Lets talk for a moment about concussion.  A Concussion is a medical condition caused by a blow to the head.  The symptoms of concussion vary widely but generally the symptoms include  either unconsciousness or a period of altered awareness, followed by dizziness and headaches. There may be long term consequences caused by a concussion and multiple concussions can cause serious complications.  These complications include depression, poor memory, and the inability to focus on work tasks both in the workplace and in the class room. If you remember nothing else about concussion remember that it is, by definition, an injury to the brain. Medical science, and public awareness campaigns by such organizations such as the Brain Injury Association of Indiana, have been successful in education the general public about the dangers of concussion and how contact sports are contributing to cause concussions.

The good news is that medical science has come a long way in helping people with concussion with better treatments and recovery. Unfortunately we still have a long way to go.  Persons with brain injury may, especially students, return to the activity which caused the concussion too early .  This places them at high risk for another concussion which can lead to very serious complications, even wrongful death.  For student athletes, the legislature is getting involved. Senate Bill 93 deals with the issue of brain injury and concussion in three ways.  S.B. 93 mandates education of coaches, teachers and trainers, as well as students about the dangers of concussion. This educational effort is designed to help identify student athletes suffering concussion.  Finally it mandates that students who have been identified with concussion not return to competition until the student is medically cleared for participation.  This bill has the support of the Indiana medical community.  We ask that you support it as well.

Share on Facebook

 We want to take this time to mention, again, our admiration for Sam Schmidt.  As many of you may know Mr. Sam Schmidt suffered a spinal cord injury while driving his race car in 2001. He is paralyzed with quadriplegia.  Sam has not let his physical injuries interfere with leading a full and productive life.  Mr. Sam Schmidt founded the Sam Schmidt Foundation  (www.samschmidt.org) to help find a cure to spinal cord injury.  The foundations mission is Leading the Charge to Cure Paralysis. Sam Schmidt has made it his mission to help others overcome what they might, originally, believe are insurmountable obstacles.  We represented a young man with a family of four who suffered a spinal cord injury as a result of a failure of a climbing tree stand.  Naturally this young man was terrified.  He was depressed.  He worried about how he was going to take care of his family.  He was frightened and angry.  He was considering giving up.  It was painful to watch, and although everyone who came into contact with him helped, he was having great difficulty.  One day Sam Schmidt came to see this young man.  They talked for an hour or more.  After that conversation, everyone could see the strength rising in this young man.  This young man spoke of Sam as a guide through his hardships.  Mr. Sam Schmidt kept in contact with this Young man by phone whenever the young man needed a lift.  The Young man returned to work and until his death ten years later, that young man took care of his family and was a proud Hoosier.

Mr. Sam Schmidt is now re-entering the Izod Indy Car Series. Mr. Schmidt purchased the Fazzt Race Team and is now in charge of Sam Schmidt Motorsports. His driver will be Alex Tagliani with the crew led by Rob Edwards.   We wish Mr. Sam Schmidt great success with his team and hope to see them in the winner’s circle at the Indianapolis 500 in May.

Share on Facebook

As there are so many problems for these folks, good health care is essential.  Unfortunately many of these folks have, in the past met their maximum limit of coverage or have been kicked off their plans because the medical care costs cut into the obscene profits of the health insurers.  As health insurance in America is a for profit system, and as the free market system encourages lower costs and higher profits, it is only natural that insurers look with dismay at spinal cord injury victims. 

 The health care law has provisions that will help spinal cord injury victims.  I read in the paper today, that despite all the gloom and doom about the health care law and its effects on profits, most health insurers are doing quite well.  So it is shocking, though not surprising (profits can never be too high) that the vested interests are attacking the law and as a consequence attacking Hoosiers, and all Americans, with Spinal cord injury.  I am placing a paragraph from the National Spinal Cord Association Website (http://www.spinalcord.org/) about this issue here in order to bring attention to the problem:

TELL CONGRESS TO OPPOSE EFFORTS TO REPEAL AND REPLACE THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

NSCIA urges all our members and their family members to immediately call your Representatives and Senators to oppose the House Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. A vote is currently expected to be scheduled late in the week of January 17. Thanks to the generosity of Families USA, our coalition partner, you can call 1-888-876-6242 for free connect directly to the Congressional switchboard where you can ask for your Representative’s office. Click to full story for suggested message points.

After identifying yourself, tell your Congressional Representative you oppose the repeal or replacement of the Affordable Care Act because:

The Affordable Care Act has provided you and your family members with the peace of mind of knowing that as a person with a disability, you and others in your family will not be denied health care coverage because of a pre-existing condition.  IF YOU HAVE BEEN DENIED ON THIS BASIS PREVIOUSLY, LET THEM KNOW.

The Affordable Care Act has provided you and your family members with the peace of mind of knowing that you and your family members will no longer be subject to annual or lifetime caps on benefits which has bankrupted many families and caused destitution.  IF YOU HAVE A PERSONAL STORY TO SHARE ON THIS MATTER, LET THEM KNOW.

The Affordable Care Act has provided you and your family members with the peace of mind of knowing all policies must now contain certain essential benefits, including rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices and chronic disease management so needed by those living and working in the face of long-term chronic conditions and disability challenges.  IF YOU OR A FAMILY MEMBER HAS BEEN DENIED SUCH SERVICES UNDER YOUR POLICY, LET THEM KNOW.

The Affordable Care Act has provided you and your family members with the peace of mind of knowing expanded home and community based services will be made available for people with disabilities and chronic conditions to live at home and participate in their communities rather than be institutionalized at far greater expense.  IF YOU HAVE BEEN INSTITUTIONALIZED AT A NURSING HOME OR OTHER LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY AND FEEL YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER SERVED REMAINING IN THE COMMUNITY, LET THEM KNOW.

It is critical that we make our voices heard as we battle this first major effort to dismantle the health reforms we fought so hard to finally obtain.  Please call your Representative and Senators today.  It will cost you nothing but your time and what is at risk is enormous.  The toll-free number again is: 1-888-876-6242. ACT NOW!

Know that your fellow Hoosiers, and fellow Americans, deserve the dignity of proper health care.  Act now.

Share on Facebook

We would like to take just a moment to say a few words about an issue that arises frequently in families dealing with spinal cord injury. It makes no difference if you are Sam Schmidt , Christopher Reeves or a working Hoosier, we need assistance with our activities of daily living and personal toilet.  Often times the spouse steps up and takes on this very important role.  Others times it is another family member.  Of course additional assistance is generally necessary.  The focus is on the injured family member, and rightly so.  Yet, the spouse and family members must recognize that they too have suffered a loss.  They must know that it is not selfish to feel burdened and sad.  It is a normal part of the grieving process over a loss.  One danger associated with these types of losses is that the spouse or family member does not recognize, or is unwilling to accept that they are involved in the grieving process.

Why is this so important?  Well, truth be told, you cannot continue to offer good quality care to your loved one if you do not take good quality care of yourself.  You must consider counseling.  If not counseling, then maybe a support group for people dealing with these issues.  Talking about your loss and your feelings is not an insult to the person you are assisting. It is a benefit to them because you are helping yourself to stay healthy so that you can be the most effective assistant you can be.  Thank you for being a strong person and standing by your family member.  Yes, thanks are appropriate because what you are doing is making the life of another human being fuller and richer and there is no greater gift than that.

Share on Facebook

If you are dealing with spinal cord injury because of the negligence of another, the lawyers of Young & Young stand ready to assist you in obtaining the fair compensation to which you are entitled. We hear, all the time, “I am not the suing type, I just want what’s fair”. We are glad to hear this. Although there are always exceptions to the rules, almost no Hoosier is the suing type. You’d have to be crazy to want to put yourself through such a trying ordeal. For all your troubles, you get to be cross examined by smart attorneys hired by the insurance company. There are always insurance companies, but in Indiana we have to sue the person who caused the harm, we are not allowed to even mention insurance. I am here to tell you, there is almost always insurance. Think about it, we have mandatory financial responsibility laws that require all drivers have insurance. You get to have your truthfulness questioned, you get to have people be suspicious of you for not being honest, just because you are asking a negligent person to make for the harm they did. Nobody, who has a spinal cord injury, and is paralyzed in any part of their body is the suing type. They are just asking to be treated with fairness, dignity and respect, those things everyone is entitled to.

If you are dealing with the impact of a spinal cord injury, and the resulting paralysis, you either know, or will find out, that your health depends on good medical attention and adaptive equipment. These things are not cheap. When asking another to pay fair compensation for the harm they caused, these things are as important as anything to help you live as you are entitled, happy and as comfortable as you were before their negligence forced this new set of circumstances on you. What your mother taught you is still true: If cause harm, you fix it, you make up for it. You don’t fix it half way, you fix it as best you can. When Young and Young works with Hoosiers dealing with spinal cord injury, we employ the finest minds available to help us calculate the full extent of the costs to help you live your life as you are entitled to. Call us toll free at 1-888-639-5161 or contact us on the web at john@youngandyounin.com.

We can help with any social security issues as well.

Share on Facebook

Kids are particularly vulnerable to head injuries, he explains, because of their proportionally larger heads, higher centers of gravity, and less developed coordination skills.

In choosing a helmet for yourself or any member of your family this summer, the doctor recommends getting one that meets the standards of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. He advises that an appropriate helmet should be snug, level, and stable.  It also should be brightly colored so motorists can see you easily.

An unprotected head is an easy target for brain injury. A brain injury can leave permanent life-altering damage including spinal cord injury and/or paralysis. As you or your loved ones enjoy the summer weather on a bike or motorcycle, remember that a helmet is an inexpensive way to minimize the harm of a brain injury in a road accident.

Share on Facebook

So, what does a life care plan have to do with the welfare of a person with significant spinal cord injury?  It is essential.  If the injury was caused by the negligence of another such as in one of the type of accidents listed above, the person who caused the harm is responsible for making up for that harm. It is not enough that they “kind of” make up for it, they must make up for all the harm.  So, in the situation of the quadriplegic person, how do we know what making up for all the harm means?  Well, in addition to paying the past medical bills, and the past and future lost wages, the person who caused the harm should pay for the future medical bills and for future needs for adaptive devices.  Adaptive devices are those things that give the injured person the most independence available to them.  Examples of adaptive devices include wheelchairs, slide boards, special gloves for allowing manipulation of dinner tools, and many, many more.  A life care planner is a specialist in studying the needs of the person dealing with quadriplegia, talking with the patient’s doctors and formulating a list of items likely to be required to maintain the injured person in the best quality of life possible.  The life care planner prices these items in the local market, establishes the likely number of replacements in the future, the likely type of continuing medical care anticipated and the costs of the medical care, and puts together a plan which will support the highest quality of life for the individual. These plans are adjusted for anticipated inflation.

Knowing the individual needs is the first step to making up for the harm caused.  If you or anyone in your family is dealing with a spinal cord injury caused by another’s negligence, call John P. Young, at Young and young.  Put their experience on your side.  Call, toll free, 1-888-639-5161 or write Mr. Young at john@youngandyoungin.com.  Mr. Young guarantees no fee unless you receive compensation.  Call today.

Share on Facebook

There are many types of brain injury, but what we are discussing today is acquired brain injury.  Acquired brain injury is not present at birth, or caused by a degenerative process such as Alzheimer’s Disease. Causes of acquired brain injury include traumatic brain injury; anoxic/hypoxic injury (e.g. heart attack, carbon monoxide poisoning), intracranial surgery, seizure disorders and toxic exposure (e.g. substance abuse, ingestion or inhalation of volatile agents).

Traumatic brain injury with or without skull fracture is an insult to the brain caused by an external physical force that may produce a diminished or altered state of consciousness. The brain sits loosely in the skull surrounded by fluid.  The brain is a soft material with much the same consistency as jello.  The action of hitting your head can cause the brain to move in the direction of the blow to the head.  This can cause many different types of injury from bruising to shearing of the axons (electrical carriers in the brain necessary for thinking, processing and storing).

Brain injury may result in an impairment of cognitive abilities (e.g. perception, memory, or judgment), physical, behavioral or emotional functioning. A brain injury may be either temporary or permanent and may cause either partial or total functional impairment.

Mild brain injury, also known as concussion, is an injury that may leave the person feeling dazed or cause a brief loss of consciousness.

Mild brain injury can lead to "post-concussion syndrome" that can include headaches, dizziness, mild mental slowing, and fatigue. For some people, symptoms may last only a few months; for others, problems may persist indefinitely.

If you or a loved one has suffered a brain injury because of someone else’s negligence, call John P. Young. The call is toll free 1-888-639-5161.  You can also contact Mr. Young on the web at john@youngandyoungin.com.  There is no fee unless you receive compensation.

Share on Facebook

That’s perhaps what makes a study to be published in the Journal of Pediatrics so interesting, even if it is “common sense.” In research that focused on youth hockey, it appears  bracing for an impending blow to the head could reduce the harm from the hit In the study, players wore helmets hooked up to high-tech sensors that measured impact and compared that to game videos and with the number of injuries the players suffered during the season. According to the findings, being prepared for an imminent concussion helped offset more serious injuries. As CNN explains:

“If players anticipate collisions they can better absorb the forces related to impact,” said Jason Mihalik, lead study author and assistant professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “[Athletes] who don’t expect to get body checked are not able to tense the neck muscles to absorb force, and that can lead to a more severe impact to the head.”

Coaches need to train players to avoid the “calamitous” effects of being blindsided, according to Professor Mihalik. So if your kids are active on middle school or high school sports teams, remember that any impairment to the circuitry of the brain at minimum diminishes the ability to process information and perform in school. And serious concussions can lead to permanent and severe harm to the injured person.

Share on Facebook

It is for these reasons that significant jobsite safety rules and regulations apply to construction sites.  The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) issues rules and regulations which must be followed on any job site.  These rules and regulations exist because what might seem like an obviously dangerous situation (especially after the injury has occurred) are not obvious at all.  OSHA rules and regulations exist to prevent the worker from being exposed to a dangerous situation and thus reduce the potential for those injuries.  You can access OSHA rules and regulations at www.OSHA.gov.   OSHA is administered by the United States Department of Labor.   The standards issued by OSHA can be located at 29 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Section 1926 and following.  These standards are published on the web at the OSHA website.

Why are these standards so vital?  Why is it wrong when insurance companies want to eliminate safety standards in order to, as they wrongly claim, make us more competitive?  The reason is that 5,214 workers died on the job in 2008.

It is easy to think in the abstract that we should eliminate safety rules to gain a competitive advantage, but that is wrong thinking.  It is wrong for many reasons.  The words of Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor sum up the most important reason well: "With every one of these fatalities, the lives of a worker’s family members were shattered and forever changed. We can’t forget that fact."  This loss represents hundreds of thousands of lost productive hours.  When the worker is injured, we have lost productivity, but we also have medical expense, lost wages from which taxes are paid,lost purchasing power to energize the economy, and in many instances welfare costs to support the worker and their families which the worker cannot support.

If you, or a loved one, have been injured in a construction accident, call John P. Young, toll free, at 1-888-639-5161 or on the web at john@youngandyoungin.com for a personal, confidential and free of charge consultation.  Young and young has been continuously representing Hoosiers injured in construction accidents since 1954.  Put our experience to work for your families well being.

Share on Facebook