Mr. Holub has for more than 30 years provided legal counsel to clients suffering with a wide array of physical and psychological injuries. An attorney who has encountered conditions such as a shattered bone fracture, a heart contusion, a herniated disc, an exposure to a toxic chemical, a drug side effect, or progressive conditions such as RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) and CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome), will know what victims of such conditions typically experience. Such knowledge can be of great help in explaining the client’s pain and suffering to a jury. Some of the conditions Mr. Holub has written about, or become familiar with include:
Traumatic Brain Injury.
Traumatic brain injury can occur as a result of sudden, physical trauma to the head. A traumatic brain injury is often permanent, and may result in lifelong disability.
All Traumatic Brain Injuries are Serious
The medical profession looks at traumatic brain injuries as follows:
◦Closed – brain injury which involves the tearing and bruising of tissues and blood vessels but does not fracture the skull. Such injuries often result from car accidents and falls
◦Open – brain injury characterized by a break in the skull bone. Gunshot victims present an example of a penetrating brain injury.
◦Diffuse Axonal – brain injury due to tearing to the nerve fibers. Comas commonly follow this type of traumatic brain injury.
◦Primary – a brain injury that is non-progressive and complete at the time of impact.
◦Secondary – a brain injury that changes over time.
Heart Injury Following Vehicular Impact.
Mr. Holub became interested in the circumstances that result in heart injury following a collision when he handled a claim for a 38-year-old jogger and weight-lifter who died while jogging not long after a severe head-on collision where the young man suffered a blow to the chest. Mr. Holub co-authored an article following this case where he is quoted as saying:
The personal injury lawyer will often see clients who have suffered blunt chest trauma in an automobile collision or industrial accident. … On occasion, such trauma will result in heart injury that may not manifest itself for months or years after the initial trauma. … The attorney who has all the medical records and history of his client, and who has a rudimentary knowledge of the type of injury and the mechanisms that cause it, may be in the best position to spot the clues that point to heart injury caused by non-penetrating trauma to the chest or abdomen. If the clues point to heart damage, the attorney should seek a competent medical or biomechanical expert to see if indeed there is a causal link between the trauma suffered in a vehicular collision or other mishap and a subsequent aneurysm, arterial blockage, arrhythmia or ventricular rupture that manifests itself months or years later.
[Co-Author, Latent Heart Injury Following Vehicular Impact or Other Blunt Chest Trauma, 35 The Trial Lawyer’s Guide 3 (Callaghan 1991).]
Electrical Injuries and Electrocutions
Frequently, electrical injuries or electrocutions occur in industrial settings due to contact with uninsulated high voltage electricity. While death often occurs, electrical contact may also result in burns, mild to severe brain injury, and psychological trauma. Physical injury that at times seems minor, often leads to personality change, and changes in ability to concentrate, solve problems, or remember things. The attorney familiar with the damage that electricity can do to the human body, will be in a good position to spot signs of such injuries in a client’s medical records.
Fractures
Fractures can result from falls, collisions, and other types of trauma. Mr. Holub has respresented clients who have experienced the fracture of the femoral neck of the hip joint, of the ankle joint, of a wrist, vertebra, skull, ribs, leg, foot, and many other areas of the body. Frequently, fractures result in procedures to lengthen bone, graft bone, fuse joints, and replace joints. The attorney familiar with these types of injuries often is capable of quickly analyzing how they will be viewed by a jury.
Back Injury
The term “back injury” is a broad term that people use to encompass many types of injuries to the back. Back injuries can be complex and difficult to diagnose. Often the full extent of an injury is not known for many months. An attorney experienced with dealing with the complexities of back injuries can be invaluable in helping reach a fair settlement, or a favorable trial verdict. Such injuries include “herniated disc injuries” which sometimes are called slipped or ruptured discs. Such an injury can compress spinal nerves, and produce severe back, neck, arm and leg pain. Serious back and neck injuries such as these sometime go undiagnosed right after an accident, because the victim hopes that the pain will fade and does not promptly see a doctor. On other occasions muscle tissue injury and swelling mask a more serious nerve injury. Prompt medical care and prompt consultation with an experienced lawyer are important in cases involving back injury.
Drug Side Effects
In the past several years, medications such as Redux, fen-phen, Vioxx, Celebrex and others have been found to potentially pose serious side effects for which no adequate warning was given. An attorney who has handled these types of claims can prove to be a helpful resource in putting together the evidence of injury and proving that the injury was caused by taking the drug and not some other cause. Often the injury producing mechanisms are complex. For example, fen-phen led to damage to heart valves; Vioxx has been established to be associated with strokes and heart attacks.
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