Articles Posted in Traumatic Brain Injury

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Anthony Bearden was walking along the shoulder of a residential road when Lloyd Young approached in a Jeep Grand Cherokee and struck him. Bearden suffered orthopedic surgeries and a traumatic brain injury. He now requires the use of a wheelchair and suffers from pain and mental distress.

Bearden sued Young, alleging negligence and wantonness. Bearden also maintained that the defendant had been speeding and driving while distracted.

After the jury trial, the jury signed a verdict for $25 million in compensatory damages.

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Doe, age 7, was riding in a van operated by his classmate’s mother. As the van entered an intersection that was controlled by a traffic light, Roe, an employee of a contracting company, collided with the van, which caused it to strike a telephone pole.

Both Doe and his classmates were ejected and landed on the roadway. Doe suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Doe’s family sued the contracting company and his classmate’s mother alleging liability for the crash. The Doe family claimed that Roe’s choosing not to stop at a red light caused the crash.

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Jonathan Miron and Edyerch Ramirez, both 26 at the time, went with friends to the Arts District Brewing Co. in Los Angeles. After leaving the bar, Ramirez asked to re-enter to use the bathroom. The bar personnel refused his request.

Ramirez then walked across the street and stood behind a car, intending to urinate. Two of the bars’ security guards ran toward him, and the parties began having a heated discussion.  Jonathan Miron, seeing what was happening, walked over to Ramirez. The two security guards went back inside the bar and returned with another two or three security guards.

One of the security guards punched Miron in the face, causing him to fall to the ground, hit his head on the concrete and lose consciousness. The security guards also punched and kicked Ramirez in the head, breaking his jaw.

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Corzon Espano, an accountant in her 60s, was standing at the corner of an intersection waiting for a traffic light to change before she was about to cross the street. When the light signal showed “walk,” she entered the crosswalk and was abruptly hit by a turning garbage truck driven by Raymond Morell, who worked for the City of Torrance, Calif.

Espano unfortunately suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple orthopedic injuries including a crushed knee. She underwent several surgeries and procedures, including open reduction internal fixation of the right tibia, skin grafting, and debridement of her lower right leg.

It is possible that she may later require a leg amputation due to her high risk of infection. The Medicaid lien through the state of California totaled $100,000.

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Allison VanDerMaelen was riding on the back of a motorcycle that was approaching an intersection. A garbage truck driven by Robert Choinski for CWPM, LLC was traveling westbound while the motorcycle was eastbound.

Choinski’s garbage truck crossed the centerline and entered the eastbound lane crashing head on into the motorcycle.

VanDerMaelen suffered serious injuries including brain hemorrhaging, chest trauma, and multiple fractures. She underwent numerous surgeries and was hospitalized for almost three months. She then underwent six months of physical therapy, rehabilitation and additional leg surgeries. VanDerMaelen continues to suffer pain and restrictions in her daily living activities and uses a wheelchair or walker to move around.

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Cameron Hansen, 48, was a cement mason working at a construction site at Loretto Hospital at 645 Central Ave. in Chicago. The defendant in this case was Stone Mountain Access Systems Inc., which was the company that provided the scaffolding at the job site. Stone Mountain was responsible for designing and consulting for the building of this scaffold for this job.

Hansen was attempting to disassemble the scaffolding on Nov. 11, 2010 when it tipped over and he fell to the ground. Hansen sustained a traumatic brain injury along with unspecified injuries to his neck, left shoulder, left hip and left knee. He required five surgeries and physical therapy. The injuries left him with permanent disability.

He blamed Stone Mountain for the placement of counter-weights for the scaffold falling over and this accident. Stone Mountain maintained that there was nothing wrong with the equipment or the way the scaffold was built and argued that Hansen’s dismantling of the scaffold was the sole cause of the scaffold’s fall.

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Individual NFL retired players will receive up to $5 million of the $1 billion settlement that was reached with the NFL (National Football League). The NFL has recognized that current and former players are exposed regularly to different forms of brain concussions. Some of these injuries lead to neurocognitive or neuromuscular symptoms. The NFL brand of football is increasingly fast, including extremely talented and bigger players. All participants are subjected to serious injuries, including brain injuries.

The player lawsuits originally accused the NFL of hiding what it knew about the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease found in dozens of former NFL players after their deaths. The settlement avoids the need for a trial and means the NFL may never have to disclose what it knew and when about the risks and treatment of repeated concussions.

The settlement covers more than 20,000 retired NFL players for the next 65 years. The league estimates that 6,000 former players, or nearly 3 in 10, could develop Alzheimer’s disease or moderate dementia. Continue reading

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On Dec. 15, 2000, Patrick Broderick was driving southbound on Schoolhouse Road when icy conditions caused him to lose control of his car.  His vehicle came to a rest on a snow bank on the east side of the road.  A good Samaritan stopped at the scene to help Broderick, parking his car in the northbound lane of traffic.  Supposedly, the good Samaritan’s hazard lights were on and working, but that fact was disputed.

Caroline Semanic was traveling northbound on Schoolhouse Road when she approached the scene.  Semanic said she saw no flashing headlights on the good Samaritan’s vehicle and testified under oath that she saw only tail lights that she thought were attached to a moving vehicle.  Semanic’s car slid into the good Samaritan’s car while attempting to avoid crashing into that parked car, pushing the vehicle into the plaintiff Broderick, who was standing in the roadway with his back to northbound traffic.

Broderick maintained that the force of the impact caused him to be thrown 75 feet.  The thrust of the impact resulted in a closed head injury, mild traumatic brain injury and soft tissue neck injury.  Broderick claimed that he now has impaired cognitive function, loss of prior math skills, inability to concentrate, memory deficits, altered personality, word-finding difficulties, post-traumatic stress disorder, inability to follow directions, chronic insomnia, increased flare ups of temper, headaches, neck pain and depression. He is currently working as a fraud analyst.

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