Up in beautiful Truckee, CA, an adventure-resort town just a few hours north of Sacramento, California, lives a man named Ron Hunt, nick-named the "Miracle Man". In 2003, Hunt was working at a construction site when he fell from a ladder and landed, face first, upon an 18 inch, 1 1/8 inch chip-auger drill bit. The drill went through his eye, pushed his brain aside, and exited his skull by his ear. Tahoe World reports the following:
Just to write the description of the injury gives us the heebie-jeebies. But miraculously, Hunt survived the accident with minimal trauma, losing the eye and having titanium plates installed where the bit went through his skull, as well as some minor nerve damage in the right side of his face.
Amazingly, Hunt survived! The whole world was captured by this story and Hunt was interviewed by many magazines, newspapers, and even television programs, including Good Morning America.
Clearly, God wants to keep this man around for a while!
Please see tahoe-world.com by clicking on this link. There are some amazing pictures you need to see!
Though this article brings us good cheer, many head injuries do not end so happily. Many head injuries result in brain trauma, which can severely damage a person's cognitive ability, making the tasks they did at their jobs before the accident difficult or impossible. Brain trauma can also hurt the victims' family life, and can possibly cause them to become paralyzed. If you or a loved one has suffered a head injury that was not your fault, we can help you. Please call our office at 916.444.4444, or visit our website by clicking this link.
God bless you.
Jennie's pain continued. Soon she began feeling numbness in her lower extremities. Her family doctor told her she needed to return to the hospital and get an MRI. Jennie went to a different hospital this time but they did not have the time to see her. She was transferred to yet another hospital where they gave her an MRI and, due to the alarming results, sent her into an emergency surgery.
Still her injury grew worse. All it was was a herniated disc, a very treatable condition, but due to the lack of care she received from her doctors, it slipped farther and farther down her spine and damaged a bundle of nerves. As she recovered from the surgery in the hospital, Jennie and her husband grew alarmed at the black color that was spreading around the surgery site. The nurses she informed did nothing to fix, change, or alert anyone else of the discoloration. Within days Jennie had to undergo another surgery to remove the black tissue.
Jennie’s doctors were very negligent with her. Along with the above listed they also did not catheterize her in the appropriate time period, causing her bladder to become dangerously distended, and they did not give her blood thinners as they should have, resulting in a pulmonary embolism.
Presently, Jennie is unable to walk without assistance and remains numb below the waist. What began as an extremely treatable condition, a herniated disc, has turned into a nightmare of eclectic injuries, all due to her doctors and nurses' negligence.
For the full story click this link.
A story such as this makes one wary of socialized healthcare. If the doctors and nurses whom treat us are too busy to actually treat us, then what good is health care at all?
Sadly, the sick and injured are often times neglected in our country as well, where we do not have socialized health care. Many patients in Sacramento, CA are injured each year due to the negligence of the doctors and nurses who tend to them. These injuries can be bed sores, injuries from surgeries gone wrong, misdiagnoses, etc. If you or a loved one has been injured due to a doctor or nurse's neglect, we can help you. Please call me, Attorney Moseley Collins, at 916.444.4444, or visit my website at www.moseleycollins.com. We would love to help you.
“Being a doctor the first thing that went through my head when I was shot was ‘I’m going to be in a wheelchair’,”
Unfortunately, her intuition was right. Doolabh was immediately paralyzed from the waist down. An immediate surgery to remove the bullet plus six months of intensive therapy, however, set her upon her feet again. Recalling her recovery, Doolabh said:
“I was very determined to get better no matter how hard it was,”
Now she is motivated to help others like her. She says that she feels she was given a second chance at life and wants to spend it in a worthy manner. In that stead, Doolabh has created an organization called Spinal Care Australia to raise money for research and to raise awareness of spinal injury and recovery.
“I want to be able to help and raise money and awareness for spinal research so that maybe one day in the future they can do more for spinal injury patients.”
To raise funds for her organization, the formally paralyzed Doolabh plans to climb to the Mount Everest base camp with her mother and four friends. She aims to raise $10,000 by doing so. As of yet, she has raised $3,200. If you are interested in helping Doolabh reach her goal, visit her website at www.spinalcare.org.au and follow the links to her Everest climb.
For the full story click here.
If you or a loved one have involved in accident that was someone else's fault and have suffered a brain or spinal trauma, please call me at the The Law Office of Moseley Collins. We are waiting to help you.
God bless.
Anna was rushed to the hospital. Suffering a traumatic brain injury, doctors tried to keep Anna’s brain from swelling.
There is a relatively new method some hospitals have been implementing to prevent serious brain injury and death after an accident such as Anna’s. The method is to place the patient in a state of hypothermia. This method of hypothermia has been show to have some positive effects on an injured brain. For one thing, when a brain suffers an injury, it will produce a chemical that can be harmful to its cells, hypothermia can slow this down. Hypothermia also reduces swelling, which in injured brain can cause severe mental damage and even death.
After 32 days in the hospital and 10 days in a state of hypothermia, Anna was released from the hospital. She has had an amazing recovery. Anna's initial prognosis was a mere 20% for survival and, if she did in fact survive, mental retardation was a guarantee. Although Anna's family says that her personality has altered somewhat with more moodiness and she suffers from memory loss, Anna's beat out the odds by a dramatic amount.
If you have been injured in an accident at someone else’s fault, and have suffered from a traumatic brain injury, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. We are here to help.
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]]>The accused woman, Veronica Salcedo, was babysitting three children the night of the incident. The youngest child, Hannah, is the center of the case. According to News 10, prosecutors are calling for Veronica to be tried for “second degree murder and child abuse causing death or great bodily injury”. It is their claim that Veronica shook Hannah so violently that the child ended up in the hospital on life support and died two days later.
On the opposing side, defendants state this is not what happened at all, but rather the cause of Hannah’s death was from a neurological undiagnosed illness. They state that there is evidence that the child’s brain was swelling the night before the incident. However, doctors never did the neurological testing for the illness, so there is no way of truly knowing.
Veronica did state that she shook Hannah. However, she states that it was only slightly and just to get her to come to when she found her unresponsive. Supposedly, Veronica had confessed to shaking the child harder when police first spoke to her, but has now withdrawn that on account of a language barrier (Veronica only speaks Spanish).
Shaken Baby Syndrome is child abuse. Shaken Baby Syndrome, or SBS, occurs when a child is shaken hard enough that their brain bounces inside the child’s skull, causing damage or death. This diagnosis usually will occur in children two years or younger. At this age children have weak necks, large, heavy heads, and developing brains. These characteristics put together make an instance of strong shaking very threatening to a baby’s life.
If you have a child who has been diagnosed with SBS because of someone else’s abusive behavior, please call me at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.
To read the full news article, please click here.
For more information on Shaken Baby Syndrome, please click here.
]]>The car crash was caused by Savannah’s boyfriend, who took part in a sudden street race on his way home from a night out. His car reached speeds of 70 mph, well over the posted 25 mph speed limit. The car lost control in midsts of the race and slammed into a tree. From that moment on, Savannah would see her life change. After a week in a coma, she awoke to find the right side of her body paralyzed. She had suffered brain damage to the left side of her brain in the accident, causing neurons to disconnect. She also was not able to swallow her saliva and doctors had to perform a tracheotomy, which left a tube in her windpipe for 90 days.
Three months after the accident Savannah was able to leave the hospital and had regained partial use the right side of her body. Savannah will continue to undergo physical therapy and rehabilitation to regain use of the right side of her body.
Savannah’s ex-boyfriend is now facing trial for two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Street racing is such a dangerous game to play, especially when others' lives are involved. The lives of loved ones, friends, and even strangers can be alter and/or lost forever.
To read the full article in the Sacramento Bee, please click here.
]]>The Sacramento Bee gave an example of a little girl, Taia Herring, who fell out of a second-story window just days after her third birthday. She was left alone for a moment and out the window she went. Her mom found her on the grass outside, barely conscious. She was rushed to the hospital to find out that she had suffered major brain injury and fractured her femur.
Taia’s parents were devastated, but they held fast to hope and submitted themselves to prayer every day for their daughter. And then her remarkable recovery took hold. Within two months, Taia was able to speak and left to return home. She is still learning to walk on her leg and continues with physical therapy. Her parents say that they know it is the blessing of God that Taia was saved in that fall.
If you have small children take precautions to prevent them from climbing out of windows. This could protect your child from suffering from a major brain injury or even death. Keep objects away from windows that could enable your child to get easy access to the outside. Close windows on the second story or keep close watch on your children when they are playing upstairs.
To read the full article in the Sacramento Bee, please click here.
His doctor informs news sources that Scotty’s injury is due to a traumatic brain injury, very similar to what one would see from a serious car accident. Despite suspicions that the injury was due to a previous hit or accident, Scotty’s doctor says that this injury had to have happen within hours of Scotty reaching the hospital.
Doctors cannot predict how Scotty will, or even if he will, recover. At this point in time, with such a major brain injury, and with Scotty in such a deep coma, it is difficult to see signs of recovery. Over the past couple of weeks, Scotty has only slightly moved the right side of his body and cracked his eyes open once. Unfortunately, this could be due to reflexes rather than signs of improvement.
Students and parents around the area of San Marcos have formed a support group for Scotty. The team had their first game this past Friday, and the stadium, on both sides, were filled with people adorning Scotty’s football number, number 54. There were also fundraisers at the game to help pay for the extensive medical bills that Scotty’s parents will undoubtedly face.
It is such a tragedy to see someone so young go through such horrific injuries. Scotty’s football coaches have scoured videotapes of the game in which Scotty was injured, but have yet found an exact hit which caused Scotty's traumatic brain injury. Let’s pray for Scotty’s recovery and strength for his family.
To read the full article on Scotty’s traumatic brain injury, please click here.
]]>John first went to the hospital because he was having blurred vision and dizzy spells. The doctors found that he had a brain aneurysm behind his right eye that threatened to kill him. They decided to do a surgery to drain the aneurysm, but wanted to keep John awake to make sure they didn’t blind him in the process.
The doctors drilled a half-inch hole in John’s skull and used a type of reality software to create a 3-D image of his brain, which projected onto one side of an eyepiece the head doctor wore. On the other side of his eyepiece, a microscopic view of the brain was used to do the operation. During the entire operation, nurses showed John flashcards, ensuring that his vision was not being affected.
The operation ended successfully, the aneurysm was drained and blood was prevented flowing into the aneurysm.
To read the complete news story on John’s aneurism, click here.
Brain injuries are a serious concern, no matter how little. A concussion is a small brain injury that may not seem to be a very big deal at the time of the accident, but can have lasting and long-term effects. Athletes have many different terms they use to describe a concussion, including; getting your “bell rung”, feeling “foggy”, and “getting dinged”. These terms can make concussions sound pretty innocent, but we should be aware of the impact this mild brain injury can have.
This is important to know and diagnose because a concussion IS a brain injury and deserves special attention. Having one concussion also makes you more susceptible to further concussions in the future. Statistics show that suffering from one concussion will make you 4 to 6 times more likely to suffer another concussion. In addition, the more concussions one suffers from, the worse it is for them. Studies have shown that each additional concussion has an additive effect, amount to more and more damage to the brain each time it suffers from a concussion.
Brain injuries are always a serious matter. If you or a loved one has ever been injured and have suffer from a brain injury, please call me at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. I am here to help.
Be aware…
To read the full article on this news story, please click here.
]]>I read an article today about a man named Saul Raisin. Saul, a world-class bicyclist, was injured when he was preparing to compete in a bicycling competition in Italy. The young 24-year old's life was suddenly turned upside down. Falling off of his bike, Saul suffered a traumatic brain injury and fell into a coma within a day. Waking from his coma, Saul found himself paralyzed on the left side of his body and was told he would never walk again. As for his dream of cycling, that was completely out of the question.
Incredibly, about a year and a half later, Saul finds himself not only walking, but back in cycling competition. This month, he even completed his first race since the accident, and although he came in last place, he sees himself as a winner.
There is often hope after suffering from a severe accident that cause a brain injury. Even a brain injury as traumatic as Saul’s (he couldn’t even realize he was suffering from a brain injury until two months after the accident), can take steps towards a somewhat normal life.
If you or someone you love has suffered from a traumatic brain injury due to someone’s carelessness or misconduct, please call us at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. We are here to help.
Play safe…
For more information on Saul and his accident, please click here.
]]>Reports have shown that actually falling off trampolines will often result in “crippling injury and/or death including paralysis from spinal cord injury”. Other factors that led to these types of injuries occurred from colliding with others on the trampoline and trampoline somersaults or stunts.
Statistics by the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons show that 246,875 injuries from trampoline accidents occur each year in the U.S. 186,405 of these injuries were sustained by children 14 years old or younger.
Like I said before, although trampolines can be fun, they can be quite dangerous as well. Be careful with your children and help to ensure their safety by letting them know of the dangers associated with trampolines and by monitoring them if you do allow them to jump.
If you or someone you know have suffered from an injury because of someone else’s negligence, please give us a call at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.
Stay safe…
For more information on trampoline injuries and statistics, please click here.
]]>I read a news report today about a motorcyclist that was rear-ended. A 21-year old woman was driving her Jeep Cherokee, when she was distracted for a moment by one of her four dogs riding with her. As she glanced off the road, a man driving a motorcycle in front of her slowed down to make a turn. The woman rear-ended the man, sending him flying up onto her car and slamming him against her windshield. At the hospital, he was diagnosed as suffering from broken bones and a spinal cord injury, which has left him paralyzed.
The 21-year old, who was ticketed for speeding and driving without insurance three hours prior, was written up for a felony. Her charge was gross negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Again, I can’t tell how careful to be if you ride a motorcycle… and drivers, keep special watch out for these motorcyclists! If you or someone you love are suffering from a spinal cord injury because of someone’s neglect, please give us a call at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.
Keep and eye out…
For the full news article, please click here.
]]>A healthy brainTo understand what happens when the brain is injured, it is important to realize what a healthy brain is made of and what it does. The brain is enclosed inside the skull. The skull acts as a protective covering for the soft brain. The brain is made of neurons (nerve cells). The neurons form tracts that route throughout the brain. These nerve tracts carry messages to various parts of the brain. The brain uses these messages to perform functions. The functions include our coordinating our body’s systems, such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and metabolism; thought processing; body movements; personality; behavior; and the senses, such as vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Each part of the brain serves a specific function and links with other parts of the brain to form more complex functions.
An injured brain
When a brain injury occurs, the functions of the neurons, nerve tracts, or sections of the brain can be affected. If the neurons and nerve tracts are affected, they can be unable or have difficulty carrying the messages that tell the brain what to do. This can change the way a person thinks, acts, feels, and moves the body. Brain injury can also change the complex internal functions of the body, such as regulating body temperature; blood pressure; bowel and bladder control. These changes can be temporary or permanent. They may cause impairment or a complete inability to perform a function.
If you or someone you love have been injured in an accident and are suffering from a brain injury, please do not hesitate to call us. Please call us at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins, (916) 444-4444, we are here to help.
For more information on causes of brain injuries, please visit the Brain Injury Association website.
]]>41 years later, Barclay developed a urinary tract infection, directly related to his paraplegia, which was directly related to his shooting that fateful night. Prosecutors are now trying to decide whether or not to charge the shooter, William Barnes, with murder.
Working in our Personal Injury Law Firm in Sacramento, California, we know that there are many complications that will need to be addressed after a spinal cord injury, especially if the injury results in paralysis. It will be interesting to see what the prosecutors decide in this case. And if their answer is to charge Barnes for murder, what impact does that have on other cases of a similar manner?
If you or a loved one have been injured by another person’s misconduct, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins for advice.
Until next time…
To read the full article on the homicide of Walter Barclay, please click here.
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