Head injuries happen in every kind of workplace, not just traditionally high-risk jobs, though construction workers, firefighters, delivery and loading dock workers face elevated risk. Common diagnoses include:

• Concussions, from blows to the head or sudden movements that shake the brain, with effects ranging from temporary to lasting.
• Brain contusions, bruising of the brain itself that can cause swelling, pressure, and lasting damage.
• Skull fractures, which can be linear, depressed, diastatic, or basilar, each with its own risks.
• Traumatic brain injuries, where cognitive, memory, and personality changes can be permanent.

Scalp lacerations that look superficial can also be serious, and any blow hard enough to cut is hard enough to concuss.

Get medical attention first, even with no visible symptoms, because concussion and brain injury symptoms can take days or weeks to appear. Then report the injury to your employer or supervisor so the claim is on record from the start.

Document everything that changes afterward: headaches, sleep, memory, concentration, mood, balance. Head injury cases are won and lost on whether those symptoms are in the medical record early, and the claim is only as strong as that record.

A serious brain injury can affect concentration, memory, and judgment, which means it affects earning capacity in every job, not just the one where it happened. Ratings that treat a brain injury like a bruise miss what the injury actually took.

These cases also carry long tails of care: neurology, cognitive therapy, medication, and monitoring. Whether future medical care stays open is often the most important line in the settlement, and it is decided when you sign, not when symptoms return.

In 2025 alone, our firm spent over $700,000 on expert witnesses. Head injury cases are proven the same way they are won: physicians who connect the work incident to the injury, and preparation that treats every disputed claim as one that may need a judge.

Our firm handled roughly 1 in 4 of recent workers’ compensation trials at the St. Louis Division of Workers’ Compensation, out of hundreds of attorneys representing Missouri workers. Insurers know which firms will actually try a case, and it changes how they negotiate.

When the claims administrator knows a trial firm is on the file, refusals of care get reconsidered.

What is a head injury worth in Missouri workers’ comp?

It depends on the facts: the diagnosis, the lasting cognitive and physical effects, your rating and restrictions, your wage rate, and whether future medical stays open. The factors are the same ones behind what any Missouri workers’ comp case is worth, but brain injuries put unusual weight on future care and earning capacity.

I felt fine after hitting my head. Should I still report it?

Yes. Report it and get examined, even without symptoms. Concussion symptoms can appear days or weeks later, and an unreported incident gives the insurer room to argue the injury came from somewhere else.

Are concussions covered by workers’ comp?

A concussion from a work incident is generally compensable in Missouri, including medical care and time off work while you recover. Repeated concussions and post-concussion syndrome can support permanent disability compensation when effects persist.

What if my personality or memory changed after the injury?

Cognitive and personality changes are among the most serious consequences of brain injuries and belong in the medical record and the rating, not just in your family’s observations. Neuropsychological evaluation can document them. Every case is different; results depend on the facts.