Personal Injury Attorney Services
Brain Injury

Past Verdicts – Brain Injury Case

CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT FOR BRAIN DAMAGED GI IN TRUCK VS. CAR CRASH

Guy walks into a lawyer’s office.  A handsome U.S. Coast Guardsman, he sustained a brain injury in a night-time crash with a truck on the Turnpike that he cannot remember because of amnesia resulting from injuries sustained in the crash.

There are no other known witnesses, other than the truck driver who claims to have been rear ended.  In the meantime, our client’s career in the Coast Guard is over.  He’s been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and is no longer fit for duty.  Can I help him?

So begins a case that went on for four years, pitting our firm against five leading Florida defense firms and four separate defendants including the truck driver, the trucking company, the construction company that the driver was hauling for and our client’s auto insurer.

Complex truck regulations were researched.  Truck safety and human factors experts were brought in.  Obtaining the 911 tapes, we discovered a previously unidentified witness who provided key information about the accident.  The scene, the vehicles, weather and lighting conditions were analyzed.  Evidence was compiled piece by piece like a mosaic.

The picture that emerged at the end told a story much different than the one given by the truck driver, who, we discovered, had lied on his job application to cover up a bad driving record.  Prior to trial, the case resulted in a confidential settlement reached after a day-long mediation.  After a long, arduous ordeal, and months of therapies, our client is successfully pursing a new career, and a new life.

WHEN DENIAL IS PART OF THE INJURY

Proving an injury usually involves getting an evaluation from the client’s doctors.  But what if your client refuses to go to the doctor?  Or even admit that she’s hurt? And doesn’t even remember the car accident that put her in the hospital for three weeks with a serious brain injury?

This was the predicament after a Sunny Isles Beach grandmother was knocked to the ground when a careless driver ran into the grocery cart which she was pushing as she crossed the street in Aventura.  Bleeding profusely, and rushed to the intensive care unit at the nearest trauma center, tests revealed bleeding in several areas of the brain.  After being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital, she discharged herself against doctor’s orders.

Suffering with memory problems, personality changes and cognitive deficits, our client stubbornly refused to seek medical attention.  Fortunately, thanks to deep relationships forged over years of experience, we were able to actually bring top physicians and experts to her, including a board certified neurologist, who went to her apartment and interviewed and examined her there with great kindness and gentility.  The client’s family, who lives in another state, was more than grateful.

A confidential six figure settlement was reached consisting of the entire policy limits of the opposing driver’s insurance coverage.  The recovery will go far towards helping our client pay for attendant care and other specialized needs to provide her comfort in the remaining years of her life.

CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT FOR TEACHER FOLLOWING EMERGENCY ROOM NEGLECT:

Our client Arthur was a grade school teacher in Miami’s inner city. One holiday weekend, Arthur was out drinking with friends, and was leaving a bar when he got into an altercation with an assailant who punched Arthur, and caused him to fall, striking his head on the curb.

Out cold, Arthur was taken by ambulance to the emergency room, arriving unconscious with the smell of alcohol on his breath. Arthur was set aside on a stretcher in the hallway for 22 hours when he was finally examined and it was discovered that his pupils were unequal and dilated–a sure sign of brain injury.

Unfortunately, a CT-scan taken almost immediately afterwards showed a large subdural hematoma–a bleed in the brain that had been going on for hours. With this kind of injury, time is critical to success in treatment. The longer the wait, the greater the damage.

Arthur did not die, but sustained extremely serious brain damage resulting from the delay in discovering the bleed inside his brain. Working with a team of colleagues, a confidential settlement was reached with the hospital, after we helped demonstrate that the hospital had mistaken a patient with a serious brain injury as just being drunk.