New York Coma Head Injury Attorneys

Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro is a respected traumatic brain injury law firm in New York. Since 1990, their skilled attorneys have aggressively defended the rights of clients injured by other people's carelessness or malice. They have years of experience in many areas of brain injury law, including head injuries, exposure to toxic chemicals, medical malpractice, brain damage and comas. And they have recovered exceptional financial verdicts and settlements for clients. If you or someone you love has suffered a brain injury, coma or other serious injury in New York, you should speak with the New York brain damage lawyers at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro today.

The Glasgow Coma Scale is a system for assessing the severity of a patient's traumatic brain injury. Invented in 1974 by two neurosurgeons at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, it's the most common scale used to understand a traumatic brain injury. Brain injury experts believe that a patient's GCS score is a good predictor of how impaired he or she is likely to be after recovery. The higher the score, the more fully a patient is likely to recover.

Glasgow Coma Scale looks for eye, verbal and motor responses in the patient and assigns a score from 3 to 15:

Eye Response:

1. Eyes do not open.
2. Opens eyes in response to pain.
3. Opens eyes in response to voice.
4. Opens eyes spontaneously.

Verbal response:

1. Does not make sounds.
2. Makes incomprehensible sounds.
3. Says inappropriate words.
4. Speaks, but confused.
5. Speaks normally.

Motor response:

1. Doesn't move.
2. Extends limbs in response to pain.
3. Flexes limbs in response to pain.
4. Withdraws from pain.
5. Moves toward pain.
6. Obeys commands.

A person in a coma would have a score of GCS 3; a healthy person would have a score of GCS 15. However, doctors often phrase a Glasgow Coma Scale score as the sum of individual components, especially when the patients' age, injuries or treatment makes it impossible to respond using their full abilities. Thus, a person who opens her eyes in response to a voice, cannot speak at all and moves toward pain would have a score of E3V1M5, or GCS 9. While there are exceptions, a GCS score of 8 or below generally indicates a severe brain injury; a score of 9 to 12 indicates moderate injury; and 13 to 15 indicates mild injury. A patient's GCS score can change over time; indeed, doctors expect the score to increase as the patient recovers.

Children under 36 months may be scored on the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale, which was invented to test responses of children who haven't learned to speak clearly yet. Another widely used test measuring patients with brain injuries is the Rancho Los Amigos Scale, named for a Los Angeles trauma center. The RLS scale is different from the GCS because it measures the progress of a patient's recovery, rather than the severity of injury, and is not intended to predict the final outcome of treatment.

Traumatic brain injuries are catastrophic, life-changing injuries that can change every aspect of the lives of victims and their families. If you or someone you love sustained serious brain damage as a result of another person's carelessness, you have the right to hold that person responsible with a traumatic brain injury lawsuit. Litigation can help you recover money to compensate you for ongoing medical treatment, past and future lost wages, permanent disability or disfigurement, pain and suffering and more. Call the New York traumatic brain injury attorneys at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro today for a free evaluation of your case.

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Telephone: 212-986-7353
Fax: 212-953-4308
E-mail: wrs@wrslaw.com