Washington Injury Law Blog

A shocking and disturbing clinical study came out yesterday indicating kids that play football from the Pop Warner level all the way to the NFL risk developing a degenerative brain diseased caused primarily by repeated concussions. Boston University School of Medicine researchers were shocked to find early signs of the concussion related brain disease (Traumatic Encephalopathy aka CTE) in the brain of an 18 year-old football player following his death from an unrelated cause. The doctors warn that the study is another powerful sign that players, coaches and sports medical staff members need treat concussions with great respect. There a crisis surrounding repeated head trauma in contact sports that really needs to be seriously addressed.

In recent years the time players sits out following a concussion has increased and the treatment of concussions has become dramatically better. However, there’s still a long way to go. I am a Football official at Pop Warner level through varsity High School. I’ve been the first person over to a kid who’s down following a big hit, and you can see it in the player’s eyes and facial expression that his head took a big hit and he may have a concussion. The last think I or you want is for our kids to begin down the road toward brain disease from playing a sport.

The study of concussions in contact sports has been fairly slow. Helmet technology has improved but does not fully prevent concussions. If you are a parent of a young football player I would definitely be very concerned following any concussion your child suffers. And you should be doubly concerned if your child starts suffering multiple concussions from particpating in contact sports.

The BU researchers predicted that had the 18 year-old lived he would have developed early-onset dementia that would have advanced unabated until his death. Researchers say they cannot estimate CTE’s prevalence among football players, though some athletes appear to be more susceptible than others, indicating there may be a genetic link. Because the research remains in its early stages, it has not yet been determined how many blows to the head or how severe the hits must be to cause CTE.

If you play football or have a loved one who does play and you suffer a concussion, please pay special attention to your health and get all the information you can about recovering from a concussion before you step back on the field.

Be safe!

Max Meyers, Esq.

Source story:

Seattle PI – Football players head trauma has ’shocking’ impact 

I read an interesting blog post on Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog about a new treatment method being developed for people who suffer traumatic brain injuries in car accidents or other serious injury causing accidents. Read the post here. As a Kirkland Washington Car Accident Lawyer I have seen the devastating effects severe brain injuries have on client’s lives.

New research  is being done to find an effective treatment of head injuries immediately after the injury. It appears severe injury due to blunt force trauma could be reduced by injecting Polyethylene glycol (PEG) mixed with sterile water into the blood stream, according to an article in BioMed Central’s Journal of Biological Engineering. Study data has indicated the injection may be useful if delivered as rapidly as possible after the injury, like in an IV drip that a paramedic could deliver at the scene of a serious car accident.

Hopefully, this new research will lead to an effective treatment for brain injury victims sooner rather than later.

As a Kirkland Personal Injury Attorney I often have car accident clients who have suffered severe injuries – which have left them with chronic injuries that will last the rest of their lives. A traumatic brain injury can leave you permanently disabled with lingering effects from the accident.

A test has been developed by an insurance company doctor, Dr. Paul Lees-Haley, to find people who are faking injuries or over exaggerating the severity of their injuries. The test – called “Fake Bad Scale” – claims to find injury victims who are lying about the severity of their injuries. Which would be all and good if it was proven to be scientifically accurate – it isn’t. There is a lot of controversy and disagreement amongst the scientific community regarding the tests reliability and accuracy in finding fakers (a.k.a malingerers).

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week shed some light on this latest battle between greedy insurance companies and good guys like me, otherwise know as plaintiff’s attorneys. The test is commonly given as part of a psychological exam as a sub-part of the MMPI. Unfortunately, nearly everyone who takes it can be considered a faker – according to leading critic Dr. James Butcher. Great for insurance companies, bad for you the injury victim!

The test asks 43 true or false questions like “My sleep is fitful and disturbed” or “I have nightmares every few nights.” For someone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder these can be legitimately true statements, but the test counts two points towards classifying you as a faker. Other test questions are “I have very few headaches” or “I have few or no pains.” If you suffer from chronic headaches you would say false, and again the test would count two more points towards labeling you a faker.

The author of this test, Dr. Lees-Haley over the last 18 years has received 95% of his work from defense attorneys representing insurance companies. I also find it very interesting that Dr. Lees-Haley paid to have his faker test published in a small medical journal in an attempt to buy his test instant creditability.

Luckily for injury victims across the country judges have often been persuaded to not allow this test into evidence in court cases. Whenever there is a genuine controversy surrounding the scientific soundness of a test – courts are generally suppose to forbid its use as evidence.

I have not had a case where Fake Bad Scale has raised its ugly head. But I’m sure its only a matter of time. Let’s hope that our Washington judges – if or when faced with deciding whether to allow the use of the Fake Bad test against an injury victim – choose on the side of caution. Choosing to protect injury victims over the greedy insurance company’s attempts buy excuses for failing to pay legitimate injury claims should be any easy choice in my biased opinion.

The best course of action if your insurance company is calling you a faker (a.k.a. malingerer) or requesting an “independent” psychological exam is to speak with an experienced Washington injury attorney pronto. Before you agree to this kind of testing you should absolutely know your rights!