This Month’s Question:
Can a Medical/Legal Consultant Help in Answering Specific Medical Questions in Cases?
Physician Legal Consultants Response:
We recently had a case of a 41-year-old woman who’s vehicle was hit head on in an auto crash. The client hit her forehead on the steering wheel before the airbag deployed. The client continues to experience severe frontal headaches 2-3 times per week. She describes severe sharp pain starting in her forehead and radiating to her temples bilaterally. On a pain rating scale with 0 being no pain and 10 being pain severe enough to lose consciousness the client states these headaches rate on average as 7-8/10. Along with pain, she also describes photophobia and nausea associated with the headaches. The client reports because of the severity and frequency of these headaches her ability to carry on the tasks of everyday living have been significantly disrupted. She reports difficulty being able to maintain her work schedule and other kinds of normal life activities such as household chores, relationships and friendships, recreational activities, etc.
It was noted in her medical records by her gynecologist that the client had a documented history of migraine headaches that accompany her menstrual period. The client states these headaches started in her twenties and have always correlated with the onset of her period. She describes these headaches as lasting 2-3 hours and rates the pain as 1/10. She describes these headaches as being diffuse headache pain without associated symptoms such as dizziness, nausea or photophobia and reports these headaches as “mild.”
Opposing counsel claimed the client had a pre-existing condition and that her current accident-related headaches should not be included as a damage in the case. Our attorney client asked the question of us if the current headache problem was accident-related or a pre-existing condition as proposed by opposing counsel. It was our opinion the headaches were a direct result of the auto crash. Specifically, that the auto crash was the immediate and proximate cause of the client developing post-concussive headaches. Ultimately, the settlement included the headaches as a medical damage in the case supported by our report.
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Interesting medical questions and responses to them