Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this auto accident case and its proceedings.)
The following blog entry is written from a defendant’s position as trial approaches. Reviewing this kind of briefing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.
On September 19, 2007, she returned to Dr. Wong. It was now over one year post-accident. She was still having chronic back issues. She was seeing a chiropractor but there was no relief. She was having pain in her legs and it felt like she walked with a limp. She would get tired easily. She was going to school full-time. She appeared to have trigger points in her neck and lumbosacral area. Assessment was chronic lumbosacral strain/pain with stress at home and she was referred for an MRI scan.
On September 25, 2007, plaintiff received an MRI scan of her lumbar spine. Impression was mild multilevel lumbar spondylosis. She had a broadbased central disc protrusion of 3mm at L5-S1. She had a disc bulge of 2-3 mm at L4-5 in combination with degenerative changes and a lateral disc bulge of 2 mm at L3-4. Finally, she had mild dextroscoliosis of the lumbar spine.
On October 11, 2007, plaintiff received an orthopedic evaluation from James White, M.D. of the California Spine Institute. She reported the car accident. She reported driving a BMW 325c and going over a speed bump when she was rear-ended by a Toyota 4-wheel drive traveling 25-30 miles per hour (this is plainly an exaggeration).
She reported developing back and neck pain the following day. She was still having pain across the low back with some brief episodes of pins and needles in the lower extremities. She had a chronic mild ache in her neck. She thought her balance was off . Exam revealed minimal left convex thoracic scoliosis. Dr. White reviewed the MRI scan. His impression was chronic axial low back pain status post motor vehicle accident with mild degenerative disc disease and chronic cervical strain. He felt her physical exam was within normal limits and he reassured her that the MRI findings were minimally abnormal. She did not require any surgery or spine injections. He recommended that she stop chiropractic intervention and get back to the gym and work on proper posture. (See Part 5 of 6.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.