Following an eight-year legal battle, car crash victim Paul Vallance wins £4million in compensation following a brain injury, reports the Daily Mail.
When he was just 18 years old, Vallance’s car was crashed into by another driver who had lost control of his vehicle. The accident left Vallance with a head injury, broken bones and suffering from an inability to recall past events or even to speak for a while.
While he recovered from his physical injuries within a matter of months, the change to his mental state has remained a permanent fixture. Doctors at the hospital dismissed his head injury at first as simply a ‘mild’ trauma. However, it became perfectly clear that there had been more significant damage done as his personality and mental state never returned to how they were before the accident.
Following the loss of several jobs as a result of losing his temper and becoming incredibly angry, Vallance appeared unable to return to work.
Acting out of concern for her son, Vallance’s mother decided to instruct a new legal firm to help with his case. As these lawyers requested brain scans, the true extent of the damage done to Vallance’s brain during the crash was revealed. Far from being the ‘mild head injury’ which it was initially dismissed as, the scans showed significant damage to his frontal lobe.
‘He had suffered a cerebral oedema, intra-cranial hematoma and subdural haemorrhage, all of which damaged his emotional control and executive functioning. This had left him with behavioural difficulties and anger management issues,’ the Daily Mail reports.
Once this discovery had been made, his case was brought to the High Court where a settlement of £4million compensation was agreed upon. Although this comes eight years after the accident happened, it will be of use to Vallance given that he is no longer employable as a result of his injuries.
