Life after a Traumatic Head and Orthopedic Injury

Major trauma following accident

Our client was a hardworking, mother, grandmother, and wife, continuing to work 5 days a week, as a nurse. She regularly cycled to work and was incredibly active both in her professional and personal life.

Following a meeting, a disabled access door abruptly and forcibly shut on our client as she was entering the building. This caused her to be thrown against a wall, where she sustained a head injury and serious, complex pelvic fractures. After being taken to hospital in an ambulance, our client underwent extensive surgery and was on heavy medication to control the immense pain. Throughout her time in hospital, she sadly experienced a relapse of her pre-existing eating disorder, which was being well managed prior to the accident.

Lasting effects

After returning home, our client was bed bound and unable to weight bear for many weeks. She experienced back pain which, after further investigation, revealed that she had also sustained a spinal fracture. With her first grandchild only 2 years of age, our client was unable to pick him up or spend quality time with him.

Changing Lives

Life after a traumatic injury is never going to easy, as often the hurt runs much deeper than just the initial injury. Having lost out on work, quality time with her family and independence, we felt determined to ensure financial compensation and financial stability for our client.

A claim was initiated against the initial defendant, and liability was denied. We arranged for the client to be seen by several medical experts and attempted to settle her claim with the defendant without the need to issue court proceedings. The time to issue proceedings was extended three times as we made efforts to do so. Our client found the whole process to be very anxiety-inducing and we made an offer to the defendants on the basis of our medical evidence, in order to bring the claim to a conclusion, which was unfortunately not accepted. The claim continued, and further information received from the defendant led to a second defendant being brought into the action. Liability for the accident remained denied by both defendants.

Our client continued to suffer the effects of her injuries, including worsened kyphosis, continuing back pain and psychological symptoms, including fear of using automatic doors. The parties began to comply with a timetable set down by the court, including further assessments by medical experts. In the meantime, we started to look again at alternative dispute resolution as the client was finding further medical assessments extremely stressful.

Following negotiations, our client accepted an offer of settlement in the sum of £90,000. She was extremely relieved that the litigation process had concluded and that she had been awarded a significant sum of damages after several years of fighting her claim.

“They gave me the most amazing support from start to finish, providing answers to all my questions in a timely manner, and anticipated any questions I might have…The money will not restore me to my health status prior to my accident, however I will be able to use the damages in a variety of ways which will bring me and my family joy”

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