A long-lasting or permanent injury is called a residual injury. Why do such injuries affect the value of an injury claim? Any such medical problem could impact the victim’s life for a prolonged period of time. The level of the injury’s seriousness determines the extent of its impact.

Examples of residual injuries

Formation of scar tissue, after the injured area has healed: That can lower the flexibility of the scarred region. A younger person must deal with the scar’s impact for a greater length of time; hence, that claim has a greater value. What would it cost to remove the scar? What amount is the patient charged for a visit with a cosmetic surgeon? By adding both of the above figures, an attorney should be able to estimate the value of the scar-producing injury.

A patient with a traumatic brain injury needs to receive a ventricular shunt. That is a device that gets implanted in the body. Over time, it could become infected, or it could malfunction. In either case, the shunt would have to be replaced, which would entail carrying out another operation.

At this point, doctors lack the ability to guarantee the permanent functioning of the shunting device. Yet it must work, or the patient’s life becomes threatened. When a shunt fails to function, fluid builds up in the patient’s ventricles, that are spaces in the skull.

Essential feature of claims about residual injuries

Each reported problem must be permanent in nature. Even if a surgical operation corrects the problem, it forces the body to rely on an implanted device. If a chemical can correct the problem, as is the case with diabetes, the patient becomes dependent on that same chemical.

The claimant always has the right to introduce the possibility of permanence. Claimants can exercise that right at any time. Of course, health insurers enjoy the same privilege. For decades, health insurers have assumed the permanence of a chronic condition. In light of the approach taken by health insurers, accident victims ought to seek legal counsel, if they have developed a residual injury. Why struggle to obtain health insurance, if the hard-to-insure condition has not been used to increase the value of an injury claim?

Parents should keep that question in their minds, if any child suffers a residual injury. It pays to file a lawsuit with the assistance of an Injury Lawyer in Kingston. It may also be necessary to seek an extension of the statute of limitations. Unfortunately, some conditions cannot be identified in a short space of time. A lawyer can fight the insurance company, when completion of such tests proves necessary, in order to demonstrate the existence of a permanent condition, one that has developed as a result of the accident-caused injury.