Sacramento Brain Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Personal Injury Law Firm in Sacramento, California, we see a lot of brain injury cases occurring from various accidents. Sports have been the catalyst for many brain injuries in young people these days. Interestingly enough, the sport that causes the greatest amount of brain injury in young people is not snowboarding as you blast down the mountain or even cumbersome football players slamming into one another, but rather horseback riding.

In the late July issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that horseback riding is the number one culprit for causing traumatic brain injury in young people, with ice skating coming in as number two.

The CDC stated that each year about 65% of all sports-related brain injuries occur in people ages 5 to 18. When calculating all ages into the equation, basketball comes in number one, bringing in 603,239 people a year, and bicycling heads up number two with 524,692 people a year.

Traumatic brain injury is nothing to ever take lightly. If you or your child have ever been in an accident and suffered from a brain injury, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. We would love to speak with you about your case and subsequent options.

Until next time…

For more information on sports-related brain injuries, please go to the CDC website or this article.

When someone is a victim of an accident and subsequently, suffers from spinal cord injury, the average lifetime costs associated with the injury will vary substantially according to the person's age.

To get a clearer understanding of the costs associated with this type of injury, I have included a list from spinalcord.org. The list shows the average lifetime cost for varying degrees of spinal cord injury. The first number indicates the average cost for a 25 year old person. The second number indicates the average cost for a 50 year old person.

Please take note that these averages do not included any indirect costs, such as wages.

Estimated lifetime costs by Age at Injury:

High Tetraplegia (C1-C4): $2,924,513 (25 yo), $1,721,677 (50 yo)

Low Tetraplegia (C5-C8): $1,653,607 (25 yo), $1,047,189 (50 yo)

Paraplegia: $977,142 (25 yo), $666,473 (50 yo)

Incomplete Motor Functional at any Level: $651,827 (25 yo), $472,392 (50 yo)

Please call us at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins if you have been injured and suffered a spinal cord injury. We are here to help.

For more information on spinal cord injury, please see spinalcord.org.

At the Law Offices of Moseley Collins, we know that a spinal cord injury incurred from a serious accident has many detrimental implications. For one, the loss or partial loss of feeling and motion is a tremendous hardship for one to bear.

In addition to this loss, a person suffering from spinal cord injury will incur numerous costs throughout their lifetime. The following averages were found on spinalcord.org. I believe it is a helpful tool to use if you or someone you love has suffered from this type of injury.

The list below indicates the average yearly expenses as of May 2006 for injuries of varying severity. The first number is the average cost for the initial year and the following number is the average cost for each subsequent year.

High Tetraplegia (C1-C4): $741,425 + $132,807/each year

Low Tetraplegia (C5-C8) : $478,782 + $54,400/each year

Paraplegia: $270,913 + $27,568/each year

Incomplete Motor Functional at any Level: $218,504 + $15,313/each year

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident and are now living with spinal cord injury, please give us a call at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins for advice and help.

For more information on spinal cord injuries, please go to spinalcord.org.

I’m sure you have seen the articles throughout the news lately about the man who has recently regained some abilities after being in a six year coma-like state brought on by suffering from a severe brain injury. This is an incredible breakthrough in the area of brain injury. It was past thought that someone in a minimally conscious state for so many years was untreatable. Now, with these new findings, we know that the possibility looms of some recovery even after years of living in such a condition.

To stimulate activity, doctors implanted tiny electrodes into the man’s brain which attached to a pacemaker like device in his chest. Within hours of the implantation, the man opened his eyes and tracked people moving throughout the room. Now, a year later, he has continued to progress. Reports state he can drink from a cup, comb his hair, and even speak in short sentences.

Researchers do say that this type of treatment is not going to be for everyone, because certain brain connections must have remained intact for the device to work. This, however, is none less a breakthrough of extraordinary proportion.

If you have been injured and suffered from a severe brain injury, please call our Law Offices of Moseley Collins. We would love to speak to you about your options and offer help and assistance.

Thanks for listening…

For more information, please read the L.A. Times article.

As I search through online information regarding brain injuries and traumas, I often find myself coming across a blog called “Second Chance to Live”. As a Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyer and being the person called immediately after someone is involved in an accident, it is more common for me to hear about the initial stages of someone dealing with a brain injury rather than the later stages. Many times, in the later stages, the injured person will find a new sense of hope and destiny to their life.

The blog is written by a man who, in the summer of 1967, was in a terrible car accident. As a result of the accident, he sustained an open skull fracture and was put in a coma for three weeks. His right frontal lobe, where we carry out executive decisions, was injured as well as having an impact to his brain stem. From here, he began a slow process of rehabilitating himself and was able to receive a graduate degree. His blog now talks about his life, his struggles, his joys, and what he sees as a second chance to live.

I find a renewed sense of hope as I read through his letters. I would like to invite anyone that has suffered from a traumatic brain injury or know someone that has to read this blog. I believe that it gives a good understanding to what a brain injury entails, emotionally and physically, for the person suffering from it.

To read the blog, please follow the link: Second Chance to Live

If you or someone you know has suffered from a traumatic brain injury because of an accident, I would am here to speak with you regarding your legal options. Do not hesitate to call our offices at 916.444.4444.

Hope…

A doctor is being charged with “inadequate, irresponsible, inappropriate and sub-standard care” for his delivery of a baby. The result of his negligence caused the baby undue stress and subsequently was born with a severe brain injury.

The article reads that the mother was having a difficult delivery when the doctor took over. He tried to deliver the baby via suction cap six times, when the standard is only three. From here on, the doctor attempted to deliver the baby using forceps and then finally, gave the mother a cesarean.

A representative of the General Medial Council of the UK stated that the doctor “should have carried out the operation after the third attempt at suction failed”.

After the suspicious delivery, the doctor was to be put on watch by his supervisors, but called for a compassion leave, saying he had to visit his sick mother in Egypt. He resigned shortly thereafter.

If you or a loved one has ever suffered from the negligence of a doctor, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. We are here to help.

For more information on this article, please click here.

An interesting story in the news brought me back to the days of Terri Shiavo and the legal battle her family went through. After a car crash, a man named Jesse Ramirez was left in a coma, being supported by tubes and machines. After a week, the doctors informed Jesse’s family that he would not recover from the state he was in.

The battle began when Jesse’s wife, after receiving advice from the medical team, decided Jesse should be taken off of life support. Other members of Jesse’s family did not agree and made a legal appeal to the court in which they won. Feeding and water tubes were reconnected and some several weeks later, seemingly miraculously, Jesse regained consciousness to the point that he is now able to interact with visitors.

I find this story so incredible, because it shows how traumatic injuries often have a longer recovery time than normal. We should be careful not dismiss a case, or a human being for that matter, within such a short frame of time.

If you have a loved one who has been injured and would like to find out more information on traumatic brain injuries, please call us at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.

Until next time…

If you would like to read the full article on Jesse, please click here

Brain injuries have affected many in the Sacramento region and throughout California through traumatic accidents. At the Law Offices of Moseley Collins we know the implications and suffering of those who experience such a tragedy.

In continuing my explanation of what a brain injury is, I would like to discuss some treatment options to you.

Brain injury treatment…

In general, most people who experience a brain injury will need to undergo some rehabilitation to regain some of the functions lost from their accident. Many people will need to learn how to do the most basic of skills, such as talking and walking.

My youngest brother, actually went through this possibility himself, after falling two stories and landing head first onto the tile below. In a coma for eight days, doctors told us that Beau would most likely need to learn to talk and walk all over again. By the grace of God, Beau did not need to do this type of rehabilitation.

Surgery is another option for people who suffer from brain injuries. The surgical procedure will differ from patient to patient, with options from removing damaged portions of the brain to draining blood if caught between the skull and brain.

There is hope in such a dire situation as this. Please give us a call if you or a loved one has experienced such an injury in an accident. We are here to help.

Until next time…

For more information on this article, please click here