Many people think of a rear-end collision as a minor fender bender. You exchange insurance information, get the bumper fixed, and move on.
Our client was stopped at a red traffic signal with her three children riding in the car when a commercial work truck failed to stop behind her. The truck driver was on the job for his employer at the time. He slammed into the back of her SUV and pushed it into the vehicle stopped in front of her. In a split second, her body absorbed two separate impacts: one from behind and one from the front.
Chain-reaction collisions like this one are especially hard on the body. A heavy-duty truck carries far more weight and force than a passenger car. The head and neck snap backward and then forward, and the spine, shoulders, and arms brace against the seat, the seat belt, and the steering wheel. A driver who is stopped has no chance to react or prepare.
For our client, this rear-end crash set off a long course of medical treatment that ended in shoulder surgery and permanent physical limitations. Our firm secured a settlement of more than $2,750,000 on her behalf. Her experience shows how a seemingly ordinary crash can change a person’s life and her family’s, and why the steps you take after a wreck matter so much.
The emergency room visit told only part of the story
After the crash, our client went to the emergency department, where doctors diagnosed a migraine, a contusion (a deep bruise), and a strained neck muscle. They ordered CT scans and X-rays and sent her home with prescriptions for a muscle relaxant and a prescription pain reliever.
Emergency rooms focus on ruling out life-threatening problems such as fractures and bleeding, so on paper those first diagnoses look manageable. CT scans and X-rays are excellent at showing bones, but they often miss damage to discs, nerves, tendons, and cartilage. Those soft-tissue injuries can take days or weeks to fully reveal themselves, and they frequently require more advanced imaging to diagnose.
Specialists found serious injuries to her neck, back, and shoulder
Our client was referred to a pain management specialist. That doctor diagnosed muscle pain, neck pain, low back pain, left shoulder pain, and cervical radiculopathy. Radiculopathy means a nerve in the spine is irritated or pinched, which can send pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness down into the arm. She was placed on medication and physical therapy and referred to a neurosurgeon.
MRI scans explained why her neck and arm hurt. The images showed bulging discs at multiple levels of her neck, along with a herniated disc that pressed into the spaces on both sides of the spinal canal and contacted a nerve root on her left side. Spinal discs act as cushions between the bones of the spine. When a disc herniates, its soft inner material pushes out of place. If that material touches a nerve, the result is often the radiating pain she experienced.
Her left shoulder was also badly hurt. Doctors first diagnosed tendinitis and impingement syndrome, a condition in which the tendons of the shoulder get pinched during movement. A specialized MRI, performed after contrast dye was injected into the joint, revealed much more. She had a SLAP tear at the top of the labrum, a separate tear at the front of the labrum, and labral damage consistent with an unstable shoulder. The labrum is a ring of cartilage that deepens the shoulder socket and helps hold the ball of the arm bone in place. When it tears, the shoulder can catch, ache, weaken, or feel as if it might slip out of joint.
Controlling her pain required a long series of injections, nerve procedures, and surgeries
Medication and therapy alone were not enough. To manage her pain, our client underwent a lengthy course of interventional treatment. Each procedure carried its own appointments, recovery time, and risk. Here is what that treatment involved, in plain terms.
Spinal injections. She received multiple facet injections on both sides of her spine, facet joint injections in her lower back, transforaminal epidural steroid injections on both sides, and a lumbar epidural steroid injection. Facet joints are small joints that link the bones of the spine. Epidural steroid injections deliver anti-inflammatory medicine near irritated nerve roots.
Muscle injections. She also needed a trigger point injection to release painful knots in her muscles.
Nerve blocks and radiofrequency ablation. She underwent a cervical medial branch block, followed by repeated medial branch blocks on both sides, and then radiofrequency ablation. A medial branch block numbs the small nerves that carry pain signals from the facet joints. When a block brings relief, doctors can perform radiofrequency ablation, which uses heat generated by radio waves to disrupt those nerves and provide longer-lasting relief.
Shoulder injections. Her shoulder required its own injections, including an injection into the subscapular bursa, a fluid-filled sac that reduces friction around the shoulder blade.
The torn labrum and damaged tendons in her left shoulder could not heal on their own. Our client underwent left shoulder arthroscopy, a minimally invasive surgery in which the surgeon works through small incisions using a camera and specialized instruments. During the operation, she had three separate repairs: a subacromial decompression, an arthroscopic Bankart labral repair, and an arthroscopic biceps tenodesis.
Each repair addressed a different problem. A subacromial decompression removes bone or tissue that pinches the tendons when the arm moves. A Bankart repair reattaches the torn front of the labrum to the socket to restore stability. A biceps tenodesis detaches the biceps tendon from the damaged labrum and anchors it to the upper arm bone, which relieves pain caused by the injured tendon. Recovery from shoulder surgery like this typically means weeks in a sling followed by months of rehabilitation.
The crash cost her income and left lasting limitations
Her injuries reached well beyond the doctor’s office. The pain and the demands of treatment affected her ability to work, and she lost earnings as a result. Even after surgery, she will live with permanent functional limitations caused by the crash. For an injured person, that can mean difficulty lifting, reaching overhead, sleeping comfortably, or returning to the work and activities she once handled with ease.
The harm also reached her family. Her children were in the car with her at the moment of impact, and her husband lost much of the companionship and support he had always shared with his wife.
When the at-fault driver is on the job, the employer can be responsible
The driver who hit our client was operating a company work truck while working for his employer. When an employee causes a crash within the course and scope of his job, the law can hold the employer responsible for that negligence. Commercial vehicles also tend to carry layered insurance coverage. In this case, several insurers’ policies covered the truck and the companies tied to it. Identifying every responsible party and every available policy early is often what makes a full recovery possible.
