Brain Injury Law Blog : Head Injury : Coma : Personal Injury : Las Vegas Nevada Lawyer & Attorney Tim Titolo

I am passing on this email to anyone interested in reviewing Craig's amazing story.  Actually there are many amazing stories of brain injury recovery to tell.  It helps to tell them especially since there are many more with less amazing endings.

Hello Mr. Titolo,

I am interested in providing encouragement to our veterans and the soldiers who have been wounded while protecting our great country. Additionally, I am interested in providing practical information and insight to assist their families. My name is Craig J. Phillips. I am an alumnus of Oral Robert’s University Class of 1985, an alumnus of the University of Kentucky, graduate program in Rehabilitation Counseling Class of 1990, and a traumatic brain injury survivor. I sustained an open skull fracture with right frontal lobe damage and remained in a coma for 3 weeks at the age of 10 in August of 1967. I underwent brain and skull surgery after waking from the coma. Follow-up cognitive and psyche / social testing revealed that I would not be able to succeed academically beyond high school. In 1967 Neurological Rehabilitation was not available to me, so I had to teach myself how to walk, talk, read, write and speak in complete sentences. I completed high school on time and went on to obtain both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. For an in depth view of my process please read my post, http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/my-journey-thus-far/

Through out my lifetime I developed strategies to overcome many obstacles and in so doing I have achieved far beyond all reasonable expectations. On February 6, 2007 at the encouragement of a friend I created Second Chance to Live. Second Chance to Live, which is located at http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com presents topics in such a way to encourage, motivate and empower the reader to live life on life’s terms. I believe our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but to build us up. As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I speak from my experience, strength and hope. As a professional, I provide information to encourage, motivate and empower both disabled and non-disabled individuals to not give up on their process. Please read my post, http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com My interest is to provide encouragement, hope, motivation and empowerment to survivors and their families.

Please encourage your readers to visit Second Chance to Live at http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com and consider adding Second Chance to Live to your web site as a useful resource and placing a notice in your newsletter.

Thank you for your time and kindness.
Have a simply phenomenal day!

Craig J. Phillips MRC, BA
Second Chance to Live

Our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but to build us up!
Note: I recently found out that Second Chance to Live has been published by the European Brain Injury Society E.B.I.S. with in their Autumn 2007 Newsletter http://www.ebissociety.org/automn/newsletter-angl.htm in both French and English. Specifically, My Journey thus Far has been printed. I am encouraged by the growing global interest of the material presented in Second Chance to Live and wanted to share the good news with you.
My article, Traumatic Brain Injury and Displaced Energy has been published by the Brain Injury Association of Niagara, Newsletter January 2008 http://www.niagara.com/bian/
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Neuropsychology http://www.tbi.pmr.vcu.edu/ My Journey thus Far, TBI Today Volume 6 Issue I — winter 2008 issue News, Ideas and Resources from the Virginia TBI Model System

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Like so many areas of life in Iraq, the health care crisis is vast and complex, and there is no quick solution to improve conditions for doctors and patients.

According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released earlier this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003, among the professionals from many fields caught up in Iraq's sectarian violence.

As the war continues its toll on human lives, the ripple affects of fear embrace other industries and compaound the problem.  There is a quandry, no doubt, that the anticpated benefits to a foreign nation's liberty (an American value with Christian borrowings) outweighs the current sacrafices being made.  The quandry being whether this is actually true or something American Government wants to be true.  Meanwhile, the difficulty (putting it mildly) of war's infestation.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of other medical personnel are believed to have fled to Iraq's northern semiautonomous Kurdistan region and neighboring countries.

Even with the security gains of the past several months across Iraq, it is still dangerous for doctors and their families if they dare step out of heavily guarded hospital compounds.

Drugs supplies are so low that Iraqis hospitalized for illnesses as serious as cancer are asked to track down their own medicine.

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I am invited to give a legal presentation for the Brain Injury Association of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Conference in Portland.  This is the second invitation in 2 years.

Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this year's conference as I am obligated to attend the American Association of Justice Ultimate College. 

The conference last year was very informative and I am sure this year will build on last year's success.  Please go to the Oregon Brain Injury Association web site to learn more about the event.

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UCLA scientists have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells. The process doesn't use human eggs or destroy human embryos, so you may not have heard of it.

The bioethics issues concerning engineering cells from embryos is circumnavigated with this breakthrough.  We may now get to the merits of what "good" can come of pursuing this type of reseach.

The reprogrammed cells, known as "induced pluripotent stem cells," genetically matched to the donor, can be used to grow tissues for future use in tissue replacement therapies, including a range of things from regeneration of damaged heart tissue to Parkinson's to spinal-cord injury.

The discovery potentially provides a virtually unlimited supply of embryonic stem cells without the moral baggage of or need to use human embryos, cloning or human eggs. It also takes such research out of the political arena back into the realm of science where it belongs.

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The American Psychological Association has published a Statement on Third Party Evaluations in Psychological Testing and Assessment.

An often encountered problem with defense psychological exams is the misuse of testing protocols by defense financed neuropsychologists.  This is often hard to discover since the psychologists frequently complain that allowing third party's to observe testing invalidates the results.  Another argument is that the observation violates copyright.

Having this issue addressed, specifically for the litigation context, is a good thing for genuinely injured examinees who are subject to the manipulation of dishonest psychologists.  Certain psychologists manipulate the exam to obtain results that accuse the examinee of malingering or being dishonest.  Who better then the psychologist to know how to manipulate the data?

Allowing the unintrusive observation of exams by third parties will promote honest evaluations.  Perhaps now the justice that should be afforded to those who have genuine injury will start emerging without the manipulation of dishonest psychological examiners.

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The Boston Globe reported the case and verdict of a woman injured when hit by a bus.

A Middlesex County jury, after deliberating just four hours, awarded $10 million yesterday to a 58-year-old Somerville woman who suffered brain damage when she was hit by an MBTA bus while waiting to get to work. 

Louise Scialdone is unable to work and has trouble with her balance and her memory, said her lawyer, Paul Mitchell of Boston. She is sensitive to light and noise and, though formerly an avid reader, she can now handle only third-grade-level material, he said. She has good days and bad ones, Mitchell added.

"She can certainly pick up the phone and give you a call, but she might not be able to tomorrow," said Mitchell, who represented Scialdone at trial with his partner John DeSimone.

With interest, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority now owes Scialdone close to $12.8 million from the date the suit was filed, said her lawyers and the MBTA. 

Scaldone will use the money to upgrade her care, which she needs around the clock, at a cost of about $200,000 a year, Mitchell said. She will move from a nursing home to a brain injury rehabilitation center.

It was icy on Feb. 4, 2004, when Scialdone, who used a walker because of arthritis, was waiting at a bus stop on McGrath Highway, on her way to her job as a clerk at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance. The bus driver lost control of the vehicle, fishtailed onto the sidewalk, and knocked Scialdone off her feet, Mitchell said. Scialdone was thrown 5 feet, and her head hit a parked car, Mitchell said. She was knocked unconscious and hospitalized for 13 hours. A week later, she was readmitted for 20 days. She filed the lawsuit 18 months later.

Scialdone's lawyers told the 16-member jury that the bus driver was traveling too fast for the slick roads. A witness estimated that the bus, which was out of service, was moving about 30 miles per hour, the lawyers said.

The T argued that some of Scialdone's injuries were caused by her preexisting arthritic condition. Because of her injuries, Scialdone attended only part of the two-week trial, Mitchell said.

The bus driver who hit Scialdone, Tracy Sullivan, remains on the job, Mitchell said.

Pesaturo, citing policy, would not confirm the driver's name but said she served a one-day suspension before returning to work.

Attempts to reach her through the MBTA were unsuccessful.

Before the case went to trial, Mitchell offered to settle for $9 million, but the T offered no more than $1 million, Mitchell said.

Stephanie Mackesy, Scialdone's daughter, drove from Bennington, N.H., to attend the trial.

She said her mother used to take her 14-year-old grandchild on vacations and day trips to museums, but cannot interact the same way with her 3-year-old granddaughter.

"It's completely ruined my mother's life," said Mackesy.


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I am attending the final rung of the ladder I have been climbing for the past few years.  I am attempting to become a Diplomate with the American Association of Justice and complete the Advanced Studies in Trial Advocacy course before my 46th birthday.  (next month!)

The effort has numerous requirements and this is one.

I will be in Washington DC at the George Washington University Law School from March 1 to the 6th participating in the Ultimate Trial Advocacy College: Art of Persuasion.

About The Program

Designed for experienced trial lawyers who want to improve their communication skills, the Ultimate is a unique experience—with an emphasis on developing lawyers’ personal communication and persuasiveness in dealing with juries. You’ll be questioned, challenged, and scrutinized by trial-toughened lawyers, trial consultants, and communications experts. This course will teach you how to form relationships with the jury, use demonstrative evidence effectively, and counter negative juror perceptions. Put classroom theory into practice in small workshops and gain confidence as your powers of persuasion increase.

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I am presenting at the NBI sponsored conference entitled Prosecuting and Defending Catastrophic Injury Cases in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 27, 2008.

To read more about the other presenters and the conference content please go to Catastrophic Injury Cases website by clicking here.

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 Time magazine reports that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder risk is elevated in situations where a concussion occurs.  But not all concussions result in PTSD and not all PTSD requires concussion.

The article, along with the many others since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, have brought the focus on brain injury and related issues into the public forum.  I hope this "awakening" will help educate lawyers, insurance companyies, Judges and juries about the very real "unseen" injury.

To read the article click here.

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Trial lawyers, civil litigators and criminal defense attorneys will find Dr. Robert Heilbronner's latest book, "Neuropsychology in the Courtroom: Expert Analysis of Reports and Testimony" (Guilford Press, 2008), to be an informative legal guide for the evaluation of neuropsychological impairments in civil and criminal litigation.

"Neuropsychology in the Courtroom" is Dr. Heilbronner's most recent text in a series of books on litigation-related neuropsychology topics. Earlier books edited or co-edited by Dr. Heilbronner include "Forensic Neuropsychology Casebook" (Guilford Press, 2005) and "The Practice of Clinical Neuropsychology" (Swets & Zeitlinger, 2003).

This new 268-page hardcover book can be ordered from the publisher online at www.guilford.com, toll-free at 1-800-365-7006 or via fax to 1-212-966-6708. The ISBN is 978-1-59385-634-2.

Also released: Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c81056) has announced the addition of "Neuropsychology for Occupational Therapists: Cognition in Occupational Performance, 3rd Edition" to their offering

The third edition of this successful textbook is written primarily for undergraduate students of occupational therapy, and for practitioners working in the field of cognitive rehabilitation.

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Great article in the Wall Street Journal.  Researchers studying brain injury believe they've found a common thread running through many cases of seemingly unrelated social problems: a long-forgotten blow to the head.

"Unidentified traumatic brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social and vocational failure," says Wayne A. Gordon, director of the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where much of the research is being done.

To read the full article click here.

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This is an interesting video I came across while reading the Wall Street Journal's piece on Brain Injury.  Check it out here.

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Laura Schiebelhut, BIAA Public Affairs Manager asked me to distribute this update:

President Bush signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986), containing important wounded warrior provisions related to TBI care which BIAA actively lobbied for last year, into law on Monday.

At the same time, negotiations continued over the development of an economic stimulus package, as the House passed its version of the bill, which represents a compromise with the Bush Administration. This House version does not include increases in federal Medicaid payments to states, which BIAA strongly supports. BIAA will continue advocating for the inclusion of provisions to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates to states as Senate negotiations on the package go forward next week.

Looking ahead, President Bush’s Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 will be delivered to Congress on Monday, February 4. Unfortunately, early reports are that funding for government health programs will be dramatically decreased by more than $2 billion.

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I continue to follow the efforts made in diagnosing and treating brain injuries of war veterans.  The NY TImes reported a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

About one in six combat troops returning from Iraq have suffered at least one concussion in the war, injuries that, while temporary, could heighten their risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers are reporting.

The study, in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the military’s first large-scale effort to gauge the effect of mild head injuries — concussions, many of them from roadside blasts — that some experts worry may be causing a host of undiagnosed neurological deficiencies.

The new report found that soldiers who had concussions were more likely than those with other injuries to report a variety of physical and mental symptoms in their first months back home, including headaches, poor sleep and balance problems. But they were also at higher risk for the stress disorder, or PTSD, and that accounted for most of the difference in complaints, the researchers concluded.

Read more click here.

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Monte Carlo, owned by MGM-Mirage, is going to feel the pain of injury from the recent fire.  This is Super Bowl weekend and the pain will be felt in dollars.  Dollars the Monte Carlo will not make on sports betting, gambling and other gaming revenue.

So when the headline today in the Las Vegas Review Journal read "MONTE CARLO FIRE: Officials: Workers at fault"   the reality that a roofing company caused the fire was learned.  The Monte Carlo is closed for the Super Bowl Weekend.

I began to wonder how long it would take for the MGM-Mirage lawyers to cry like a whiny plaintiff injured by someone else's fault.  Cry out for "justice" for being damaged the amount they would have earned in revenue over the Super Bowl weekend.  To circle the wagons against the "at-fault" roofing company and their insurance company to recover their "losses."  WIll it take years?  I think not.

Then I thought of the very real case I am currently representing a very injured man in where the MGM is a defendant and  simply has no use for justice.  The case is a matter of public record and can be seen at:   http://courtgate.coca.co.clark.nv.us:8490/DistrictCourt/asp/SearchPartyResults.asp?SearchLevel=0001&LastName=hechtkopf&FirstName=&MidInit=&CaseSubType=**&PartyType=**

I think is very interesting how the chamber of commerce, big business, and the hotel industry can pay to get Judges elected/appointed to stamp out the efforts of trial lawyers, while at the same time using those lawyers to sustain justice when one of thier constituents causes the other harm.  Interesting indeed.

One only needs read Grisham's latest "The Appeal" to appreciate the reality.

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The Las Vegas Review Journal reports on the Canadian Wait time for medical care.  I have been following this in my blogs over the past month.  Seems that the consensus is that there is a downside to socialized medicine when it comes to getting care quickly and that certainly is a DOWNSIDE.

To read more and see how the democratic candidates weigh in click here.

American supporters of socialized medicine have learned not to call it that, anymore. Instead, they use euphemisms such as "single payer" -- as though they seek to hold some giant lottery in which a Yazoo City garage mechanic named Billy Bob Bufus would be selected to reach into his coveralls and pay everybody else's medical bills for a year.

Early on in his administration, looking for something for the first lady to do, Bill Clinton appointed his wife to head up a giant secret task force to draw up a proposed new nationalized "Health Security Act." Mrs. Clinton put together a 1,300-page doozy. Under her plan, anyone attempting to "get out of line" and pay cash for faster medical attention could have gone to jail.

That sounds far-fetched, but it's actually typical of any "one-payer" government medical monopoly. If things in limited supply are not rationed by price, they have to be rationed by bureaucrats.

Stuart Browning is a young filmmaker who has put together a series of short films warning Americans about the dangers of collectivized medicine and the benefits of free markets in health care. One of these films, "A Short Course in Brain Surgery" can be viewed for free in only a few minutes on your home computer, at www.freemarketcure.com/brainsurgery.php. It's worth the time.

The five-minute short introduces us to a retired Ontario body shop manager named Lindsay McCleith. Mr. McCleith had terrible headaches and suffered a seizure. Both he and his doctor suspected a brain tumor, and asked the Canadian National Health system to schedule the diagnostic test known as an MRI. Mr. McCleith got his appointment -- four months away.

He and his wife offered to pay cash to get faster attention. But that's not allowed in Ontario. (Sound familiar?)

He crossed the border to Buffalo, N.Y., and got his test in four days. Turned out he had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. Armed with this evidence of the seriousness of his condition, he returned to Canada, seeking quick surgery and reimbursement for his expenses. The Canadian "single-payer" system which American leftists yearn to emulate would do neither.

His doctor estimates Mr. McCleith would have waited eight months for treatment in his home country. Here, the whole process -- diagnosis, consultation, surgery -- took one month.

Fortunately, he and his wife had enough money to cover the $28,000 cost -- though Sandra McCleith says she would have gladly mortgaged her home to pay the bills. "When your life is in danger, you're desperate," she says.

That only works if you can get to America, though. No amount of money would have bought them timely treatment in Canada. Even "asking for permission" to go to the United States takes eight months.

Today, Hillary Clinton says she's "learned her lesson" about proposing socialized medicine.

But one examines her written and spoken record in vain for any declaration that government-enforced collectivism is inherently wrong, in medicine or anywhere else. Instead, we're left to conclude the "lesson" Sen. Clinton has learned is that it's wiser to impose socialized medicine incrementally, one small step at a time, rather than be honest and spell out your intentions, handing fans of freedom as fat and juicy a target as her gigantic "Health Security Act."

Nor is there any indication that her remaining Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, has foresworn this vital plank in the socialists' century-old roadmap to serfdom, either.

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