A supposedly safe drug rehab can allow a patient to suffer a dangerous overdose that cuts oxygen to the victim’s brain.

An anoxic brain injury occurs when an overdose stops a victim from breathing. When patients aren’t discovered and treated quickly, permanent brain damage can result.

Patients are at risk of entering a coma or a more debilitating persistent vegetative state and needing expensive 24/7 hospital care.

If your loved one suffered a brain injury while at a California drug rehab facility, you can seek financial support. Call us today to schedule a free case consultation or fill out a free case review form.

Hypoxic and Anoxic Brain Damage

Some drugs, like opioids, slow down the body’s automatic functions such as breathing. During an overdose on a drug like Fentanyl, the respiratory system can be affected. Breathing can reduce oxygen levels in the blood or stop the breath completely.

Johns Hopkins Medicine explains that during an overdose, an anoxic brain injury can occur when the brain is completely cut off from oxygen. A partial loss of oxygen to the brain would be known as a hypoxic reaction.

This type of brain damage can leave patients showing symptoms including confusion, cardiac arrest, seizures, and a lack of control of their bodies. The damage to their brains can be so severe that their bodies automatically fall into a comatose state.

Comas and Vegetative States After an Overdose

Depending on how long patients are left with reduced or no oxygen, patients can suffer short-term or long-term brain damage. The damage can lead to patients who are left unconscious for days, weeks, or a lifetime.

Patients who suffer damage to the parts of the brain responsible for consciousness can go into a coma or a vegetative state:

Overdose Coma: This is a state of deep unconsciousness. Patients can sometimes experience moments where they partially wake up and can follow commands or hold objects. Overdose patients can end up in a coma due to the effects of the drugs taken, or due to brain damage after a loss of oxygen. Breathing issues sometimes persist during comas, and patients must be placed on breathing machines. For drug overdose patients, the removal of the drug and the administering of medication that fights the effects can help coma patients recover. Comas usually last a few days or a few weeks. Patients either soon regain consciousness, go into a vegetative state, or tragically pass away.

Overdose Persistent Vegetative State: Patients in this state can usually breathe on their own. They are not self-aware or aware of their surroundings, but brain stem function still works. Patients can stay in this state for many years. A vegetative state is usually referred to as “persistent” if it goes beyond 4 weeks.

Overdose Brain Death: An overdose patient who is left too long without oxygen reaching the brain can eventually reach a point where all brain activity stops. Brain death is declared when the damage is thought to be irreversible. Patients won’t be able to breathe on their own. Patients on ventilators can maintain a heartbeat.

Proving a Coma Was Caused by a Negligent Drug Rehab

Large rehab networks will have teams of lawyers ready to help them slip away from all blame for an overdose. But evidence can be gathered to show that the facility was negligent in the care of a patient.

Claims can largely hinge on the fact that a patient was able to obtain drugs in a “drug-free” facility, and was left unattended long enough to overdose and suffer brain damage. These are facts that can’t be denied.

A skilled attorney can gather strong evidence to make sure a vulnerable patient is never blamed for the mistakes of careless staff and a rehab company:

• Securing difficult-to-obtain internal evidence, such as incident reports, duty logs, and the results of an internal investigation. (These records can prove that a patient went unsupervised for too long)
• Securing surveillance video and visitor records (looking for the source of the drugs)
• Examining the facility’s own principles to see if they violated their own corporate policies
• Examining hiring records to see if understaffing or unqualified staffers contributed to a tragic overdose and brain damage
• Evidence that staff didn’t react properly to prevent brain damage, such as administering NARCAN, engaging in rescue breathing, and placing a patient in recovery position
• Phone records and 911 evidence
• Eyewitness accounts and testimony from other patients and their families

An experienced attorney can file a claim or a lawsuit with as little disruption to a grieving family as possible. It’s then the attorney’s goal to secure the maximum in support possible for victims, enough to cover a lifetime of care if necessary.

The Type of Support Available for Brain Injury Victims

Victims can need weeks or months of expensive hospital care, 24/7 monitoring, and long-term physical therapy. As they come out of a coma, they’ll often require occupational therapy to relearn how to perform simple daily tasks and care for themselves. They’ll require speech therapy to relearn how to speak and swallow safely.

These and other costs should be 100% covered by a rehab facility’s insurer. When patients require lifelong home care or nursing care, the family should receive everything needed to cover the expense.

The income patients earned at a job to support their families but can no longer provide should be replaced. The pain victims go through, and the emotional trauma of a debilitating injury should be supported.

See: Lifetime care costs after a treatment-center overdose brain injury

Contact Us If a Loved One Suffered Brain Damage in a Rehab Facility.

If you have a loved one incapacitated by brain damage after an overdose in a California rehab center, you can feel powerless and alone. Attorney Martin Gasparian never wants you or your family to feel this way as you care for a loved one.

Tell us what happened. We investigate, and if needed, we fight for your family. And if you need our help, there are never any upfront costs to hire us. We don’t get paid unless we are successful in earning justice from a negligent drug rehab center.

Call us today or fill out a free case review form.