Concussion Center evaluates Collinsville patients after a head injury. That includes injuries that happened at work and were never followed up. We measure vestibular and oculomotor function. That puts objective findings in the record. Balance testing comes before any return to lifting, ladders or machinery.
Collinsville sits in the region’s freight and distribution corridor. A good share of the head injuries we see from it happened at work. They were reported briefly and never followed up.
The head injury inside a workplace claim
When someone falls or is struck at work, attention goes to the obvious orthopedic injury. Other signs do not make it into the incident report. That might be a brief period of confusion, a headache that started the same day, or a few seconds nobody can account for.
Weeks later come the headaches, the trouble finding words and the light sensitivity. They are blamed on the pain medication or on the stress of the claim. By then the file records a shoulder injury and nothing else. Adding a brain injury to it looks like an afterthought rather than a finding.
Why the documentation gap is the problem
The evidence people are asked to produce mostly does not exist. One large series looked at confirmed traumatic brain injuries. No Glasgow Coma Scale was recorded in nearly three-quarters. Loss of consciousness was undocumented in seventy percent. And no CT was performed in about half.
Only about 5 to 9 percent of concussions involve loss of consciousness. Loss of consciousness also does not predict who develops persistent symptoms — a 1,507-athlete study found that recurrent injury, amnesia, concentration difficulty, insomnia and light sensitivity all predicted post-concussion syndrome, while loss of consciousness did not. Concussion without loss of consciousness sets out the evidence.
So missing those markers is normal, not evidence against injury — and that difference matters enormously when a claim is being judged. Concussion and claims documentation covers what a defensible record contains.
Can testing prove a concussion?
Vestibular and oculomotor findings are measured rather than reported. That makes them considerably harder to dismiss than a symptom list. Where they are abnormal, there is something concrete in the record.
Blood biomarkers add another objective layer in the right window after injury. Blood biomarkers after a normal CT covers what they can and cannot establish.
When can you return to physical work after a concussion?
Going back to lifting, ladder work or running machines after a head injury is not only about symptoms at rest. Balance and reaction time can stay impaired while someone feels reasonably well sitting down. That combination is how second injuries happen.
Testing balance and oculomotor function before clearance is the point of the assessment. A clearance based on how someone says they feel is not a clearance.
Where limits are needed, we spell them out — heights, machinery, driving — because a vague note is useless on a warehouse floor.
What we will not claim
We will not blame every symptom on the injury. Some of what people bring was there before it. A report that ignores that is easy to discredit, and it takes the rest of the findings down with it.
Equally, we will not dismiss symptoms because imaging was normal. That is the opposite error, and considerably more common. The honest position is usually this: a specific set of systems is measurably affected, and others are not. That is what goes in the record.
Why is noise so hard to handle after a concussion?
Sensitivity to noise and to busy visual spaces is one of the most disabling post-concussion symptoms. It is also the least visible. A warehouse, a plant floor or an open-plan office becomes unbearable in a way that is hard to explain to anyone.
It reflects impaired sensory filtering, not fragility. It improves with graded exposure built from a tested starting point — not with avoidance, which narrows tolerance further.
How long does a concussion take to heal?
Most concussions resolve within weeks. Where symptoms last past a month, the pattern changes. Improvement comes in steps, in specific areas, rather than as a general lifting.
We set expectations against that rather than offering a date. And we measure against the findings recorded at the first visit, not against how a particular week felt.
What balance testing actually measures
Not whether you can stand still. It measures how the three systems that keep you upright — inner ear, vision and position sense — work together. It does this by removing or disturbing each one in turn.
Someone leaning on vision to make up the difference looks fine until the lighting changes or the surface does. That is exactly what a plant floor or a ladder presents. That is why clearance for physical work is based on this test, rather than on how someone feels sitting down.
What we can document for a claim
Objective findings, dated, with the testing that produced them. Plus a clear statement of what was not found. That last part is what makes the rest credible.
We do not estimate case value. We do not blame problems that existed before on the injury. A conservative report that survives challenge is worth considerably more than a generous one that does not.
Frequently asked questions
Nobody wrote down that I hit my head. Is it too late?
Not necessarily. Records made at the time help. But a structured assessment now produces objective findings of its own: documentation and claims.
The report says I was alert the whole time. Does that rule it out?
No. Most concussions involve no loss of consciousness at all: the evidence on that.
Can this be part of a work injury claim?
It can, and it is documented the same way as any other finding — objectively, and without overstatement: what the record needs.
How far is the clinic from Collinsville?
Roughly forty minutes via I-255 and I-64 or I-55/70 and I-270, to 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 105 with on-site parking.
What late concussion signs show up after a blow at work?
Headaches, trouble finding words and light sensitivity that surface weeks after a fall or blow at work are common. They are often blamed on pain medication or the stress of a claim. Sensitivity to noise and busy visual spaces, such as a plant floor or an open-plan office, is one of the most disabling signs. It is also the least visible. Balance can stay impaired even when you feel fine sitting down.
Can you recover 100% from a concussion?
Most concussions resolve within weeks. When symptoms last past a month, improvement tends to come in steps. It comes one area at a time, rather than all at once. We set expectations against that pattern instead of promising a date. And we track progress against the findings recorded at the first visit, not against how a single week felt.
Getting here from Collinsville
Concussion Center
4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 105, St. Louis, MO 63134
Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
From Collinsville, I-255 north to I-64 west, or I-55/70 to I-270 west — around forty minutes.
Related reading: concussion treatment for Belleville, IL patients and concussion treatment for Alton, IL patients.