Personal injury attorneys see all manner of different injuries from accidents. Sometimes, even medical doctors have trouble diagnosing exactly what happened after a crash. That’s why our team does the work to find the right doctors to treat the unique injuries our clients are facing.
A recent tractor trailer accident case saw an incredibly complicated medical diagnosis that was hard to pin down. We sat down one-on-one with personal injury attorney, Rick Staggard, to learn how he and Dalya Farah overcame the obstacles and achieved a fantastic $5.7 million victory for our client and his family.
How a Truck Driver’s Life Changed in an Instant
Our client’s story started as just another day while he was driving an empty gas tanker truck for his employer. The client held advanced certifications in driving and was perfectly fit. His entire life changed in an instant when he was suddenly rear-ended by a dump truck. The collision pushed his vehicle off the road and into an embankment. The sheer mass involved between these two large vehicles colliding at speed set off a string of competing forces compounding on the client’s body before his truck came to a sudden and violent stop. When Rick and Dayla were called to meet with the client a full ten months after the crash, he was still in the hospital.
Tackling a Complicated Diagnosis
After being thrown around violently in the crash, our client was found unconscious and slumped over his steering wheel. Baffling his medical team, his condition after the crash steadily deteriorated over time rather than improving. Despite not being able to remember his own wife and children’s names after the crash, an MRI scan on his brain was perfectly normal. His medical team simply could not agree on one specific diagnosis, complicating both how to treat his symptoms and determining if the crash was the cause.
Establishing What Happened and How It Relates to the Crash
In complicated cases like these, the evidence makes or breaks the case. Reviewing video footage from inside the cab at the time of the crash, our team could clearly see just how devastating the impact was. Putting the medical evidence together, Rick knew he needed a neurologist who was familiar with how to treat traumatic brain injuries. After seeing the patient, the neurologist had an unusual diagnosis–autoimmune encephalitis.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, autoimmune encephalitis is a rare and difficult-to-diagnose condition. The violence of the crash caused microscopic tears in the brain to the blood-brain barrier that wouldn’t show up in imaging. Those tears allow certain chemicals to be released that the body’s immune system thinks are foreign objects and tries to fight. That response can lead to a host of physical and mental impairments as the body actually fights against itself. Those afflicted with autoimmune encephalitis can have memory issues, speech problems, seizures, and many other symptoms.
Using objective medical evidence and having the mechanism of injury, Rick was able to definitively show that the crash caused our client’s injuries. Therefore, the client and his family were due every penny his insurance coverage provided.
Arriving at a Settlement
Unfortunately, just because you establish that insurance applies in a given case doesn’t mean that they will simply hand over what is due. Our team relies on a host of experts to help us develop a rock solid case for why our clients deserve what we’re demanding.
In this case, the trucker was relatively young and would need round-the-clock care for the rest of his life. We take into account factors like his loss of income, pain and suffering, and even the loss of time and enjoyment with his family. All of these factors are written into the law for damages a victim can seek after an accident.
In addition to bringing in a brilliant neurologist, Rick and his team also used an expert in the field of predicting future medical costs, called a life care planner, to help put a number to those expenses as well. With all of the data to back up our claim, we were able to secure $5.7 million for a very deserving family who had already lost so much.
Tough Case? Put Our Experience and Resources To Work
Every single accident case our team handles is different. After decades as a leading personal injury law firm in Florida and Georgia, we’ve seen so many ways an accident occurs–and how insurance companies try to skirt liability. If you feel like you’re getting the runaround after your accident or just want to talk things over, contact our attorneys 24/7, 365 days a year. We’re always here to talk through what happened and see what options you may have available to you.
