| Go to any business directory, whether on the internet | | | | consciousness, then the specialists are in a better |
| or through the phone book, and you will find a whole | | | | position to access the impact that the injury has had |
| host of personal injury lawyers waiting to take up your | | | | on the patient. The vegetative state is rarely |
| compensation claim for you. Most of these will deal | | | | recoverable from and quality of life is guaranteed to |
| with anything from a broken fingernail to whiplash to | | | | be severely impaired. The permanent vegetative state |
| broken limbs. However, when it comes to cases of | | | | means that there is no chance of recovery. |
| severe head injury, is a lawyer well versed in | | | | To assist in the prognosis, doctors will use the |
| everything as good as an expert in the one thing? | | | | Glasgow Coma Scale which is a series of tests run |
| This cannot be so. To spend all their professional lives | | | | on the patient to determine responses to different |
| dealing with one type of injury would surely make | | | | stimuli. CT scans are then used to determine the |
| them know their area more efficiently. It would make | | | | extent of the injury, the amount of pressure the brain is |
| them better at sealing compensation claims for the | | | | under from swelling and also the electrical activity. |
| high amounts that severe head injury claims call for. | | | | Time is also a key factor, given that the longer period |
| But why would a head injury require a specialist as | | | | of time a person stays in a coma, the less favourable |
| opposed to a run of the mill personal injury lawyer? | | | | the outcome. |
| Firstly, severe head traumas are a complicated | | | | Something that few people other than personal injury |
| business. Even the medical professionals cannot easily | | | | lawyers and doctors understand is the effect of a |
| give a prognosis, other than to classify as a severe | | | | brain injury on the rest of the body. The body may |
| injury then the chances of a full recovery are virtually | | | | look completely intact but brain injury and immobilisation |
| nil. This leaves the need to understand the extent of | | | | for any length of time will have the knock on effect of |
| the injury as much as possible and to ascertain the | | | | disabling muscles and sparking extra bone growth on |
| effects it will have on everyday life now and in the | | | | joints. These are often irreversible affects and will |
| future. | | | | have a huge impact if the patient is able to get back to |
| All brain injuries that fall into the severe category will | | | | the new 'normal' life they will have. |
| undoubtedly be catastrophic. Coma and/or disability | | | | Severe brain injuries will also affect hormone related |
| are sure to follow and the prognosis may well be | | | | issues. As the body and all its functions are controlled |
| sketchy for several months with few favourable | | | | by the brain, any catastrophic brain injury will have a |
| outcomes. A patient can be in a coma, a vegetative | | | | massive impact on the quality of life of a survivor. A |
| state or a permanent vegetative state. This is the first | | | | personal injury lawyer would need to have advanced |
| thing that will be established before a prognosis can be | | | | knowledge of all these effects in order to make an |
| made. | | | | adequate claim for the patient or their family and |
| In the first of these categories, the coma would | | | | certainly not something that our average whiplash |
| probably last no longer than three to four weeks but | | | | lawyer could fully understand or do justice to. |
| there are no set rules to this. When the person regains | | | | |