Significant Settlement For Brain Injury Claim
I was instructed by my client following a serious road traffic accident in 2012. On the night of the accident my client had been to a party with friends. As she was leaving the party the husband of a friend offered her a lift home, which she accepted.
The driver lost control of his vehicle as he was driving my client home. He was driving too fast and mounted the pavement. He eventually collided with a lamppost.
My client was sitting in the rear passenger seat behind the driver. She was thrown forward at speed and hit her face on the driver’s head rest. She was knocked unconscious. She was treated by paramedics at the scene and her Glasgow Coma Score (a measure of consciousness) was recorded as 13 out of 15. She was rushed to hospital for treatment.
My client suffered severe facial fractures to her nose, eye socket and cheek bone. She underwent a CT scan of her brain which her treating doctors did not believe showed any organic brain damage. She was admitted to hospital for observation for 5 days before being discharged. She returned to hospital for surgery on her fractured eye socket a month later.
My client was plagued by severe headaches immediately after the accident. Despite the surgery to her eye socket she lost 40% of her visual field from her right eye.
My client’s main concern was her ongoing headaches. Also as more time passed she noted problems with her memory, concentration and fatigue.
At the time of the accident, my client was in the process of finishing a basic foundation course in health sciences. She returned to the course around 6 months later and noted that she was unable to keep up with her work. She was struggling to follow what was being said in tutorials and she ended up failing her end of year exams. She subsequently dropped out of the course.
I had my client examined by a consultant neurologist who was concerned that CT scan undertaken at the hospital had not been reviewed properly. On the neurologist’s recommendation I obtained a further report from a consultant neuroradiologist who confirmed that the CT scan did in fact show organic brain damage in the form of inter cerebral contusions to the inferior right frontal lobe. On this basis the neurologist diagnosed my client with a serious traumatic brain injury.
I then instructed a consultant neuropsychologist to carry psychometric testing in order to assess the level of my client’s cognitive impairment. The results showed that she was performing at average or below average levels which, based on her pre-accident academic and employment records, suggested that she suffered a moderate cognitive impairment as a result of the accident.
I obtained funding to put in place neuropsychological counselling aimed at providing my client with coping strategies so that she could retain and process information more efficiently.
With the help of treatment my client’s symptoms improved and she was able to return to college to recommence her studies, but she was still left with some level of cognitive impairment. This means that she may find it difficult to undertake more complex academic courses in the future.
I served the evidence in my client’s case on the driver’s motor insurers and was then able to negotiate a six figure settlement.