There is a violent collision between the prisoner’s head and the concrete floor of the jail cell and a trail of blood left across it as the prisoner is dragged toward a door. Evidence of Rob Wright’s brain injury is immediately and graphically apparent in the video posted to the CBC web site recently. But there are many brain injuries that occur that don’t show themselves so quickly or so obviously.
There may have been a momentary loss of consciousness that is put down to the suddenness and violence of the impact between vehicles in a car accident for example, or a fall in a restaurant. One may experience headaches that could initially be thought to be a result of the general stress of the accident experience, or related to stiff and sore neck muscles.
Over time, as irritability, difficulties in concentration, forgetfulness and unusual lethargy persist, the negative impact on family relationships and upon a brain injured’s ability to earn income gradually becomes apparent.
A persistence of these sorts of symptoms will, thankfully, be taken seriously by your general practitioner and available treatment will be brought to bear but sometimes available treatment of this sort of subtle brain injury quickly reverts to coping techniques and the effects become permanent.
For the people working on behalf of those that caused your injury, the defence is much easier to establish and live with. An insurance company facing this sort of claim will typically deny its actual existence (usually referring to the “lack of loss of consciousness being a sign that no brain injury has occurred at all). Typically an insurance company’s lawyer will attempt to attribute the symptoms to other factors in a brain injured person’s life, or point to the fact that there was a time gap between the accident event and the actual reporting of the symptoms casting doubt on the connection between the injury event and the person’s problems.
However, as the signs of this injury are more subtle and take longer to become apparent, proof of claim in this situation though far from impossible requires experience and expertise from a qualified brain injury litigator. Fortunately, a genuine brain injury will leave a trail leading back to the accident event that can be teased out and presented in a way that ensures fair compensation for this aspect of your accident injury.
Notations in emergency health professionals notes on attendance at the accident scene, or created later at the hospital; the documented observations of your family and friends and employers and work mates; neuropsychological testing and possibly EEGs, MRIs and CT scans are different objective evidentiary avenues to be explored. Such information, augmenting the opinions of your doctor and treating specialists can help us establish full and fair compensation for this somewhat elusive aspect of your injury experience.
If what I am describing here resonates with you, call me at 604-318-3838 to set up a consultation so that we can determine if there is in fact a valid claim that needs to be addressed.
