May a pet owner recover for emotional distress when another intentionally injures his pet? It depends. While in other states pet owners may recover for emotional distress, up until last month California courts only allowed juries to award economic damages to a pet owner and refused to award an owner for his emotional distress including
The Future of Pain Assessment
Objectively measuring physical pain has been impossible. Doctors have relied on a patient’s self-report. And when asked to compensate accident victims for pain and su
ffering, so have juries.
But all that may soon change. Recently Stanford University researchers have used brain images and computer technology to assess pain. In this study, a computer
Another Way Insurance Companies Avoid Compensating Innocent Accident Victims
Proposition 213 became law in 1996. That law says that an uninsured driver who is injured in an auto accident may not recover certain damages due her, even though the accident was entirely the fault of the other driver. The damages the innocent driver is prohibited from collecting are her non-economic damages, which include pain
Proving PTSD with MEG Imaging Studies of the Brain
A recent study shows for the first time that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be objectively diagnosed using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a non-invasive measurement of magnetic fields in the brain. Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Minne
apolis VA Medical Center published a study this month in the Journal of Neural Engineering identifying a biological
What Damages May a Victim Seek for an Injury?
When a jury finds that a wrongdoer is responsible for the victim’s injury, then the Judge will ask the jury to decide how much money will compensate the victim for his injuries. The law refers to the compensation award as “damages” and has divided them into two categories: economic and non-economic.
Economic injuries/damages include:
· Past medical expenses —
Can Traumatic Brain Injury Victims Develop PTSD?
One would assume that if a TBI victim cannot remember the injury producing event, he cannot suffer flashbacks or nightmares re-experiencing the event. Right? Wrong.
Indeed, a diagnosis of a TBI generally requires a loss of consciousness. But the victim’s loss of consciousnesss does not shield him from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Apparently
Accident Victims and PTSD
Even after the physical injuries have healed, an accident victim may still suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She may continue to experience flashbacks, nightmares, or daydreams in which the traumatic event is replayed again and again. The person may also suffer an abnormally intense “startle response” – like a rush of
Surgical Interventions to Release Burn Swelling
Victims with full thickness burns, as discussed here, on their arms and legs experience tremendous swelling from the fluids necessary to heal. The swelling puts pressure on the nerves and tissues of the healthy sections of the burned limbs. The pressure may cause a complete loss of blood flow and tissue damage to the
Dealing with Pain: Virtual Reality Devices Assist Burn Victims
When burn victims are resting (most of the time), opioids (morphine and morphine-related chemicals) are adequate for controlling their burn pain. In sharp contrast, during wound care such as daily bandage changes, wound cleaning, staple removals etc., opioids are not enough, not even close. 
Researchers at Harborview Burn Center in Seattle have developed a
The Burn Pain Myth: “full thickness burns are not painful because the nerves are destroyed”.
Full thickness (third and fourth degree) burn victims suffer pain:
- Nerves may partially function.
- Burns on arms and legs cause swelling and pressure on the nerves and tissues of the healthy sections of the burned limbs.
- Repeated painful interventions to prevent infection and promote healing.
Burn pain worsens over time:
Unlike other types of