$300,000 Policy Limits For Stroke Caused By Car Accident
In January of 2024, we did an intake for a December 2023 minor impact car accident in Dayton. Our client was a 60-year-old male. After the accident occurred, he walked out of his car and called 911. Approximately 5-10 minutes later he began to experience stroke-like symptoms including weakness in his legs as well as the feeling of pins and needles through his left arm and continuing up through the left side of his throat. He then collapsed. What followed was a several-week hospital stay and then a similar amount of time in a rehabilitation center.
The at-fault driver had no insurance coverage. We knew that we needed to be able to link the stroke to the car accident. Our law clerk Angela Hanna was able to use the Up To Date App we subscribe to (this is what doctors use in their office) to do the medical research. She found some fantastic medical journal articles. The studies showed that motor vehicle crashes account for more than half of blunt cerebrovascular injuries. Further, she was able to isolate specific symptoms our client displayed in the medical records (an intracranial hemorrhage) that correlated with trauma being the cause of the stroke.
We provided all of this information to the treating Dayton Neurologist who we had never dealt with before. The doctor wrote a fantastic report (for free) that linked the minor damage of the car accident as proximately causing the stroke to a reasonable degree of medical probability. We sent all the records, and the report, and made a demand for settlement to our client’s uninsured motorist carrier. They offered the full $300,000 policy limits without the need to file a lawsuit. The client can use the money to support himself while undergoing the stroke recovery process.
