Traumatic Brain Injury Newsletter - Law Offices of Richard J. Serpe, PC

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Issue 1.08 Official Magazine of Law Offices of Richard J. Serpe, PC

serpefirm.com

Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness

Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE

30 WRECKED WHY TRACY

MORGAN’S ACCIDENT

COULD HAPPEN TO

ANY OF USFOOTBALL HEAD INJURES

RAISE THE QUESTION

WOULD YOU LET YOUR

CHILDREN PLAY FOOTBALL?TRUSTS PROTECT

TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY SURVIVORS

$3.5 Million SETTLEMENT FOR

MARITIME ACCIDENT VICTIM WITH TBI

v_1.08_IMPO - basic_v02.indd 1 25.03.2015 08:50:42

02 \\ Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Newsletter | Law Offices of Richard J. Serpe, PC – Attorney Advertising

Why Tracy Morgan’s Accident Could Happen to Any of Us

30 Wrecked

TRAGICALLY, ACCIDENTS LIKE THIS ARE FAR TOO COMMON.

Tractor-trailers are such large vehicles; they nearly always overpower smaller cars, SUVs and motorcycles they crash into. Passengers in those vehicles are vulner-able to being tossed around the car, smashed into wind-

shields, or being pinned inside the wrecked car. Head injuries are common in these kinds of crashes, which often result in trau-matic brain injuries.

BRAIN INJURIES ARE OFTEN DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, as patients may not have vis-

ible scars from the accident. Some victims may not even immediately notice symp-toms of a traumatic brain injury. Such injuries can be more dramatic than other bodily injuries, however. There are no prosthetics that can replace a damaged part of a brain. There are no easy answers when it comes to treating brain injuries – in fact, doctors are still re-searching how to best care for their patients’ injured brains.

THE TRACTOR-TRAILER DRIVER responsible for Morgan’s accident had reportedly been awake for more than 24 hours at the time of the crash. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra-

a Virginia brain injury lawyer, has established an

extraordinary reputation for helping Virginia brain injury victims. If you or a

loved one is suffering from the effects of a brain injury

caused by someone else’s negligence, you can be

sure that your case will be handled with the respect,

dedication and urgency that it deserves.

Contact RICHARD SERPE

877-544-5323

VirginiaBrainInjury.com

RICHARD SERPE, Comedian Tracy Morgan was at the top of his game when a tractor-trailer struck his vehicle last year. Suddenly, a successful television and stand up career was rendered impossible: a brain injury had left Morgan incapacitated. More than a year later, the Saturday Night Live veteran is still walking with a cane and “fighting to be back to the Tracy Morgan he once was.”


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tion has created regulations for the maximum driving time for tractor-trailer driv-ers. Unfortunately, cargo re-cords frequently prove that drivers indeed drive many more hours than legally permitted. This results in fatigue that can cause seri-ous accidents. Some driv-ers even turn to drugs and alcohol to deal with the long hours, which only exacer-bates the dangers associ-ated with tractor-trailers.

POORLY MAINTAINED TRUCKS, MISSING SAFETY EQUIPMENT AND TRUCKS CARRYING EXCES-SIVE LOADS CAUSE OTHER AC-CIDENTS. The trucking indus-try is highly regulated, with limits on the length, width and heights of cargo be-ing transported on tractor-trailers. Too often, though, these rules are disregarded in favor of large, sometimes uncontrollable loads. Such trucks often become un-manageable, particularly when speed is involved. Add in factors like weather, traf-fic and fatigue and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

EVEN WITH THE BEST TREAT-MENTS AVAILABLE, Morgan’s brain will never be the same as it once was. It may make him more vulnerable to ear-

ly-onset Alzheimer’s, inhibit motor functions and even prevent the comedian from memorizing his famous stand-up routines. Morgan’s career in Hollywood may in-deed be over.

MORGAN’S LAWYERS ARE FIGHT-ING a personal injury claim against Walmart, the com-pany for whom the at-fault truck driver was working. In spite of what financial responsibility the company might take, nothing can re-store victims’ brain to its healthy state. Whatever the outcome of cases like Morgan’s, lives can change dramatically following a se-rious brain injury. Careers and relationships may end. Dreams may die.

THE PUBLICITY SURROUNDING the Morgan accident may provide a silver lining – oth-ers suffering from TBI may find hope in his likely suc-cessful suit against Walmart. Patients around the country depend on compensation to receive the best treatment possible. With Morgan as the new face of the TBI com-munity, more awareness is raised by his high profile case.

Have you seen our new brain injury video on YouTube?

Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/SerpeBrainInjury

”I just don’t feel like myself.”Most people with a concussion have one or more of the symptoms listed below and recover fully within days, weeks or a few months. But for some people, symptoms of concussion can last even longer. Generally, if you feel that “something is not quite right,” or if you are feeling “foggy,”you should talk with your doctor.

Concussion symptoms are often grouped into four categories, including:

EMOTIONAL/ MOOD Irritability Sadness More emotional Nervousness or anxiety

PHYSICAL Headache Nausea or vomiting (early on) Balance problems Dizziness Fuzzy or blurry vision Feeling tired, having no energy Sensitivity to noise or light

THINKING / REMEMBERING

Difficulty thinking clearly Feeling slowed down Difficulty concentrating Difficulty remembering new

information

SLEEP DISTURBANCE Sleeping more than usual Sleeping less than usual Trouble falling asleep

Source: Centers For Disease Control and Prevention CDC.gov



Football Head Injuries Raise the Question:

Would You Let Your

Children Play Football?

PLAYING ON THE FOOTBALL TEAM can be an important part of a student’s high school experience. However, worries about the physical nature of football are causing

parents and students to second guess the wis-dom of allowing their children to be involved in the sport. Some of the concern comes in the wake of a recent NFL settlement with 5,000 for-mer players. Research conducted during the case indicated that nearly 1/3 of NFL players will develop dementia, Alzheimer’s or other neuro-biological damage. Witnessing the harm done to NHL players, some have begun to investigate the health effects of football in the high school arena.

So far, the results have not been encourag-ing. A recent Times Magazine article titled “The Tragic Risk of An American Obsession” reported that football has the highest percentage of dan-gerous impacts in high school -- 43% more than the second place woman’s soccer. Most disturb-ingly, these accidents have in some cases re-sulted in death.

The story of a young Virginia student may fall into this tragic category. The student was go-ing for a tackle in the middle of a football game and ended up colliding helmet to helmet with another student. He received medical attention on the sidelines, but fell unconscious and began to have seizures. He died on the way to the hos-pital that night. A few days later, medical exam-iners pronounced him dead as a result of blunt force head injury.

In some cases, states have passed laws cap-ping the number of hours of contact allowed per high school football team. Still, experts quoted by the Times Magazine article point to having an ambulance and trained staff on hand as the best way to mitigate the results of these incidents. In particular, sports trainers are criti-cal links in the chain of making sure that stu-dents are properly treated after major trauma to the head. Unfortunately, ambulances and train-

We’ve all probably had a similar football experience.

It’s Saturday night at the local high school football field. It’s chilly outside, but the

score is close and excitement is high. The hike is called and both teams team jump

into action. Players collide and a whistle is blown. Most of the players are up, but the

audience holds its breath and waits for one last student to rise. The student eventually

returns to his feet, and everything seems fine for the moment. The crowd sighs in relief

and the game continues.

However, recent research indicates that brutal hits like those may have long term

effects that might make us question whether or not we should be allowing our children to

play football.


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ers are not required at foot-ball events at some schools. Schools say that costs prohib-it them from attaining these safety measures.

Virginia is not the only place that has experienced the death of a high school stu-dent as the result of a football head injury. Recently, a New Jersey family settled a case for 2.8 million dollars in a case involving their son’s death as a result of a football game. As this controversy continues to expand, it remains unclear what future steps will be tak-en to protect high school ath-letes. In the meantime, the question remains: knowing what we know now, should we continue to allow our chil-dren to participate in playing football?

The risk of long term com-plications from concussions goes up dramatically when an athlete has suffered multiple concussions and when inad-equate recovery time is al-lowed before “getting back in the game.” Athletic programs generally do an excellent job of teaching and protecting young athletes. Occasionally, however, dangerous deci-sions are made that result in real and lasting harm.

TBI for young victims presents real and complex challenges for diagnosis and treatment to minimize the ef-fects in future function. Our

firm has assisted over 200 young brain injury victims over the last 20 years to reach their best possible recovery after their brain injury.

If you are interested in ob-taining a copy of our other sports-related brain injury publications, email [email protected] for your free copy.

PREVENTION IS THE ONLY CURE FOR A BRAIN INJURY.A brain injury can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Quite often, a TBI is caused by an accident that could have been prevented. For more information on brain injury prevention visit

www.biausa.org



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During offloading operations on the vessel, Eddie was re-quired to adjust fuel lines, which were suspended by cables raised and lowered by a boom and winch. Due to a series of management and maintenance errors, the equipment had become ex-tremely dangerous, although not in a manner that would be obvious to the naked eye. During the operations, the winch failed dropping the heavy equipment on Eddie, fracturing his skull and caus-ing a severe brain injury.Eddie was taken via ambu-lance to the Medical College of Virginia for an emergency cra-niotomy and was diagnosed with a fractured wrist, com-minuted skull fracture, and in-traparanchymal hemorrhage (bleeding in his brain.) Due to Eddie’s traumatic brain injury, he faced a very long road toward recovery, and sought help in holding the companies responsible for his

IT STARTED OUT LIKE ANY OTHER DAY ON

THE WATER FOR ELGIN “EDDIE” STODGHILL,

A 39 YEAR OLD TANKERMAN ABOARD

A BARGE HEADING UP THE JAMES RIVER

TO UNLOAD FUEL AT A RICHMOND

TERMINAL. PULLING ALONGSIDE THE DOCK

THAT AUGUST DAY, EDDIE COULD NEVER

HAVE IMAGINED HOW DRASTICALLY HIS

LIFE WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE.

SETTLEMENT FOR MARITIME ACCIDENT VICTIM WITH TBI life altering injury account-

able for their negligence. The insurance companies refused for four long years to pay Ed-die just compensation, de-spite his devastating injuries. Eddie was considered a long-shoreman, and faced special challenges in bringing a claim against the vessel owner. Maritime law presents unique procedures and substantive law that requires substan-tial experience to undertake. Richard Serpe obtained an advanced degree in maritime law (after graduating from law school) to enable him to assist maritime victims.After years of negotiating with multiple insurance carriers to exhaust all available polices available to Eddie, his attor-neys were able to secure a $3,500,000.00 settlement for him.Facing long-term significant physical, emotional, and cog-nitive challenges, our firm assisted Eddie in setting up a financial plan that would carry him through the rest of his life, assuring he would live comfortably and have access to the best care going forward to treat his traumatic brain injury.

Million


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Advocacy Wealth Management’s Thomas Johnson explains Trust services designed to conserve settlement funds.

At Advocacy Wealth Management, we believe that it is crucial to understand the family dynamics around all of our injured clients. For a person with TBI, in particular, we want to have a clear answer as to whether our injured client needs protection from himself, fam-ily, or friends. In our practice, the answer is almost always yes.

Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors

TRUSTS PROTECT

GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE OR MEMORY; UNPREDICTABLE BEHAVIOR INCLUDING IMPULSIVENESS AND RAGE;

PREDATORY RELATIVES OR “FRIENDS”; INABILITY TO MANAGE ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING.

Nearly all survivors of a serious injury have special needs, perhaps none more so than those with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Some of the challenges that present themselves both to the injured person with a TBI and to the injured person’s family are:

Given that our client may live a very long life, our role then becomes to protect and con-serve his or her settlement so that it can enhance the client’s quality of life, for life. In many cases, we will recom-mend that a trust be included in the overall settlement plan with language in the trust document that protects the client from himself, family, and friends. If public benefits, such as Medicaid, are paying for custodial care and ongoing medical needs, we will likely recommend a Special Needs Trust (SNT). An SNT can hold the settlement funds for the well-being of the injured while preserving the benefits Medicaid offers over the in-jured person’s lifetime. Upon the termination of the trust ei-ther during life or upon death, Medicaid has first claim on any assets that remain in the trust up to the total amount of Medicaid benefits paid to care for the injured person during life.Another kind of trust we rec-ommend, if an SNT is not war-ranted, is an irrevocable asset protection trust. We usually recommend Tennessee, which has excellent laws that pro-tect trust assets against creditors (and predators), as the situs for an asset protec-tion trust. When settlement funds are placed in this kind of trust, money can only be distributed under the terms and conditions in the trust document. Those terms and

conditions allow the trust of-ficer to say ”no” to the benefi-ciary, when necessary, which empowers the beneficiary to say “no” to family and friends. TBI survivors can be chal-lenging to serve due to the effects of their injuries. At Advocacy, we have highly trained and very experienced trust officers, planners and family office representatives to guide the injured person when making decisions. We consider the client’s best in-terests at all times first and how the trust is designed to protect our client. We help our clients obtain shelter, locate transportation, settle their debts, improve their credit, and live within a budget. We

design income- producing portfolios that conserve set-tlement funds while serving the special needs of that cli-ent. Advocacy’s commitment to our client is for life.

Richard Serpe is a member and supporter of the Brain Injury Association of Virginia. For more information about their services visit

www.biav.net.



580 East Main Street, Suite 310, Norfolk, VA 23510

Issue 1.08Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Newsletterwww.serpefirm.com

580 East Main Street, Suite 310, Norfolk, VA [email protected] www.serpefirm.com

Phone 757.233.0009 Toll-Free 877.544.5323

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE

PAID MAIL WORKS II

SETTLEMENTS & CASES OF INTEREST

$3.5 MillionRetired Navy merchant seaman

Traumatic Brain Injury Settlement

$1.5 MillionVerdict for Brain Damaged Child

in Portsmouth, Virginia

Richard Serpe he has brought justice and

fair treatment to those whose lives have been

altered by a brain injury for over 29 years.

Contact Richard Serpe to discuss your legal rights.

DISCLAIMERAll cases are different and the results of one case cannot be used as an indication of what our firm may obtain for a similar case.


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Traumatic Brain Injury Newsletter - Law Offices of Richard J. Serpe, PC

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