Traumatic Brain Injury in Connecticut
Casper & de Toledo fights hard for its clients by utilizing the latest in technologies. To the right are examples of charts used in a traumatic brain injury case. Click on an image to enlarge.
Connecticut Brain Injury Lawyers Group
At the law offices of Casper & de Toledo, we are committed to ensuring that the legal system works as it should to bring about justice for victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI). We bring to our cases dedication, expertise, and repeated success.
The Connecticut traumatic brain injury lawyers at the law firm of Casper & de Toledo represent victims of mild, moderate and severe traumatic brain injury caused by incidents such as motor vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle) accidents, construction site accidents, falls, birth injury and exposure to toxic substances like lead paint. If you or a family member has suffered a head injury, contact us to schedule a free initial consultation with an experienced Connecticut Brain Injury Attorney (C.B.I.A.).
Sometimes a traumatic brain injury is referred to as a "closed head injury" or gives rise to a medical diagnosis such as "post-concussive syndrome." On other occasions, particulary with injuries suffered by children, a diagnosis following a car accident may be simply "concussion." In any such case, your lawyer's understanding and knowledge of the highly technical field of brain injury, traumatic brain injury or acquired brain injury is essential. This can make a difference not only in the way your case is presented but also in the way your case is perceived by an insurance company. At Casper & de Toledo, our brain injury lawyers have considerable experience. Our team is led by Stewart M. Casper, a past President of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, the current Chairperson of the Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice, and the past Editor-in-Chief of the "Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group Newsletter" that is disseminated throughout the country to other lawyers who devote themselves to brain injury cases.
Moderate and Severe Brain Injury
The type of injury typically associated with moderate and severe traumatic brain injury usually involves brain damage that is easily identified on imaging studies that yield diagnoses such as subdural hematoma, contusion of the brain, brain hemorrhage, skull fractures, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage, and other types of head injuries. These examples of acquired brain damage are routinely discovered on a CT scan examination performed in the Emergency Department after trauma. However, a CT scan cannot be relied upon to identify all brain damage. Injuries classified as moderate or severe may have a catastrophic impact not only on the life of the injured person, but on the lives of his or her family members and loved ones as well.
The Connecticut Brain Injury Attorneys at Casper & de Toledo are not intimidated by difficult cases and are even willing to take on cases even where liability may not be obvious and clear. Rather, we look closely at cases from various standpoints while examining the nature of the evidence to determine if liability can be established under the comparative negligence rules of Connecticut or in any other state where we consult on a case.
In most instances of the types of traumatic brain injury mentioned above, it is necessary to secure a neurosurgical consultation and in many instances, surgery is necessary. These types of injuries are frequently caused by occurrences that involve a high rate of acceleration followed by rapid deceleration or a large force of impact that can occur in a car accident, truck accident or serious fall. In such cases, while the injury may be easier to define than milder injuries, it is still necessary to secure the appropriate expert witnesses to outline what is often a lifetime of economic and non-economic damages.
Life-Altering Qualities of a Serious Head Injury
A traumatic brain injury is serious and life altering. Brain damage often affects body functions, from speech to cognitive function to consciousness. People with traumatic brain injury often require long-term or even lifetime medical care, and many never recover from their injuries. Traumatic brain injuries of all types can have devastating consequences on a patient's life and the lives of his or her family members. In many cases, cognitive losses may result in the loss of relationships and careers with concomitant emotional and financial consequences.
The Elusive Nature of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
While moderate and severe brain injury is generally easy to identify, mild traumatic brain injury is another story entirely. In fact, many cases of mild traumatic or acquired brain injury are overlooked entirely. Many health care providers are not properly trained to screen for mild traumatic brain injury; sometimes other acute injuries such as fractures or internal injuries suffered in a car crash can distract attention from a head injury; sometimes health care providers simply diagnose a concussion without focusing on the potential that the concussion may result in lasting cognitive deficits, personality changes, and/or secondary alterations to brain structure. In addition, even mild traumatic brain injury can result in loss of taste or smell, hearing and balance disorders (for example, tinnitus or vertigo), and, in some instances, seizure disorders of various magnitudes.
One reason for the failure to properly identify mild traumatic brain injury is that the system for classification of brain injury is antiquated and focuses on the initial period of the accident and the period that immediately follows the accident. The most common classification system in use in the United States was published by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine in 1993. That system recognized that a brain injury would exist if there was a loss of consciousness for less than 30 minutes or some altered state of consciousness such as confusion or disorientation as well as some other circumstances.
Documentation of very brief periods of loss of consciousness and altered states of consciousness have become the subject of much controversy. In the interval between an accident and a witness coming to the aid of an injured person, there may well be a short period of loss of consciousness. Rarely are emergency personnel on the scene immediately. Once at the scene, even EMTs lack the necessary training to properly document any confusion or disorientation. They use a "mini-mental status" exam which is sometimes noted as "oriented X 3" meaning the patient knows who she is; knows where she is; and knows the date. Another crude measure is the Glasgow Coma Scale—an crude measure of survivability. On a maximum scale of 15, most mild TBI patients are scored at 14-15. Neither a normal finding on the mini-mental status exam or the Glasgow Coma Scale is sufficient to rule out a traumatic brain injury.
As noted above and equally disturbing to the brain injury screening process, hospital emergency departments leave much to be desired when it comes to adequately documenting findings that might be consistent with acquired brain injury. One important study that confirmed this was published in the Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in 2008, Powell JM et al, "Accuracy of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Diagnosis", Vol. 89, pp. 1550-55.
Finally, clinical and research experience since 1993 have provided much new information that tells us that there are other reliable tools for documenting mild traumatic brain injury including advanced neuroimaging techniques and the self report of patients. The latter has proven to be the case based upon nearly a decade of experience with head injuries from concussive events in the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To this end, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine published a "Position Statement: Definition of Traumatic Brain Injury" in the Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in November 2010, Vol. 91, pp. 1637-1640. The Position recognized that adjustments to the paradigm of mild traumatic brain injury published in 1993 needed to change.
These are some examples of how the science in this area is changing and the need for lawyers handling these cases to stay abreast of the changes.
A Commitment to Results and Justice
Experienced Connecticut brain injury attorneys, the lawyers of the Stamford, Connecticut, office of Casper & de Toledo, are prepared to fight for justice for victims of many unfortunate incidents. These include children who experience Shaken Baby Syndrome in daycare settings, victims of car accidents, truck accidents, falls, workers who suffer loss of cognitive function due to exposure to toxic chemicals, and assault victims who suffer because they have been attacked in public places with inadequate security or lighting. Casper & de Toledo's attorneys also have a strong track record of advocating on behalf of people injured due to falls, sports and recreational injuries and other accidents.
How We are Prepared to Help You
Here at Casper & de Toledo, our Connecticut brain injury attorneys are in a select group of lawyers nationwide who have attended advanced seminars for lawyers dealing with some of these very significant issues. Not only has Senior Partner Stewart Casper attended these advanced educational programs for lawyers (which teach specifics in the areas of medicine, brain imaging, neuropsychology, life care planning, and retention of proper experts) but he has also taught at several of these programs. He has recently attended a special program taught by physicians on "Advanced Techniques in Neuroimaging" that included the subjects of CT Scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MR Spectroscopy, Functional MRI, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, PET Scans and SPECT Scans and courses on neuroscience and seminars for health care professionals sponsored by the North American Brain Injury Society.
Our firm is located in the heart of Stamford, Connecticut. Our Connecticut Brain Injury Lawyers practice regularly throughout Fairfield County (major court facilities are located in Stamford, Bridgeport and Danbury) and throughout the state of Connecticut.
Explore our website to learn more about our experience with Traumatic Brain Injury cases, as well as other types of law. Contact our Connecticut Brain Injury Lawyers to schedule a consultation regarding your legal options after you or a family member has suffered loss of consciousness (LOC), post-traumatic amnesia (PTA), or other physical, cognitive, or behavioral abnormalities after an event such as serious car accident or truck accident, sporting event mishap, or workplace injury.
