A loved one who has overdosed can go unmonitored and be left too long while oxygen is cut off from the brain.
Victims can experience an anoxic brain injury (no oxygen reaching the brain) or a hypoxic brain injury (some oxygen reaching the brain), resulting in serious and permanent brain damage.
When your loved one is allowed to overdose, they are not to blame. Drug rehab facility owners are liable for overdose brain injuries and recovery costs.
How Do Overdose Anoxic and Hypoxic Brain Injuries Occur?
An Anoxic or Hypoxic injury occurs when air isn’t getting to brain cells as it should. With an overdose, this lack of oxygen can be caused by a drug like an opioid slowing down the body’s functions, such as respiration. It can mean problems with breathing and the circulation of air.
An Anoxic reaction means that no oxygen is reaching the brain. A Hypoxic reaction means that very little oxygen is getting to brain cells. Damage can result in just a few minutes. After 10 minutes of restricted airflow, patients can be expected to suffer severe brain damage.
Overdoses in drug rehab centers need to be identified quickly to stop the devastating consequences. It’s why vulnerable patients in rehab centers, to help them recover without coming to more harm.
The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) reports these and other long-term symptoms are possible for Hypoxic brain injury victims:
- Problems with motor function
- Tremors
- Cortical blindness
- Memory problems
- Speech impairments
- Increased irritability and frustration
- Fatigue
Evidence an Overdose Could Have Been Prevented
You may have gotten word from a drug rehab facility that a loved one overdosed and was injured, perhaps suffering brain damage. Corporate lawyers for a rehab network may tell you that your loved one was to blame. They hope you don’t raise any questions.
But a California Drug Rehab Injury attorney can put a rehab company on notice that it will be held liable for every harm it’s caused.
An experienced attorney will be gathering evidence of negligence at the facility:
- Evidence of a failure to monitor your loved one closely enough (e.g., forgotten bed checks, inaccurate rounding logs).
- Proof that a loved one was in an overdose a long time before being found.
- Proof that overdose patients weren’t monitored closely enough while in recovery (e.g., monitoring breathing, putting patients in recovery position).
- Call records showing that a 911 emergency call was made too late.
- Evidence that NARCAN wasn’t available or wasn’t used.
An investigation can uncover the source of the drugs as well, perhaps leaving facility owners that promise a drug-free environment liable by their own policies.
Support for Overdose Patients with Brain Injuries
Patients who have oxygen cut to their brain can emerge with only headaches and some short-term memory issues. But they can also go much longer without oxygen and end up with lifelong cognitive issues.
They may need expensive therapy to relearn to use their hands and to talk normally again. They may never regain the freedom they once had. Patients could require home care or nursing care for the rest of their lives.
These are all things that a negligent drug treatment center should worry about: Not a family trying to see to the requirements of a loved one in need.
A California Rehab Brain Injury Lawyer would demand these and other lifelong benefits for clients:
- All medical care covered for as long as necessary
- All rehabilitative care and therapy paid for
- Paychecks replaced while victims can’t work
- Money for job training and courses if disabled patients must start a new career because of their brain injury
- Reimbursement of money paid to enter the rehab program
- Support for the pain victims endure
- Support for the emotional trauma patients have gone through and will continue to go through
In an even more tragic situation, overdosing patients may suffer a lack of oxygen and never wake up again. The welfare of the family must become the focus. Families can file a wrongful death claim to get help with funeral costs and with financially supporting those left behind.
Contact Us if your Loved One Suffered Brain Damage at a Drug Rehab.
Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to all victims and their family members. Mr. Gasparian can also help families seek justice, even if the facility to blame is now shut down.
There’s no obligation. And not every family needs a lawyer to file a claim. But if you need our help to earn more, you don’t have to worry about how you’ll pay a lawyer. We don’t get paid unless we win your family’s case. Then our fee comes out of the settlement that a rehab business must provide.