Sport Injury: Softball bat strikes player in the head.

This case is interesting in that it demonstrates the difficulty of pursing a lawsuit stemming from injury while playing a sport; in this case the sport is softball. A player was struck in the head during batting practice. The batter let the bat fly after hitting the ball and it struck another player. While that’s not something players want to happen it does and they know it, so it’s in many ways foreseeable. Iowa law is tough in this area and requires the act that led to the injury to be intentional or reckless. The Iowa Supreme Court took up the matter and sent the case back for a trial and for the jury to decide if the batters actions were either intentional or reckless.

TBI and Depression Link Confirmed – U of I Dept of Neuro again proven wrong.

It seems the U of I, Dept. of Neurology is being proven wrong. They seem to always take the insurance industry side that unless a person is knocked out for a long period of time (loss of consciousness) that there can’t be any long term effects from brain damage (TBI). A new article associating depression with traumatic brain injury is published by Neurology Today.

Another reason why kids shouldn't play in the street.

Practice Tip: If you’re client has suffered a TBI or head injury have the hearing checked. Tough part is establishing a baseline to establish a foundation or basis for the loss and right to receive compensation. So first things first; in the initial interview watch for the signs of a hearing loss and ask if they’ve noticed any changes in hearing. Ask the spouse if they are asking for people to repeat themselves. Most patients won’t tell the doctor who is treating the head injury; most will chalk it up to just old age.

Iowans Taking to the Slopes Need a Ski or Snowboarding Helmet

Join me today to learn how to fit a ski helmet to your head. They are also part of your safety equipment while snowboarding. Scott Condon of the Post Independent out of Aspen, Colorado wrote a nice article about what they are seeing in Aspen Colorado with the increased use of ski helmets and which demographic seems to be resisting the movement towards protecting your bean.

“Let’s start at the end because you can’t tell a story unless you know where it’s going.”

My alerts picked up this question and answer in SaddleBag World about the debate on whether helmets for motorcycle riders should be mandatory. I’ll say right now with so many other issues that need discussing I’m hoping not to have to go through this summer discussing this issue ad nauseum. The anti-argument is that we have a right to choose not too wear a helmet to protect our brains; makes no sense to me and having worked with brain damaged clients over the past 30+ years you won’t persuade me that asking bike riders to protect their brains is a position that I should abandon. Simply stated you can’t argue me out of the position that people should wear helmets or else the legislature should make wearing a helmet mandatory. Read what this brother says about his brain damaged brother; it rings true with my experience dealing with brain damaged clients.

SaddleBag World

Why isn’t there a Motorcycle Helmet law in every state?

by admin on April 27, 2009

QUESTION: My brother was in a motorcycle accident in October. He has an Traumatic Head Injury and left leg that was broken in many places. There's only me and my sister who are picking up the pieces of everything. Not many places in Iowa to help him be rehabilitated. It has been an awful experience to watch your brother through this whole motorcycle accident.

I would never want any other family to be put in this position. Do you have any other suggestions? Other than point out how there should not be any Helmet Law. Thanks.

ANSWER: Because it should be a personal choice as it affects only rider directly. You can argue the use of half helmets, 3/4's or full face. If it is mandatory then full face is the most protective but it will PO people who like the other helmets. Some complain any helmet restricts vision & hearing: they say no helmet is safer. I say make up your own mind. Who am I to says what you should wear? Who are the law makers to say what you should wear? It's another freedom taken away from you. Maybe one day the law makers will decide that riding a motorcycle is too dangerous and ban it completely…think about THAT!!!!!

The response is just the same old tired arguments about the risk of brain damage is a personal choice. If that's true then shouldn't suicide be a choice eveyone can freely make?

He adds that freedom is the right to risk brain damage and that no one should have the right to tell someone else what to do. That is a desperate and lame argument lacking in an understanding of how the real world works. When the risks are large and the damages significant society always has the right to tell us what we will and won’t do. Not wearing a helmet risks irreversible brain damage burdening not just society but as this young man explains the rest of the family that were not asked about whether their brother should wear a helmet. Traumatic brain damage doesn’t just affect the brain damaged person. No the motorcycle rider with the brain damage is mostly oblivious to burden he or she has created on the rest of the family. The burden isn’t just financial it’s a time burden as well. Brain damaged men and women need to be babysat.

A client once explained it to me this way. I asked her if taking care of her husband was like taking care of a child. She answered, “No. A child can learn from their mistakes.”

Is that what you want to risk? Being totally reliant on others isn’t any fun for the brain damaged person, it’s frustrating; especially if they can remember what they used to be like and the freedom they did have to do what they wanted when they wanted.

• Freedom to cook without forgetting to turn off the stove and burn the house down.
• Freedom to drive without being distracted by the radio station dial and sideswiping three parked cars.
• Freedom to go to Iowa State University and receive an education; not to flunk every class they take.
• Freedom to be in a bar with other college students and not wonder why they are being stared and smirked at.
• Freedom to manage their own money and not having to ask a sister or brother for permission to spend the Social Security Disability benefit check they’ve been able to save.
• Freedom to go to the Biker Week 2009 in Daytona.
• Freedom to attend the 69th Annual Sturgis Rally.

This freedom to choose is an old and tired argument by people, including lawyers, who are pandering to unrealistic and irrational thinking for the sake of doing business with you. It’s shameful to say the least.

I was traveling in Argentina this past January and saw a movie titled, The Lookout. It’s about the life of a young man who sustains brain damage from a car crash. Jeff Daniels plays the brain damaged young man’s blind mentor and as he re-teaches Chris how to live he states, “Let’s start at the end because you can’t tell a story unless you know where it’s going.” I suggest you watch it because the dependence you will carry on your back as a brain damaged person who once rode a bike is nothing near the freedom you want.

The Lookout marks Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter Scott Frank's (Out of Sight), directorial debut. The intelligent crime drama is centered around Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin), a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist. The film also stars Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale), Isla Fisher (The Wedding Crashers), Matthew Goode (Match Point) and Carla Gugino (Night at the Museum).

A law school professor asked his class why is suicide illegal? Good question and it was hotly debated. Final answer: Because everyone owes society their best effort, intellectual capital and labor. In other words we are in this together. So wear your helmet my brothers and sisters and ignore those shouting about personal freedom and choice as if it were some God-given right. It's not.

 

Motorcycle helmets still a choice in Illinois

The Illinois Senate has rejected a mandatory helmet plan for those riding on a motorcycle. This is one of the more frivolous legislative efforts by the State of Illinois Legislature. The research on traumatic brain injury (head injury and TBI) proves just how foolish it is to allow those riding motorcycles to do so without a helmet.

Iowa, Illinois and New Hampshire continue to allow motorcyclists to ride without helmets. Iowa dn Illinois should know better. New Hampshire is just trying to live up to its state motto: Live Free or Die. Yeah I suspect they are doing just that on New Hampshire highways.

Failing to pass a mandatory helmet law is really an amazing feat. When you consider the states suffering financial hardship and wanting to decrease medical care expenses for the various state and federal programs; having no helmet law is incredibly irresponsible. This is legislative short sighted pandering to a few motorcycle riders who shouldn’t have any clout with the legislature.

I could see failing to pass a mandatory helmet law if there was a higher insurance requirement for anyone not wanting to wear a helmet. But there isn’t in Iowa. Iowa law doesn’t require a person to have private health insurance or medical pay coverage on their auto policy. Casualty insurance limits are a paltry $20,000 per person, $40,000 per accident and $15,000 for property destroyed. ( Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law – 321A.1(11) That law hasn’t changed since January 1, 1983.

Iowa Code – Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility

321A.1  Definitions.

The following words and phrases when used in this chapter shall, for the purposes of this chapter, have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this section, except in those instances where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

 

….

 

11.  Proof of financial responsibility.  Proof of ability to respond in damages for liability, on account of accidents occurring subsequent to the effective date of the proof, arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle, in amounts as follows:  With respect to accidents occurring on or after January 1, 1981, and prior to January 1, 1983, the amount of fifteen thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident, and, subject to the limit for one person, the amount of thirty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, and the amount of ten thousand dollars because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident; and with respect to accidents occurring on or after January 1, 1983, the amount of twenty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident, and, subject to the limit for one person, the amount of forty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, and the amount of fifteen thousand dollars because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident.

And the costs of a motorcycle accident without a helmet increase the chances of suffering traumatic brain injury. The University of Iowa just completed a study.

JAMA -- Abstract: Motorcycle helmet-use laws and head injury ...

Motorcyclists live Better longer: Prevent traumatic Brain ...

Add increased deer population and the single motorcycle collisions become a fact of life. Throw in some alcohol and the numbers increase further. Then there are driving distractions of the other drivers choosing. There are distractions involving GPS navigation, DVD players, cell phones, text messaging along with iPods. Each of these electronic devices can and do cause driver distraction.  Children cause distractions and the risks of not seeing a motorcycle and striking one increase further. Fault aside the risks of being in a motorcycle accident are far and away one of the most dangerous of all motor vehicle collisions.

Motorcycles and Deer Don't Mix in Iowa, S.Lombardi September 24, 2007

I have no intention of standing on a soap box to preach individual freedoms like most personal injury lawyers will do. I like my clients too much to pander to popular opinion just to get a few personal injury cases. If as a rider you’re angry with me for taking the opposing view than you aren’t being realistic about the risks of injury.

Iowa Motorcycle Helmet Law - A Choice To Protect Your Brain, S. Lombardi August 21, 2008

Helmets are a proven, low cost and effective way of combating brain damage. If the legislature won’t step in then riders need to protect themselves and voluntarily wear a helmet.

2. Motorcycle helmets

Countermeasure	Effectiveness	Use	Cost	Time
2.1 State motorcycle helmet use laws	Proven	Medium	Low	Short
2.2 Helmet law enforcement; noncompliant helmets	Unknown	Unknown	Low	Medium
2.3 Helmet use promotion programs	Unknown	Low	Varies	Medium

Infant Safety: How mercury kills brain cells.

In an earlier blog post I covered mercury poison. In this post we cover by way of YouTube video how mercury kills the brain cells. There is a lot of controversy over dental fillings and vaccines having mercury and causing autism. I take no position on whether vaccines cause autism, but realistically the incidence of autism is increasing and parents have to make a personal decsion that is in the best interest of the infanct child.

How Mercury Kills the Brain: Autism

How Mercury Causes Brain Neuron Degeneration, University of Calgary, Department of Physiology and Biophysics Faculty of Medicine.