Landau Injury Law

This morning, when the Abrams Landau team tried to get to our building, all of the downtown Historic District of Herndon was blocked off by emergency vehicles, barricades and law enforcement personnel.  It was not because of some multi-car crash or truck tipping over, there were no apparent injuries or fatalities.  It seems that gas had gotten into the underground pipes, and there were police, firefighters, first responders and Public Works people everywhere.  Shown here are several trucks in front of the Herndon Depo and Museum, across from the former Nachman’s Department Store.

As the National and Local Elections approach, I want to emphasize two important things that our clients CAN do while disabled from work and recovering from their injuries.  The first is to seek out educational opportunities and try to improve your mind while your body heals.  We have had clients get their high school degrees, electrical repair certification and college education while recuperating post-operatively and healing from injuries caused by crashes, falls and explosions.

The second action you can take, even while disabled from work, is to exercise your Constitutional Right to vote.  With absentee ballots, early voting and handicap access facilities, everyone can make their wishes known.  As my grandfather Abrams told me, “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about the government you have.”  So whatever your party affiliation or political ideals, please vote.

Doug Landau traveled down to Georgia in order to visit the Defendant’s headquarters and take depositions on behalf of a Truck Driver who was crushed in a workplace accident. The ABRAMS LANDAU team associated with local counsel for both the workers compensation and the third party liability (negligence) cases. With the help of Atlanta trial lawyer Brian Buckelew, Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau was able to get the client weekly wage loss benefits through the Georgia Workers Comp statute. .

While Buckelew, of Clemons & Sweet, had his leg in a cast from a serious injury, he was nevertheless able to get the injured trucker’s medical bills covered and secure a helpful vocational expert’s report for use in the tort claim as well. Shown here are Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau and Brian Buckelew at the law offices of Clements & Sweet, located across from the Fulton County Courthouse, in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

The American Academy of Pain Medicine (”AAPM“) has come out as supporting SCS.  AAPM members represent a variety of medical specialties that combine their focus on the diagnosis, treatment and management of pain.  Doug Landau and the team at the Herndon Reston injury law firm ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., have worked with a variety of pain specialists throughout the country on behalf of our disabled and injured clients.  One of the more difficult types of pain to treat is chronic pain.
While often considered a symptom, chronic pain is itself a disease that imposes severe emotional, physical, economic, and social stress on patients and their families.  In its position paper, the AAPM notes: “Because unrelieved pain and suffering are too costly for society and for patients and their families, and because the implantable technologies are known to be efficacious when used appropriately in the context of the pain treatment continuum, not using these technologies because they are deemed too costly by some makes no sense . . . and ultimately increases patients’ and society’s costs.”

After being struck from behind by a dump truck, and knocked across all the lanes of travel at the Old Ox Road and Pacific Boulevard intersection, the driver was told he needed surgery on his damaged spine. The collission took place on September 6, 2008. He sought the help of Abrams Landau, Ltd., to pursue his legal claims against the unknown driver.

We are looking for information about the driver of the dump truck. Because the defendant driver (who may have stolen the truck, though an investigation is still pending) took off on foot, no charges have yet been filed and the police investigation is ongoing. The vehicles involved were a 1993 Mack Dump Truck and a Toyota pickup. This took place at Old Ox Road and Pacific Blvd. If you have any information about the truck, the driver, or if you saw this accident, please let us know.

Today was the last Farmers Market here in the Downtown Historic District of Herndon.  Located a block from the “home” of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., this weekly event was enjoyed by clients, staff, visiting judges and lawyers from May to October.  Shown here is Herndon Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau purchasing fresh produce from one of the local farms that participate every Thursday in front of the Town Council Chambers and Court where he has tried workers compensation, car crash and pedestrian injury cases.

The NEUROMODULATION THERAPY ACCESS COALITION “POSITION STATEMENT ON  SPINAL CORD NEUROSTIMULATION” recognizes  spinal cord stimulation (SCS) as an established treatment for chronic neuropathic pain.  This kind of pain can arise after nerve or nervous system injury, such as Doug Landau has seen after a car crash or fall from a construction site.  Abrams Landau. Ltd. represented one client from Connecticut who was able to return to school and get his Masters Degree from Yale University after being struck by an 18-wheel truck because of the implantation of a spinal cord stimulator.  The Herndon Reston area spine injury lawyer was able to win BOTH this client’s Social Security Disability claim AND his motor vehicle negligence case when hee was hit by a drunk driver.  SCS is minimally invasive, non-destructive, and reversible.  Pain specialists can conduct a temporary screening trial with an external pulse generator to assess whether a patient should proceed to implantation of the entire system.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes SCS as an aid in the management of chronic intractable pain of the trunk, arms and legs.  This includes unilateral or bilateral pain associated with so-called “failed back surgery syndrome,” which is generally defined as pain continuing or resuming despite an operative procedure undertaken to correct the cause of the pain.  Herndon Reston area back, spine and brain injury lawyer Doug Landau has seen numerous instances of “failed back syndrome.”  Not every patient is ideally suited for SCS, but there are clients who have gotten relief through TENS units, SCS and other medical treatment modalities short of, or other than, neurological surgery.   The reversibility of SCS is one of its most important features; unlike other surgical procedures that are commonly performed to relieve pain, SCS does not ablate pain pathways or change a patient’s spinal anatomy.

Based on peer-reviewed evidence demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of SCS in relieving chronic pain while improving quality of life and functional outcomes, SCS is covered by virtually all governmental and private payers in the U.S.

Neurological and psychiatric disorders such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain affect well over a billion people worldwide. These disorders steal away not only life span, but also our selves and identities. More than $1,000,000,000,000 is spent yearly in the battle against these disorders, even in the absence of effective treatments for many of them. Compared with innovations in other fields, like cancer, neurotechnologies have trickled out of labs at a relatively slow pace, yielding a handful of good drugs, a couple of methods for brain stimulation, and a few ways to image and analyze brain structure and activity.

FAA Inspecting physician (and MIT graduate) Dennis Sager, M.D. of Reston shared with Herndon brain injury lawyer Doug Landau information about neuroengineering and the steps being taken to study traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder (”PTSD”) and chronic pain, since these are conditions with which many ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. clients have been afflicted. Landau learned that MIT has begun experimenting with a hands-on neuroengineering curriculum, in which undergraduate and graduate students actively engage in the process of becoming neuroengineers, learning to solve intractable problems of the brain by actually doing it. Landau visited MIT last year while in Cambridge meeting with a brain injury and vocational experts during the International Neurology Conference.

In personal injury cases, if the car crash, dog attack or injury residuals results in your being unable to perform your job, your second job, your seasonal work or even your weekend job, these losses can all be combined in the claim for compensation and jury trial.  There is no requirement that they be similar kinds of work or that they be done in the weeks leading up to the accidental injury.

In Social Security Disability Income cases, the Federal government adds up your earnings from ALL sources, regardless of their similarity, or even their having been performed close in time to the date of onset of the disabling medical condition.

Lastly, in workplace injury cases, the Virginia Workers Compensation law provides that the wages from “similar employment” can be combined.  The Virginia Court of Appeals has stated that, “When an injured employee is disabled from performing his employment duties, the employee’s earnings include the earnings from two or more jobs that are substantially similar.”  In determining whether two employments are substantially similar, the Commission considers each job’s particular duties and general nature.  In addition to determining whether the jobs involve the overlapping of specific duties and skills, the Workers Compensation Commission also looks to the primary mission of both employments.  Shown here with injury lawyer Doug Landau is an ABRAMS LANDAU client at our Herndon, Virginia office building, with her settlement check, which included her wage loss from both the job where she injured her cervical spine AND her SECOND JOB as well.

There are multiple types of brain injury from a car or truck crash. Rapid acceleration and rotational forces can send the brain bouncing around inside the skull.  There can be impact with the front windshield or side windows.  There can even be impact with an exploding airbag.   These forces can twist or tear axons. Axons are the long, thin fibers that connect nerve cells. This tearing, or shearing, can cause bleeding and swelling in the brain. This swelling and bleeding can cause further injury. In animal studies, there are signs of neurodegeneration. Neural fibers break down, triggering cell death.

About half of the victims of concussions recover quickly. In the other fifty percent, the the symptoms can linger indefinitely. Approximately 10% of the people who suffer concussions have problems severe enough to interfere with their activities of daily living (”ADLs”) and work. If you or someone you know, has sustained a concussion or traumatic brain injury from a car crash, explosion, fall or other impact of the skull, seek medical attention. If your head has been subjected to rapid acceleration or deceleration forces, and you have: severe headaches, difficulty sleeping, problems with memory and concentration, lapses in balance and coordination and changes in personality, seek neurological help at once. Reinjuring the brain while it is still in a vulnerable state can lead to serious, lifetime injury. Subtler damage may accumulate, leading to depression and cognitive decline, such that previously simple mental tasks become major challenges. If these symptoms are due to a crash or other accident caused by someone else’s negligence or carelessness, please call our office so that we may help. At ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., we have the resources to help victims of brain injury and their families.