Highway-Speed Crash With Mack Dump Truck Causes Traumatic Brain Injury

Carla and her boyfriend were vacationing here in Oregon.   On the last day of their vacation, on a beautiful Spring day, they were headed from the coast toward the Willamette Valley.  Carla was a passenger in their rental car.  They were taking their time, traveling east on rural, two-laned Highway 36 toward Junction City.  Suddenly, an oncoming fully loaded Mack dump truck took an unexpected left turn directly in front of them, causing a highway-speed crash.

The force of the crash rendered Carla unconscious, trapped in the car.  It wasn’t until paramedics came that she regained consciousness, and she was able to be placed onto a stretcher and taken by ambulance.  At the hospital, Carla kept asking the same questions over and over, had headaches, and got dizzy when she stood up.  She had a hematoma on the left front of her scalp, and large bruising over her eyes.  Carla was diagnosed with a brain injury, torn ligaments in her back and hips, left hip swelling, vertigo, abdomen swelling, and tendon strain.  After her stay in the local hospital, Carla went back home to start her recovery.  She ended up requiring medical treatment with a neurologist and physical therapists for over a year, and still requires medications.  She never could recall the actual collision.  While she eventually returned to work as a nurse administrator, her headaches, dizziness, balance difficulties, brain fog, and concentration and memory loss health problems continued.  She had to re-write and re-read things so she could try to remember them.  Her employer initially made accommodations for her, but she was eventually given the option of resigning or being terminated from her job.

Medical science has recently found that a single traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a person of Carla’s age results in years of premature brain aging. Many people do not have the medical background to know that a person who has suffered a traumatic brain injury has twice the risk of premature dementia afterward. With her nursing education and training, Carla was unfortunately aware that she is now at higher risk for developing premature dementia because of the TBI. She worries how that may affect her future ability to support herself, and later, how the cost of dementia care will be covered. (Currently, dementia care costs an average of $55,620 to $111,657 a year, depending on the level of services provided). Carla’s brain injury damage continues to cause attention and focus deficits that also affect her personal life. For just one of many examples, she loves books and used to read a lot. Carla has not been able to read an entire book since the crash.

Representing brain-injured people such as Carla is challenging in part because the injuries are invisible; from the outside, Carla looked fine, continued to raise her children, and continued to work.  Brain injuries such as Carla’s are ironically classified by medicine as “mild” traumatic brain injuries (“mTBIs”).  As one neurologist explained at a trial for another person we represented, a so-called “mild” traumatic brain injury can seem anything but mild to the injured person and their family.  Classification of a TBI as mild, moderate, or severe has more to do with the need for emergency neurosurgery than with the person’s health outcome.  Also, many people still think of TBIs as simply acute injuries.  It wasn’t until the summer of 2024 that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recognized traumatic brain injury as a chronic health condition.

We first offered to settle on Carla’s behalf with the insurer for the trucking company.  The insurance company initially did not want to settle, so we filed a lawsuit for Carla.  Finally, after taking the truck driver’s deposition (answering questions under oath), with the help of a highly respected mediator, we were able to reach a confidential settlement for Carla.

Client names and identifying details have been changed to protect confidentiality.