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Your plaintiff seems fine sitting across your desk. What are the damages?

It is difficult for an attorney who has not represented a patient with severe bilateral vestibulopathy to fully appreciate the damages from that injury. This is a typical scenario:

Suzi M., a 35 year old mother of two young teenagers, sits across your desk and explains how, 6 months ago, she received gentamicin and became dizzy. Except for the cane or staff that she used to ambulate into your office, she seems fairly normal. She carries on an intelligent conversation, although she may seem a little scattered. She has 4 years of college in computer science, and returned to her job 2 months ago, managing the computer network for a large food processing plant.

You inquire about her use of the cane. She explains that she is learning to walk better now. She can walk down a sidewalk, but people will look at her because she now walks with a wider stance, and weaves from side to side. Her doctor has advised her to not drive, because whenever the car hits the slightest bump, her vision goes blurry. She does drive to work, about 2 miles away, out of necessity. There is no bus service. Her two teenage children are now doing most of the housework, but she says that someday, she feels that she will be able to do it herself. She states that two days ago, she fell down as she was leaving her house, and just missed falling off the porch. You conclude that there are really no special damages here, but some pretty good general damages to present to a jury.

Her physician has advised her that beyond another 20 visits to the vestibular rehabilitation clinic, there is nothing more that medicine can do for her condition. You quickly calculate about $2,000 for future medical expenses.

She has returned to work, but she is having a really rough time. She just can’t seem to focus, but she is really trying hard. She makes a comment that her boss seems a lot less friendly. You ask if she has to do anything physical in her job. She replies that she manages everything from her desk, and that she never has to travel. She has two computer screens on her desk, and another on a credenza behind her that displays the network status on a real-time basis. She has always put in overtime, but now, everything just seems to take longer. When she got home at 9:00 last night, she just fell into bed, totally exhausted. “Well, no loss of income,” you think to yourself.

After another 15 minutes of asking about her current situation, you conclude that this is a potentially good general damages case, but there are really no special damages. As you are fortunate enough to be practicing in a state with non-economic caps of $250,000, you conclude that because this is a medical malpractice case that will cost a lot to pursue, the capped general damages aren’t enough to drive the case. You politely decline to represent her.

In most of the gentamicin poisoning cases that we have handled, we have asserted economic damages in the millions.

Most persons with severe bilateral vestibulopathy cannot work full time. In the example interview that I gave above, Suzi M. will probably lose her job in a few months. Even though she doesn’t need to travel, using a computer is very difficult for gentamicin poisoning victims. Doing office work involving reading is difficult. Because gentamicin poisoning victims usually cannot track well with their eyes, reading comprehension is very poor, and reading speed is very slow. Every time Suzi looks from one screen to the other, she has to wait a few seconds for her vision to become steady enough to read the screen. Because she must consciously keep herself upright in her chair, her concentration is constantly being diverted from her work. Her ability to multi-task is gone. If Suzi makes $45,000 per year, going to part time or a less demanding job could easily cut her income by $25,000 a year, or roughly $600,000/lifetime.

Suzi may be able to drive a couple of miles to work in the daylight, but she is probably a risk to herself and other drivers, and may well have an accident soon. When fall comes, she may not be able to drive at all. Most gentamicin victims cannot drive at all in less than full daylight. Can Suzi take her kids to the mountains camping? Absolutely not. Can Suzi go where she wants to go, when she wants to go? Absolutely not. Isn’t a personal attendant, (someone who can drive Suzi around, to carry the bags that Suzi now cannot, and to help her perform all of the other life tasks that have become difficult or impossible), warranted to put Suzi as close to pre-injury status as possible? Even a live-in attendant, available for an average of 40 hours per week, would cost Suzi a minimum of $20,000 per year at present value. For 40 years, that’s $800,000 of special damages.

What about the fall Suzi had going to her car? It is probably the first of many. Within a couple of years, Suzi may require emergency room treatment for her falls. Not only will Suzi need future medical attention, but she may benefit from a motorized cart to get around in crowds, and modifications should be made to her home – rails, emergency night lighting, etc. The special damages keep adding up.

This list is not exhaustive by any means. The damages from gentamicin poisoning impact virtually every vocational or recreational area of a person’s life.