What Is a Coup-Contrecoup Injury?

Although they sound scary, brain injuries vary widely in severity. A mild brain injury like a concussion produces mild symptoms that clear up within a couple of months. A severe brain injury causes permanent brain damage and may lead to coma or death. A coup contrecoup injury falls on the severe end of the scale.

These injuries cause two cerebral contusions, resulting in massive brain damage. Depending on the location and severity of the injuries, patients can suffer from seizures, physical disabilities, and cognitive losses.

How Coup-Contrecoup Injuries Happen

Your brain sits under three layers of protection. The skull acts like a helmet, guarding your brain from impacts. Three layers of meninges sit between your skull and brain to seal your brain from the microbes that cause infections. They also contain a reservoir of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to cushion the brain.

However, with enough force, trauma to the brain can overcome these protective layers and move the brain so violently that the CSF, meninges, and skull damage it.

Coup and contrecoup injuries produce cerebral contusions. These “brain bruises” rupture cells and blood vessels, leading to swelling. They are some of the most dangerous brain injuries someone can suffer.

Coup means “to strike.” A coup injury occurs when your brain strikes your skull on the same side as your head trauma. Contrecoup means “to counterstrike.” A contrecoup injury occurs when your brain strikes your skull on the opposite side as your head trauma. Thus, a coup-contrecoup brain injury produces two cerebral contusions.

Like most brain injuries, a coup-contrecoup injury happens when the brain sloshes inside your head. But you must encounter some very specific forces to produce this injury. According to scientific studies, coup-contrecoup injuries happen when you suffer an impact on your head when your brain is already moving.

The brain suffers the coup injury from the initial trauma and a contrecoup injury when it gets hit again as it rebounds from the impact and hits the opposite side of the skull.

Common Causes/Scenarios That Lead to Coup-Contrecoup Injuries

Brain injuries can happen in any accident involving head trauma or rapid acceleration or deceleration that shakes the brain inside the skull. Two of the most common causes of these injuries include car accidents and falls.

Since coup-contrecoup injuries usually happen when a moving brain gets jolted by a second impact, you can imagine several scenarios that can cause them.

Suppose that you get rear-ended at a stop light and the impact pushes you into the car in front of you. The initial impact causes your brain to slam into the back of your skull, and the second impact causes your brain to rebound forward and hit the front of your skull.

Falls can produce similar effects, particularly when you hit your head as you fall. As you fall, the initial strike on your head causes your brain to slosh one way, and then your brain sloshes the opposite way when your body hits the ground.

Long-Term Effects and Complications of Coup-Contrecoup Injuries

A coup contrecoup injury can cause physical, cognitive, and emotional issues, including:

• Headache
• Loss of vision or hearing
• Paralysis
• Loss of sensation
• Confusion
• Memory loss
• Inability to reason or solve problems
• Emotional outbursts
• Paranoia
• Anxiety
• Depression

Unfortunately, while about 60% of contusion patients have positive outcomes, only about 48% of coup-contrecoup patients have positive outcomes. A majority of patients suffer permanent brain damage, coma, and death.

Seeking Compensation for Coup-Contrecoup Injuries

When you suffer severe brain lesions that result from a coup-contrecoup head injury, you will lose brain function. With time and therapy, your brain may rewire itself around the damaged cells.

Even if you recover, you will incur significant losses. You can seek compensation for these losses if your brain injury resulted from someone else’s negligent or otherwise wrongful actions. Your compensation can cover many different losses.

Economic Losses

Economic losses encompass your financial costs. Some examples of economic losses include:

• Past medical costs
• Expenses for future medical treatment and therapy
• Income lost for missed work
• Diminished earnings in the future due to disabilities
• Reasonable and necessary out-of-pocket expenses related to your injury

You will document your economic losses using receipts, credit card statements, bills, and other financial records. Your records will prove both the amount and purpose of the expense.

Non-Economic Losses

Non-economic losses cover the impact of your injuries on your quality of life. Pain, suffering, and disability are examples of economic losses.

Frequently Asked Questions About Coup-Contrecoup Brain Injuries

Here are some answers to questions people often ask about coup-contrecoup injuries.

Does Brain Injury Compensation Cover a Caretaker?

Yes. You can seek compensation for the cost of a caretaker when you or your loved one suffers a brain injury that causes a permanent disability.

Can I Seek Injury Compensation if I Have Health Insurance?

You can have economic losses even if you have health insurance. Almost all health insurers require patients to pay copays or meet deductibles. An injury claim can pay these copays and deductibles.

Your health insurer will also not pay for your income losses and many of your out-of-pocket expenses, like paying someone to cook, clean, or drive for you.

What Compensation Can I Seek if My Loved One Died From a Brain Injury?

In Virginia, your loved one’s estate can pursue compensation for your loved one’s lost income. It can also seek reimbursement for your loved one’s last medical bills, burial costs, and funeral expenses. The estate can seek compensation for the guidance and companionship you lost.

Additionally, you can seek compensation for your emotional losses like grief.

Contact a Brain Injury Lawyer Today

Coup-contrecoup injuries have grim outcomes. Patients who survive face a lifetime of treatment and therapy. We have several decades of combined legal experience fighting for clients who have suffered catastrophic injuries.

Contact Commonwealth Law to discuss the brain injury you or your loved one suffered and the compensation we can pursue for the resulting losses.