Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)
After being hospitalized at Mercy San Juan Hospital for 14 days, on May 15, 2006, plaintiff was transferred the U.C.D. Medical Center for further inpatient treatment. Upon transfer from Mercy San Juan, her diagnosis included:
Closed head injury.
Subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Diffuse axonal injury.
C2 fracture anterior aspect of the lateral mass.
Plaintiff remained at UC Davis Medical Center for 22 days where she was treated for a traumatic brain injury. In total, she was hospitalized for 35 days.
V. PLAINTIFF’’S CONTINUING COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS
Since the collision plaintiff has been evaluated by three medical experts. Their reports are attached as Exhibits and their findings are discussed below.
1. Alan D. Shonkoff, Ph.D. Dr. Shonkoff was retained by defendant. He examined plaintiff on April 22, 2007, and administered some tests. In his reports he states:
[Plaintiff] clearly sustained a significant head trauma in the 5/1/06 accident. As mentioned, paramedics at the accident scene described her as unresponsive with serial Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 3. She was subsequently intubated and medically sedated.
Dr. Shonkoff goes on to state plaintiff made a remarkable recovery. He states her neuro-psychological findings indicate “essentially” intact cognitive functioning. Although Dr. Shonkoff concedes that “there does seem to be some compromise with regard to higher order abstract problem solving capacities.” Unfortunately, Dr. Shonkoff failed to administer many of the neuro-psychological tests needed to document plaintiff’s on-going brain damage. This was no doubt an inadvertent oversight by Dr. Shonkoff which has since been corrected by the neuro-psychological tests administered by Robert Allen, Ph.D., below.
2. Robert Allen, Ph.D. Dr. Allen was retained by plaintiff and tested her twice; once on August 14, 2006, and again on July 22, 2007. Testing plaintiff twice allowed for an increased degree of accuracy and also allowed Dr. Allen to observe her over an extensive period of time rather than on just one day. (See Part 5 of 10.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.