Traumatic Brain Injury
The fallout from serious or catastrophic injuries is always heartbreaking. While the majority of individuals will make a full or partial recovery in a relatively short time period, others are not so lucky. Sadly, following the negligence of others, many people suffer serious brain injuries (often called traumatic brain injuries (“TBI”)) that leave them in a coma or persistent vegetative state. While many people assume that traumatic brain injuries occur only in the course of a serious motor vehicle accident, that could not be further from the truth. In fact, statistics demonstrate that traumatic brain injuries causing coma frequently occur in the case of medical negligence, drowning or near–drowning cases, aviation accidents, nursing home abuse, product malfunctions and/or on–the–job accidents, such as in the construction industry. The effect of this type of injury is widespread, and the fall–out is felt not only by the injured party, but also by his/her family and loved ones.
If you or a loved one has suffered an injury resulting in a coma, you may have heard physicians utilize the phrase Glasgow Coma Scale (“GCS”). That medical term is used by medical professionals to describe how “deep” the patient’s coma is. The GCS measures how well patients respond to stimuli and tracks eye movement, responses to verbal queues, motor skills and reflexes. The GCS scores patients on a scale of 1-15. The higher the score the better, and therefore, more functional the patient. For example, a patient who is awake and fully functional would receive a GCS of 15. Conversely, a patient in a very deep coma could be scored at 4. Calculating a patient’s GCS is not only helpful for a physician in determining the extent of treatment a patient currently needs, but is also a useful predictor in determining and preparing for the level of care a patient may require when they emerge from their coma.
As with all of our catastrophic injury cases or coma cases, in cases involving traumatic brain injuries resulting in a coma, our office works with a team of medical experts to ensure that your loved one receives the best possible care and that his/her family is fully comprehends the nature of the injuries and expected prognosis. Most importantly, these experts work with our legal team help explain how the negligence in a particular case resulted in such a traumatic injury and the lasting effects that the injury will have on that person and his family. Regardless of the type of negligence leading to the injury/coma, our catastrophic injury team is fully versed in working effectively to provide a full measure of compensation for all effects of the traumatic brain injury. In this vein, we also work regularly with experts in the field of Life Care Planning and Economics to forecast what each individual client who has suffered a traumatic brain injury will require to not only compensate them for their injuries and repay incurred medical expenses, but ensure that they receive the best possible rehabilitative medical care for the remainder of their lives.