim notice is due within 180 days.
Why Family Observations Belong in the Record
People around the injured person often identify brain injury rather than the person themselves. A spouse notices repeated questions. A supervisor notices missed deadlines from someone who never missed one. A friend notices that a person who was easygoing now snaps.
Those observations are evidence, and they are more persuasive than a symptom list because they describe change rather than complaint. Ask family members, coworkers, and friends to write down what they noticed and when, in specific terms: the meeting he could not follow, the route she got lost on, the conversation that had to be repeated three times.
Start that record early. Memory of the early weeks fades, and reconstructing it eighteen months later is far less convincing than a contemporaneous note.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have a brain injury if my CT scan was normal?
Yes. CT scans are designed to detect bleeding and skull fractures, not the diffuse axonal injury that causes most lasting deficit after a concussion. A normal CT rules out an emergency; it does not rule out a brain injury. Advanced MRI sequences and neuropsychological testing detect and measure these injuries.
Do I have to lose consciousness to have a traumatic brain injury?
No. Loss of consciousness is not required for a concussion or mild TBI diagnosis, and most people who sustain one never lose consciousness. Insurers routinely cite its absence, but the diagnostic criteria do not require it.
How long do concussion symptoms last?
Many people improve substantially within a few weeks to a few months. A meaningful minority experience symptoms lasting a year or longer, sometimes permanently. Because the value difference between those outcomes is enormous, settling before the trajectory is clear is the most common way people with brain injuries lose money on a claim.
The insurance company says my symptoms are just stress. How do we respond?
It is a comprehensive battery administered by a neuropsychologist that measures memory, attention, processing speed, and executive function against normative data. In a mild TBI claim with normal imaging, it is frequently the most persuasive objective evidence available, because it produces measurable results rather than subjective complaints.
How do I report a nursing home in Indiana?
With specialist evidence rather than argument. Treating neurologists, physiatrists, and neuropsychologists can distinguish injury-related cognitive deficit from situational stress, and testing produces objective measures. Before-and-after evidence from employers, teachers, and family also carries substantial weight, because it shows a change rather than a complaint.
Talk to a Carmel Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
Free consultation, no fee unless we recover. Call 317-846-1080 or visit 851 S Rangeline Rd in Carmel. See our catastrophic injury page, our case results, or the Carmel personal injury overview.