BRAIN INJURIES & CONCUSSIONS

What’s the difference between a great lawyer and a good one?

Not much. The same applies for almost every area of the workforce. The margin between career success and failure can be razor thin for some.

Brain injury can move the needle just enough to bring careers, lives and worlds crashing down.

Bergeron Clifford represented an internationally renowned researcher (IRR) who was sought out for her expertise by companies and academics worldwide.  Little did she know, she was going to need a concussion lawyer. As her life changed on a beautiful afternoon in September 2016.

IRR sat in her red Toyota Rav4, facing southbound on Sir John A. MacDonald Blvd at its intersection with Princess Street in Kingston. The light was red. She waited patiently. The light turned green and she began to move her car forward.

From her left hand side, a black Nissan Rogue flew into the intersection, through the red light, and smashed into her driver’s side door.

Our client was dazed and confused. She was in terrible pain but nothing was broken and she hoped her symptoms would pass. And they did, the physical symptoms in any event. But not the most troubling of her symptoms.

When the two cars collided, IRR’s head was twisted, whipped and rotated. Her brain smashed into the bony surfaces of the interior of her skull. The damage to brain tissue was not life-threatening. As is often the case, medical imaging, including MRI, did not show any physical damage to her brain. Most concussions do not show up on medical imaging, yet they are the product of physical brain damage, sometimes at the microscopic level. IRR was diagnosed with a minor traumatic brain injury.

The phrase used for this diagnosis is grossly misleading. IRR’s minor traumatic brain injury causes a host of problems, including cognitive fatigue, headaches, irritability, visual disturbances, impaired attention and memory difficulties. These are difficult symptoms for anyone to manage, but for a world-class scientist, they can spell the end of her career.

Our brain injury lawyers had two jobs. The first was to ensure she had access to all the medical care and therapy she needed to make every effort to save her career. It was her life. The second was to ensure that the at-fault driver and her insurance company provided fair compensation for IRR’s loss.

To ensure IRR has full access to rehabilitation therapy and medical care, we helped her qualify for premium no-fault accident benefits. The insurance industry has worked hard to close down access to this funding, throwing up roadblocks to qualification. We hired a case manager for IRR to build a treatment team and help quarterback her rehabilitation and medical care. The work this group did as a team helped IRR qualify for premium accident benefits. IRR has been able to leave no stone unturned in her effort to regain her health and function.

Convincing the at-fault driver to provide fair compensation can often be difficult in MTBI (minor traumatic brain injury) cases.

IRR walks upright. She has no visible injury. She is a bright, warm and intelligent person. She can do anything she tries, but she can’t do anything for long. Any sustained mental exercise leaves her exhausted. This is a common feature of mTBI. Working with the rehab team we built for her, IRR was able to reach maximum medical improvement.

She has recovered as fully as modern rehab medicine can manage. But it’s not enough to put her back in the lab. Back in control of world-class experiments and investigations.