69-year Old Nurse Suffered Lumbar Injury Requiring Decompression Surgery After Car Tries To Turn In Front Of Her

DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients’ cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client’s case.

Our client was injured at the intersection of S. Indiana Street and Dearborn Street in Englewood, Sarasota County, Florida. A driver traveling in the opposite direction tried to complete a left hand turn in front of her, but didn’t make it. Our client could not avoid hitting the negligent driver, and there was a major collision.

Significant Property Damage (And Injuries)

The impact was significant – causing over $12,000.00 in property damage to our client’s car. The negligent driver was charged by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Deputy with Violation of Right-Of- Way.

Our ciient was rushed from the scene of the crash by ambulance to Venice Regional Medical Center where she was examined and treated for cervical and lumbar injuries.

When her back continued hurting, our client was referred for a series of lumbar epidural injections. The injections helped her for a little while, but her back pain kept coming back.

Our client then had a CT scan and myelogram of her lumbar spine. The scan revealed mild retrolisthesis of L2 on L3, and L3 on L4. Our client had mutilevel disc abnormalities with stenosis, especially at L4-5. She had some mass effect on the transiting roots of L4-5 and L5-S1, and the indentation on the right side of L5-S1 is particularly prominent.

Her main abnormalities were at L4-5 and L5-S1, where she had prominent disc bulge with severe bilateral foraminal narrowing at L4-5, and disc bulging at L5-S1 with severe narrowing. Poor filling of right S1 nerve root sleeve was though to have been due to hypertrophy and facet disease.

Lumbar Decompression Surgery

Our client’s orthopedic surgeon recommended surgery, so she underwent a decompression procedure at L4-5 and L5-S1 to relieve stenosis.
Following her surgery, our client’s previous law firm collected the at-fault driver’s $100,000.00 bodily injury liability policy limits.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage Is Critical

Fortunately, our client carried Underinsured Motorist coverage. Underinsured Motorist coverage is designed to add-on to the coverage that the at-fault driver carried. In this instance, our client carried $50,000.00 in Underinsured Motorist coverage. Our client’s case was referred to our firm in order to secure her Underinsured Motorist benefits.

After her lumbar decompression surgery, our client continued to have lingering low back pain. Her pain was also migrating into her hip. Our client had even more injections.

We were able to convince the Underinsured Motorist insurance carrier to pay our client her $50,000.00 Underinsured Motorist limits.

$50,000