Biomechanical Issues for Motor Vehicle Collisions
It is important for the doctor to recognize that if a
particular case goes into litigation, the insurance carrier will often hire a
defense biomechanics expert, or medical expert that uses the conclusions of the
biomechanists, to challenge the patient’s injuries and symptom logy, as well as
the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment. The biomechanist can be an effective ally
for the defense if he/she can attack the injury mechanisms and G forces
(acceleration) generated during the collision, and influence a jury to believe
the patient was not injured or simply had a trivial injury that would have
resolved within a brief period of time with or without any treatment. These
opinions are then typically reiterated by the defense medical expert, who is in
agreement with the biomechanist, with the clear objective of downplaying the
extent of the plaintiff’s injuries (bias) and attacking the treating doctors.
In most cases the defense biomechanics expert will focus on the following
issues:
-Insufficient
force to cause injury
-Downplay
the severity of injury, this giving the defense doctor basis to state that the
treatment was excessive and unnecessary
-Forces
of collision are similar to those experienced in activities of daily living and
therefore not responsible for post crash symptoms or injuries
-Will
often rely on limited living human volunteer testing (no subjects taken from
general population) and extrapolate data to the specific patient
-No
injury mechanism
-All
post-traumatic symptoms were due to prior degenerative conditions or injuries
and would have occurred at the same time frame absent the MVC
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