Car accidents may cause blindness or vision loss

When people think about car accident injuries, they often consider things like broken bones, lacerations and burns. They may think about internal injuries and traumatic brain injuries. What they often do not consider is the loss of one of their major senses.

However, this can happen. For instance, medical experts note that head trauma that leads to vision loss is actually fairly common. These cases, they claim, can be quite challenging. Reasons for vision loss include:

• Direct injury to the eye
• Injury to the orbital area
• Traumatic optic neuropathies
• Damage to the intracranial visual pathways
• Carotid cavernous fistulas

They call these things “classic causes” of head trauma leading to vision loss. In the span of a heartbeat, the skull can sustain enough damage that the person may be left with partial vision or none at all.

You also have to consider the impact of a traumatic brain injury. Your body’s systems all work together. Even if the eyes themselves are working properly, certain types of brain damage may lead to temporary or permanent vision loss.

This is one reason why these cases are challenging. Doctors have to decide if the issue lies with the eye, the area around the eye, the brain or some other factor entirely. Just knowing that someone can no longer see is not enough to know why they cannot see and what that means for their future.

If you find yourself facing serious challenges like this in the wake of a car accident, make sure you are well aware of the legal options that you have at your disposal.