Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog

A former high school football player, Scott Eveland of San Marcos, California, has settled his lawsuit with the school district over a head injury he sustained in a 2007 game. The injury has left him confined to a wheelchair, able to speak only through the use of an iPad or computer keyboard.

The issue of traumatic brain injuries in football has gained attention in recent months, with multiple lawsuits seeking damages from both athletic organizations and equipment manufacturers. Eveland had previously settled a products liability claim against the helmet manufacturers, and the remainder of the case focused on the liability of the school’s coaching staff.

Eveland was a senior at Mission Hills High School in San Marcos, located north of San Diego. He played linebacker for the varsity football team. According to the lawsuit, on September 14, 2007, he went to the athletic trainer to ask to sit out the first quarter because of a headache, which he claimed was so bad he could not focus his eyes. Eveland had already reportedly missed parts of practice due to headaches. The trainer went to the head coach who told the trainer, according to a student trainer who claimed to have witnessed the exchange, “You aren’t a [expletive] doctor,” and that the coach would decide who would play in the game. Both the trainer and the coach denied having this discussion in their depositions.

Continue reading "Football Player Who Suffered Severe Head Injury Settles Lawsuit Against School District for $4.4 Million" »

The tragic death of a 12 year-old Chicago-area boy in a baseball-related accident has brought attention to a lack of data tracking regarding sports injuries in children. Although researchers have extensively catalogued injuries in athletes at the high school level and up, no one is collecting information on injuries to younger athletes. Sports can be a cause of serious injuries in children, so having access to information and statistics could help not only parents, but equipment manufacturers assess risks and develop safer products.

A 12 year-old boy from Oswego, Illinois, Eric Lederman, died in April from an injury caused by a baseball hitting him in the neck. Lederman was playing catch with a teammate on the side of the field while warming up for a game on Thursday, April 12. The ball struck him in the neck, reportedly hitting his carotid artery. He immediately collapsed and was taken to the hospital. He was pronounced dead at the hospital just after 8:00 p.m. The cause of death was determined to be a cerebral hemorrhage caused by blunt-force trauma, and was declared an accident.

Continue reading "The Death of a Young Baseball Player and the Lack of Statistics on Youth Sports Injuries" »

Football, as the saying goes, is a contact sport. It may therefore come as a surprise to learn that a number of professional football players have sued the National Football League and helmet manufacturer Riddell over concussions suffered during games. In all, 125 former players have filed suit in at least five separate complaints, alleging that the NFL failed to properly warn players of the risks of head injuries and to provide support for retired players. Concussions in sports, particularly professional football, have received heightened scrutiny recently in both the media and in Congress, with many statistics suggesting that the number of concussions has increased significantly.

A concussion is a common type of brain injury caused by an impact with the head making the brain collide with the inside of the skull. This can lead to both physical and cognitive symptoms, ranging from headache and dizziness to disorientation and attention deficits. A person who suffers from a concussion may not lose consciousness, and many concussions go undiagnosed because the injured person does not realize the injury’s severity. Multiple concussions over time can cause significant brain damage, including memory loss and dementia. The NFL began to pay serious attention to concussions in 2009, and in February 2011 it announced new guidelines to gauge whether an injured player should continue to play.

The lawsuits consist of a class action suit and three personal injury suits in California state court and a case in a federal court in Pennsylvania. The suits essentially allege that the NFL has a duty to inform players of all risks reasonably associated with their job duties and to support players injured in the course of their job duties. In this situation, the players’ “job duties” involve practicing for and playing football. Lawyers for the players say that they hope to use the lawsuits to improve safety standards for all players, to prevent future injuries, and to get compensation for the players’ injuries.

To prevail on their claim, the players would have to prove that the NFL had knowledge of risks inherent in the game not available to an ordinary prudent person, and that the players did not assume the risk of injury by agreeing to play the game. An argument in the players’ favor, perhaps, is that they did not have the ability to refuse to perform certain job functions, since these would occur in the middle of games and players are contractually obligated to play.

Continue reading "Players Sue NFL and Helmet Manufacturer over Head Injuries" »

Our DC injury lawyers are familiar with the devastation that suffering from a traumatic brain injury can wreak on the lives of victims and their families. Now, here is more disturbing news about some of the serious side effects that can come with a Washington DC TBI.

University of California-San Francisco scientists, who studied nearly 300,000 older war veterans (age 55 and older), found the having a brain injury can more than double a person’s risk of developing dementia. According to lead researcher and San Francisco VA Medical’s Center Memory Disorders Program’s director Kristine Yaffe, veterans with a TBI diagnosis had a 15% chance of developing dementia, while the risk for those who never had a TBI was 7%.

Obviously, you don’t have to go to war to develop a traumatic brain injury. Fall accidents and car crashes are two of the most common causes of TBIs. In many instances, these types of accidents occur because someone else was negligent, which is where an experienced Washington DC traumatic brain injury law firm can step in to help you.

Unfortunately, a TBI doesn’t just up someone’s dementia risk, but Taiwanese researchers report that having a TBI can increase the patient’s chances of developing a stroke by up to 10-fold. It doesn’t help that complications from a TBI, such as cardiac injuries, ruptured arteries, and blood clotting disturbances, can also increase the chances of stroke.

The researchers compared data between 69,597 patients without TBIs and 23,199 patients with TBIs. They found that within the first three months, TBI patients had a 2.91% risk of stroke while the risk for those who didn’t have a brain injury was .3%. That’s a 10-fold difference. However, with time, the risk of stroke for the TBI patient did go down. Although his/her risk of stroke was 4.6 times more one year after the injury, after five years it had gone down to 2.3 times more than for patients who never had a TBI.

A fractured skull, however, did up the chance of stroke by 20 times for patients with brain injuries compares to those without this type of fracture. The chances of brain bleed, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation was also greater for TBI patients. This study can be found in Stroke’s July 28 online edition.

Proving that you have a brain injury and that it occurred in an accident caused by another party’s negligence can be incredibly challenging, which is why you want to make sure you are represented by experienced DC traumatic brain injury lawyers.

Stroke Risk Spikes After Brain Injury, The State Column, July 31, 2011

Traumatic brain injury doubles risk of later dementia, USA Today, July 18, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Traumatic Brain Injury, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dementia, Medicine.net

National Stroke Association

More Blog Posts:
Many Brain Injury Patients Suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect, Says Survey, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, January 6, 2011

Maryland TBI: Call a Concussion a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Says Researchers, Maryland Accident Law Blog, January 23, 2010

Natasha Richardson Did Not Receive Medical Attention Until Four Hours After Ski Fall Accident that Resulted in Fatal Traumatic Brain Injury, Maryland Accident Law Blog, March 20, 2009

Continue reading "Washington DC Traumatic Brain Injuries May Up the Risk of Stroke and Dementia" »

According to a survey released by the Brain Injury Association of America, about 80% of respondents suffer from a neurological condition called pseudobulbar affect. PBA is believed to occur when there is structural damage to the brain. It can cause involuntary crying or laughing outbursts especially during situations that are inappropriate.

Survey participants included brain injury patients and caregivers. Data showed that almost 80% of qualified respondents experienced episodes of PBA. About 48% reported being regularly affected by this condition. Only 7% were aware of the term pseudobulbar affect, which is a treatable medical condition that is separate from the brain injury and often under diagnosed. 67% reportedly suffer from PBA but have not been treated for it.

Caregivers and brain injury patients suffering PBA report that the condition has a negative impact on quality of life, affecting social activities, time with family, and work. PBA can also strain relationships, causing embarrassment for the person and their family, while offending others who may not be aware that the seemingly inappropriate reactions are not within the person’s control. More than a million people reportedly suffer from PBA.

Brain Injuries
If you believe that your Washington DC brain injury was caused by another party’s negligent or careless actions, you may have grounds for a DC personal injury case. Common causes of brain injuries include motor vehicle crashes, violent crimes, illness, getting struck or striking a hard objects, fall accidents, firearm injuries, athletic or recreational accidents, drowning accidents, surgical errors, electrical shock, construction accidents, strangulation or suffocation accidents, and exposure to toxic chemicals.

Living with a brain injury can be very challenging and expensive. Some brain injury patients may need 24-hour care. Still others may require the use of medical devices and specialized medical care to maintain a decent quality of life. The side effects from a brain injury can make it tough for the patient to live independently, hold down a job, tend to daily tasks, take part in regular activities, or maintain relationships.

New Brain Injury Association Survey Reveals Nearly 80 Percent of Respondents Suffer Added Burden of Neurologic Condition with Debilitating Social Impact, PR Newswire/Brain Injury Association of America, January 6, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Brain Injury Association of America

Pseudobulbar Affect

Traumatic Brain Injuries, Maryland Accident Law Blog

Continue reading "Many Brain Injury Patients Suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect, Says Survey" »

The District has agreed to pay $10 million over the catastrophic beating of a young boy at the hands of his foster mother. The child, Rafael Pearson, sustained a massive brain injury from the assaults.

Pearson, whose biological mother was suffering from drug addiction, was just a few days old when he was placed in the hands of foster mom Tanya Jenkins. 46 days later, he was nearly dead after she had severely shaken and beaten him. Pearson ended up on life support for days.

Today, he remains profoundly disabled and will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life. The young boy will eventually go live at his grandmother’s home where an elevator will have to be installed. The DC child injury settlement will be paid out in 3 installments and is there to provide for his medical care for the rest of his life.

According to the Washington Post, Child and Family Services Agency placed Pearson with Jenkins, even though she had sent back another child that had been placed with her after just five weeks. Jenkins reportedly agreed to take the baby because she needed the money. Although a social worker should have been visiting Pearson once a week for the first eight weeks of his stay with Jenkins, only one visit was made by the agency during the time that he was in her care.

In court documents, prosecutors said that Jenkins admitted to the authorities that she had struck, shaken, and dropped Pearson on more than one occasion. Jenkins was sentenced to 12 years in prison for cruelty to children.

Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury
According to KidsHealth.org, inflicted traumatic brain injury, also called abusive head trauma, can occur when a child is shaken, dropped, struck, or thrown. Head trauma is the number one cause of child abuse-related deaths. Most victims are under the age of 1. Parents and caregivers are the most common perpetrators. About 60% of shaking injury victims are male.

D.C. settles for $10 million in foster care abuse case, The Washington Post, November 8, 2010

Abusive Head Trauma, KidsHealth.org

Related Web Resources:
Child and Family Services Agency, DC Gov.

Brain Injury Association of America

About 1.5 million people in the US sustain traumatic brain injuries each year. Depending on the severity of a TBI, brain injury symptoms can include headaches, fatigue, memory loss, visual disturbances, sleep disorders, dizziness, concentration problems, irritability, seizures, feelings of depression, nausea, sensitivity to sounds and light, loss of smell, mood changes, language problems, delays in mental processing, speech problems, difficulties reading or writing, vision loss, photophobia, hearing loss, tinnitus, nystagmus, seizures, paralysis, spasticity, chronic pain, bowel problems, social-emotional issues, and coma. 80% of TBI patients will be left with permanent, major disabilities.

Now, researchers are shedding more light on the links between TBIs and depression and sleeping problems, respectively. According to a study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, about 50% of traumatic brain injury survivors have a nearly eight times greater risk of suffering from clinical depression than do members of the general population.

559 TBI patients participated in the study. Within the first year after sustaining their brain injuries, approximately 53% of participants were diagnosed with major depression. Less than 50% of these patients received any treatment for their depression during the first year. Also, TBI patients who were depressed reported a poorer quality of life and experienced greater difficulties functioning.

While sleep problems have long been linked to TBIs, a new study explains why. According to Shantha Rajaratnam, PhD, from Monash University in Australia, brain injury patients don’t produce as much melatonin as do people who aren’t suffering from a TBI. Melatonin regulates sleep. Rajaratnam says that the findings suggest that a TBI may disrupt the structures of the brain that regulate sleep.

Also, brain injury patients that took part in the study spent less time sleeping and woke up more often after initially falling asleep than their counterparts that weren’t suffering from TBIs. Brain injury patients experienced more non-REM sleep.

Washington DC traumatic brain injuries can occur during fall accidents, motor vehicle accidents, accidents involving the victim’s head striking or being struck by a hard object, as a result of medical malpractice, or because of other injury accidents that resulted in a direct blow to the head.

Study: Brain injuries tied to trouble sleeping, Physorg.com, May 24, 2010

Traumatic brain injuries linked to depression, Los Angeles TImes, May 24, 2010

Brain Injuries May Lead to Sleep Problems, Web MD, May 24, 2010

Related Web Resource:
Journal of the American Medical Association

Brain Injury Association of America

Continue reading "Washington DC Traumatic Brain Injury Can Cause Depression and Sleep Problems" »

Amanda Mahnke, Representative Rick Larsen's communications director who was seriously injured when an empty bus struck her on September 3, is suing Metro for Washington DC personal injury. She is seeking $30 million in damages.

According to Mahnke’s DC bus accident lawsuit, she sustained permanent injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, a broken clavicle, a fractured skull, fractured ribs, a collapsed long, an epidural hematoma, a pelvis fracture, and other personal injuries when she was struck by the Metro bus while she crossing an intersection on Florida Avenue, NW. She is accusing Metro of negligence for allowing bus driver Carla A. Proctor to keep driving its buses even though she had been sued in the past for causing other collisions.

Proctor was involved in a multi-vehicle crash involving another bus and seven autos in March 2003 when she got out of the bus to examine a faulty door. According to lawsuits against Metro and Proctor, because she allegedly failed to set the brake the bus rolled down a hill. After Proctor struck a parked vehicle in December 2004, an elderly bus passenger filed a Washington DC bus crash lawsuit against Metro.

In another case, two people who were at a Wendy’s sued Proctor for DC personal injury after she drove a car through the restaurant’s window in July 2003. She was not on duty with Metro when this Washington DC car accident happened.

Metro finally fired Proctor after she struck Mahnke. No criminal charges have been filed against her over the bus crash involving Mahnke, but witnesses say the bus driver ran a red light and she may have been speeding. Metro says Proctor neglected to do everything she could to avoid hitting the 30-year-old pedestrian.

Capitol Hill staffer hit by bus sues Metro, Washington Examiner, January 8, 2010

Woman struck by Metrobus suing agency for $30 million, Washington Post, January 7, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Metro, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts 2008: Early Release, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

According to studies conducted by Professor Roger Wood, a head injury specialist, and Claire Williams from Swansea University, many traumatic brain injury patients experience personality changes as well as suffer from emotional processing issues. A loss of emotional attachment, which family members have described as lack of love or warmth, as well as a decreased ability to experience empathy, are some of the problems that can arise. These emotional processing issues not only cause relationship difficulties between TBI patients and their families, but they can make recovery more challenging.

In one of the studies conducted by Wood and Williams, they discovered TBI patients had a hard time recognizing the emotions that people on video and in pictures were exhibiting. This impairment did not appear to be related to general cognitive deficits, the seriousness of the TBI, or the time that had lapsed since the head injury occurred.

Williams and Wood say that alexithymia, a personality trait that makes it hard for people to describe their own feelings, appears to be more common in TBI patients.

Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries can occur as a result of car accidents, truck crashes, pedestrian accidents, motorcycle collisions, medical malpractice, birthing malpractice, serious fall accidents, drowning accidents, choking accidents, or other kinds of Washington DC injury accidents.

Living with a TBI can seriously impair a person’s ability to live a normal life. In many serious traumatic brain injury cases, the annual medical costs for taking care of a TBI patient can be astronomical. The lives and well-being of family members and close friends are also seriously affected.

Traumatic Brain Injury leads to problems with emotional processing, Psychology Today, January 3, 2010

Related Web Resources:
The Balanced Emotional Empathy Test (BEES) and Optional Software

Traumatic Brain Injury, Mayo Clinic

Continue reading "Washington DC Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Cause Emotional Processing Problems for Victim, Says New Study" »

A 24-year-old woman has died from fatal injuries she sustained after falling off the top of the trunk area of a moving car. Dianne Grainger, who is from the Baltimore area, was seated on the vehicle that was leaving a private lot when she fell and she struck her head on the pavement.

The fall accident occurred around 12:30am on August 4. Grainger died on August 5 at Suburban hospital.

Head Injuries
Head injuries can be internal or external. Internal injuries may involve the brain or the skull, or vessels in the skull. Striking one’s head on the pavement, especially from great heights, at a fast speed, and/or with no protection to pad the impact upon contact can lead to serious traumatic brain injuries. TBIs, when severe, can lead to coma, permanent brain damage, and death.

Fall accidents, motor vehicle crashes, and sports accidents are the leading causes of traumatic brain injuries.

Signs that a person may be suffering from a brain injury:
• Loss of consciousness
• Concussion
• Post traumatic amnesia
• Encephalopathy (may include confusion, problems paying attention, memory loss, aggression, confusion, or stupor)
• Seizures
• Coma
• Unreactive or unequal pupils

If someone you loved was seriously injured in a fall accident and you believe that the incident happened because another party was reckless or careless, you may have grounds for filing a Washington DC personal injury lawsuit.

Woman Fatally Injured in Fall From Car in NW, Washington Post, August 15, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Head Injury, MedlinePlus

Traumatic Brain Injury, CDC

Continue reading "Woman Sustains Fatal Injury in Washington DC Fall Accident From Moving Car" »