Category: Injuries

Anytime you get into a vehicle you take a risk. Car wreck deaths in Tennesse in 2020 exceeded 1,200.

Though driving in a car always presents a certain threat, some roads have proven more dangerous than others. I-40 in East Tennessee saw many crashes between 2001 and 2011 of which 97 resulted in a death.

Why is this stretch of highway so treacherous?

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, seven of the eight most dangerous miles of I-40 are in Knox County. Contributing factors causing wrecks include traffic flow, distractions such as phone use and social media and failure to pay attention. Another element that adds to the danger of driving on I-40 is the congestion. With so many cars in one area, accidents are bound to happen.

How can you remain safe driving on it?

While there are no guarantees of safety, driving cautiously can help. This means leaving ample room between your vehicle and the one in front of you and checking your mirrors and over your shoulder before switching lanes.

Additionally, you must refrain from using your phone as you drive. You can set most phones to a driving mode to automatically let others know that you cannot respond because you are operating a car. Lastly, taking a few seconds to buckle your seatbelt and request your passengers to buckle up can make a huge difference in the event that you are in a wreck.

I-40 is a dangerous highway, but if you live in the area it is tough to avoid. Drive safely and remember to fasten your seatbelt before hitting the road.

Prescription drugs marketed to patients should be safe. These medications undergo an extensive research and testing period known as a clinical trial, and the FDA approves pharmaceutical drugs prescribed to patients. Each state also regulates which drugs doctors can prescribe.

What happens when a drug is not safe?

What are dangerous drugs?

In Tennessee, the commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services must consider several factors to determine whether a drug is safe. These factors include the potential for abuse, scientific knowledge about the drug, and public health risk, among others. Rushing this evaluation process for new drugs can lead to doctors inadvertently prescribing dangerous drugs. Some of these new drugs may present significant health risks to patients, even if the side effects are not known right away. If taking a dangerous drug causes negative health consequences, you should consider filing a personal injury lawsuit to seek compensation for your injuries.

Prescription drug interactions

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than half of overdose deaths in the US occur because of prescription drug misuse. This includes mixing prescription drugs. If your doctor prescribes you a drug that you should not combine with other medications you take, you can experience serious side effects. This negligence may give you grounds to pursue a personal injury or medical malpractice claim.

Prescription drugs are powerful substances that can cause immense harm when they are not formulated and prescribed properly. Government officials and doctors who take these side effects lightly should be held accountable.

A brain injury is a scary prospect, especially a brain hemorrhage. Bleeding in the brain may result in cognitive impairment, a stroke, and possibly death. Even if you survive a brain hemorrhage, you might spend years trying to recover body functions like speech or motor coordination. Brain hemorrhages have varying risk factors, so you might be more likely to experience one depending on your situation. 

Some instances of brain bleeding are preventable. But even if you have no control over the circumstances that lead to a brain injury, acting quickly to seek treatment may prevent the hemorrhage from resulting in extensive disability or death. Medical News Today explains the various risk factors for a hemorrhage. 

Head trauma

If you are driving a car and another vehicle hits you, your head may impact a solid surface and cause damage to your brain. In fact, head injuries are the most common cause of brain bleeding for individuals under the age of 50. Even if symptoms do not arise immediately, a head impact could weaken a brain blood vessel and result in something dangerous like an aneurysm. 

High blood pressure

Experiencing high blood pressure could possibly result in a brain hemorrhage because the increased flow of blood erodes blood vessel walls. People suffer from high blood pressure for various reasons. You might have it due to a disease or emotional stress, possibly due to a traumatic event. If you have suffered a traumatic injury, checking for high blood pressure is something to consider. 

Age factors

As you grow older, you become more susceptible to brain bleeding due to diseases and ailments that come with age. Blood disease, liver disease and brain tumors may all contribute to hemorrhages. Hemorrhages are not common with children, but sometimes they happen. Infants may also suffer brain bleeding if subjected to a birth injury or if the mother suffers a traumatic injury while pregnant. 

The medical costs associated with treating a brain hemorrhage and recovering from it can be high. If negligent action had caused your injury and resulting health problems, you can explore your options to hold the negligent party accountable. 

Whether due to a slip-and-fall accident, dog attack, motor vehicle crash or something else, injuries happen at an alarming rate in the U.S. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the roughly 130 million emergency room visits each year, about 35 million stem from an injury rather than an illness.

If someone’s intentional, reckless or negligent conduct caused your injury, you may be able to pursue financial compensation to help you manage your injury and move on with your life. Still, you should have a strategy for talking with an attorney about your claim.

Be open and honest

Virtually everything you tell your attorney is confidential. Therefore, to ensure your lawyer knows all aspects about your claim, you must be as open and honest as possible. Even if you think facts may harm your case or make you look bad, it is a good idea to tell your lawyer about them.

Try to stay calm

If you suffered a painful or life-altering injury in a stressful accident, you may find it difficult to maintain your composure. Still, if you do not stay calm, you may forget to tell your attorney important details. You may also not hear or misunderstand what your lawyer says.

Ask questions

The legal system can be incredibly complex and full of terms and processes you may not comprehend. Consequently, you should ask questions to better understand your situation. If you have questions after meeting with your lawyer, jot them down and follow up later.

Ultimately, your lawyer has a duty to look out for your interests. By doing your part to understand your rights, responsibilities and options, you may boost your chances of receiving the financial compensation you deserve.

Every type of negligence claim must show four basic elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. A plaintiff has to demonstrate that the defendant owed him or her a duty of care, the defendant breached the duty, and that breach caused the plaintiff to suffer damages. 

Unlike a criminal trial, a plaintiff does not need to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, the plaintiff must prove that what he or she alleges is more likely than not to be true. Attorneys sometimes refer to this burden of proof as a preponderance of the evidence. A plaintiff in a personal injury case must establish each of the four elements of negligence by a preponderance of the evidence in order to prevail at trial. 

Duty

In general, everyone owes one another a duty of reasonable care. Drivers have a duty to one another to drive with care. Doctors have a duty to treat patients with care. 

Breach

Plaintiffs must be able to explain how an act or omission breached a duty of care. For example, plaintiffs could show that a defendant failed to follow traffic laws or a doctor failed to diagnose a condition. 

Causation

Plaintiffs must show that a breach of care caused direct or indirect injury. Causation is arguably the most important element of a negligence claim and often the most difficult to prove. 

Damages

Injury is typically the easiest element to prove. A plaintiff may use evidence such as medical records or photographs to show injury, A plaintiff can show the economic damages from an injury with evidence such as medical bills or pay stubs reflecting lost wages. 

Even the most careful people can slip and fall in a public place if its premises are poorly maintained. If this happened to you, you may have sustained serious injuries from your accident. You will likely need to collect compensation in this case, yet you may be unsure whether to file a claim or a lawsuit. Before moving forward, it is important to understand the difference between the two, as well as when a lawsuit is appropriate recourse.

The difference between claims and lawsuits

Many people treat “claim” and “lawsuit” as interchangeable words. Yet, these refer to two different actions. If you file a claim against a negligent party, you are seeking compensation through their insurance company. Your claim will resolve out of court and may require negotiation to reach an appropriate settlement. If you file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent party, it means that you failed to reach an appropriate settlement through your claim, and that you must resolve your dispute in court.

When filing a lawsuit is appropriate

You may want to file a personal injury lawsuit after a slip and fall accident if you have no luck settling your claim for an appropriate sum. For your lawsuit to have merit, though, you must prove that the property owner’s negligence led to your injuries. You will need to show that:

• A dangerous condition existed on the property
• The property owner knew about the dangerous condition and failed to correct it
• Your injuries were caused by the property owner’s negligence

If you file a lawsuit after your slip and fall accident, keep in mind that you must proceed within the timeframe set forth by Tennessee’s statute of limitations. For personal injury cases, you have one year from the date of your accident to do so.

After a slip and fall accident, it is possible you will incur expenses and losses well beyond what you expected. If you cannot reach an insurance settlement that covers these, you may need to file a lawsuit. A personal injury attorney can help you fight for compensation that is appropriate for your circumstances.

When someone’s reckless or negligent actions result in you receiving a personal injury, there can be some uncertainty about what you need to recover. Insurance companies may act fast to convince you to accept their initial offer, and tell you that lawyers only make things worse, but is it true?

There is a lot that goes into a personal injury lawsuit. Depending on whether you pursue litigation or a settlement, it can take weeks or months to receive compensation for your injuries. When the wait can be so long, why do people file a claim instead of just taking a check from insurance?

How filing a claim can help you

A quick accident causes you to suffer an injury, and not you are facing medical bills, lost income, and other expenses. If a victim is lucky enough to see the at-fault party’s insurance company accept liability, that does not always mean they are getting the best outcome.

Insurance companies often try to pay off a victim with a lowball settlement offer to sweep the problem under the rug. The offer they present may hardly reflect the injury’s current costs and may entirely ignore the future costs. Filing a claim with an attorney can drastically improve the situation.

Lawyers know how much the cost of an injury is, and they know how to negotiate for compensation that reflects it. Without a claim to help maximize your compensation, you risk paying for your expenses out of your pocket.

Fight for your future

At-fault parties often hope that victims do not pursue a claim for their injuries. Without a personal injury claim, a victim loses much of their leverage to get what they need to recover from the accident properly. Attorneys also only collect fees if they win their client’s case, and only take the payment from the awarded compensation.

A victim does not face a risk from hiring an attorney and does not need any money upfront to recover when a claim is only in the client’s best interest.

Not all debilitating injuries from an accident are physical in nature. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological condition that can affect people who have experienced or witnessed a disturbing event, such as a serious accident.

People understand injuries that leave physical wounds, marks or scars behind. Because these are not present with psychological conditions like PTSD, people do not understand them as well. What follows is the truth behind many common misconceptions that people continue to entertain about the condition.

1. PTSD affects people other than soldiers

There is a strong association between PTSD and war. In the past, the condition bore names that reflected this, such as combat fatigue or shell shock. It is true that serving in combat is a significant risk factor for post-traumatic stress, but it is not the only possible cause. Any traumatic event, such as a car accident or a physical assault, has the potential to produce symptoms of PTSD.

2. Symptoms of PTSD do not necessarily show up right away

PTSD symptoms usually start showing up sometime within the first six months following the trauma. However, delayed onset after the initial six months have elapsed is also possible.

3. Not every trauma results in PTSD

The incidence of trauma is much greater than that of PTSD, which suggests that most traumatic experiences do not result in symptoms of post-traumatic stress. It is not entirely clear why some people experience PTSD while others do not, but it does not indicate that the person is weak. Post-traumatic stress disorder is an illness, and it is no more possible to overcome it through force of will than it is to talk oneself out of diabetes or the common cold.

4. PTSD is treatable

Unfortunately, due to the stigma associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, some people never seek treatment. While it is true that there is not a cure for PTSD, medications and other therapies can help people manage the symptoms so that they no longer disrupt other life activities.

PTSD due to an accident is a personal injury like any other. Therefore, it may be possible to hold those responsible to account.