Industry news roundup: week ended 3 Nov 2014:
Injured Brits making accident claims need to get the personal injury compensation coming to them, whether that figure is £4,000 to £4 million.
It’s a tough business, suffering an injury at work or as a result of some other accident. It can leave you with missed pay and mounting medical bills, and whether it’s a little or a lot claimants often need the cash they’re awarded in compensation in order to alive.
Consider the case of Jonathan Wain, which has been making the rounds this week. The factory worker had been working as a mixing bay operator for a bakery in Trent Vale when a metal pipe fell and struck him on the head. The 56 year old worker ended up needing three stitches to stanch the flow of blood from his head wound and was off work for seven weeks as his concussion healed. Apparently the metal pipe hadn’t been sealed properly, causing it to drop on the poor bloke’s head and brain him so severely. Luckily he was able to get some compensation from his employer, which went a long way in rectifying the situation for him.
Meanwhile not all cases are so open and shut. Think about this: 26 year old Paul Vallance had to fight for eight long years before he prevailed on his personal injury compensation claim. Vallance had been involved in an accident at the age of 18 when another driver lost control and slammed into his car, causing severe brain injuries that doctors couldn’t even initially detect.
The poor sod’s brain injury completely changed his personality. Whereas before he had been a calm, cool and collected young bloke, the Vallance that emerged after the incident has been hostile and angry to the point where he’s unable to control his words or deeds. It’s been impossible for the man to hold a job down since then, and while the former trainee manager might have recovered from the broken nose, shoulder and leg he suffered in the crash the damage to his cognitive skills has taken much longer.
Vallance temporarily lost the ability to speak after the incident, yet as he healed the words he was able to once again string together were abusive and aggressive. Vallance’s mother said he would stare into the mirror for hours on end, repeating that he looked like himself but didn’t feel like himself; this prompted his mother to make a claim on behalf of her son. Finally, after a protracted eight-year-long legal battle Vallance has been awarded a £4 million compensation claim, which will pay for the specialised care he is likely to need for the remainder of his life.