A Brief Look at Damages for Catastrophic Injuries and Loss of Enjoyment of Life

Catastrophic injuries carry life-altering consequences and completely up-end an entire family’s quality of life. A catastrophic injury is an injury with direct and proximate consequences that permanently prevent an individual from performing any gainful work or enjoying a normal quality of life. A catastrophic injury that occurs due to someone else’s negligence can be pursued as a lawsuit in order to recover damages for the injured individual’s suffering. In addition to personal injury claims that would compensate victims for their medical expenses and lost wages, catastrophic injuries also trigger lawsuits involving non-economic damages. These lawsuits are designed to compensate the victim for the emotional pain and suffering they will endure from missing out on everyday activities associated with human life.

What are Catastrophic Injuries?

Catastrophic injuries significantly alter a person’s life, requiring long-term and ongoing medical care and additionally impacting how a person carries out their day-to-day life. Some common catastrophic injuries include:

• Traumatic brain injury: Resulting in life-long cognitive dysfunction, abnormal speech and language, emotional difficulties, and limited ability to move arms and legs.
• Spinal cord injury: Causing partial or complete paralysis, respiratory and circulatory problems, exaggerated reflexes and spasms, chronic pain, loss of bowel and bladder control.
• Severe burn injury: Resulting in infections, limb loss, disfigurement, and permanent disability depending on the location and extent of the burns.
• Limb loss: Causing tremendous physical and emotional challenges for the amputee and his or her loved ones.

These injuries can typically lead to a loss of enjoyment – not just on behalf of the victim, but on behalf of their family members, as well.

What is Loss of Enjoyment?

Loss of enjoyment legal claims will generally be met when it can be shown that a person who suffered any of the above injuries at the hands of someone else’s negligence has severely impacted the normal course of their life. Any pain and suffering attributed to the injury – both physical and emotional – that complicates or decreases a person’s happiness, is considered essential to prove a loss of enjoyment of life. In some cases, spouses or close family members may also make their own claims for pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, when it can be shown that the victim’s injuries had an enormous impact on their own quality of life.

Generally, loss of enjoyment of life claims will include claims of both simple and serious enjoyment of life. Simple loss of enjoyment of life claims include the loss of the ability to do ordinary tasks like cooking, cleaning, taking out the trash, or moving around freely and without complication. If the injured can no longer enjoy their hobbies, or stand, walk, or run as normal, this would be considered a simple loss of enjoyment.

Severe loss of enjoyment, on the other hand, would include functions that the victim needs to perform but no longer can. This may include feeding themselves, walking or standing for short periods, sitting up and staying awake, using the restroom on their own, taking a shower or changing their clothes. 

Contact a Personal Injury Attorney if You’ve Suffered a Catastrophic Injury

If you’ve been involved in a serious accident, you don’t have to suffer the consequences alone. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney can ensure that you are appropriately compensated for lost wages, costly medical expenses, and loss of enjoyment of life. Contact an attorney today.