When most people think of someone who is blind, they either assume that the person was born blind or that they slowly lost their vision over time. And, certainly, this is true in many cases.
But blindness can also be caused through injury. Say you get involved in a motorcycle accident. You’re wearing a helmet, but it’s a severe accident and you still strike your head on the ground and suffer a traumatic brain injury. Could that lead to blindness?
Coping with cerebral blindness
This type of injury definitely can lead to blindness, as head trauma sometimes does. Medical experts call this cerebral blindness. It can happen when there are intracranial lesions that have a negative impact on the optic pathways within the brain.
In other words, your eyes themselves are fine. They should work properly, but the pathways connecting your eyes to your brain are not functioning properly or have been severed. This means that your brain can’t process that imagery, and you are effectively blind.
As with all brain injuries, some level of healing may take place over time, but there is no guarantee. All brain injuries are unique and they heal to different degrees, with some of them never healing at all. It depends on a lot of factors, such as the severity of that injury or exactly how you got hurt.
No matter what, it can be difficult to cope with cerebral blindness and move forward with your life. It may result in expensive medical treatment and lost wages. You need to know if you can seek financial compensation from the driver who caused the crash.