If you have a catastrophic injury case, a trauma surgeon can explain the plaintiff’s injuries and treatment
Personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys face unique challenges when handling catastrophic injury cases. The stakes are high, often with millions or even tens of millions of dollars on the line. Proving each and every element of your case is essential, and that includes describing the injuries themselves, the treatment for those injuries, and the likely cause of each injury. That’s where trauma surgeons can make a significant difference.
What is a trauma surgeon?
Trauma surgeons specialize in emergency, life-saving surgeries on patients who have suffered catastrophic injuries in accidents, violent attacks, or natural disasters. A trauma surgeon’s job is to rapidly stabilize the patient, repair organs and tissues, control bleeding, and do whatever is possible to save the patient’s life.
Trauma surgery is considered a subspecialty within general surgery. Most trauma surgeons are board-certified by the American Board of Surgery (ABS).
The value of a trauma surgeon as an expert witness
Because trauma surgeons routinely treat patients injured in accidents and other preventable incidents, they can play an invaluable role in catastrophic injury cases. A trauma surgeon can speak to the mechanisms of injury and offer an opinion on causation. Just as importantly, trauma surgeons can explain the effects of a severe injury on the body, the level of pain a patient might experience, and the likely prognosis for a severe injury. Expert testimony from a trauma surgeon can help to establish both economic and non-economic damages.
Of course, in cases involving negligence by a trauma surgeon, you need a doctor in the same specialty to establish the standard of care and offer an opinion on whether the defendant trauma surgeon deviated from that standard. But even in cases that don’t involve the standard of care, a trauma surgeon’s insights on catastrophic injuries can be quite persuasive to a jury.
Trauma surgeons can also explain the specialized facilities and equipment available in trauma centers. In cases that involve a failure to transfer or a delay in transferring patients to an appropriate trauma center, an experienced trauma surgeon can offer an opinion on how the trauma facility’s specialized equipment and services could have made a difference.
Find the right trauma surgery expert for your case
Again, the stakes in catastrophic injury cases are high, and you can’t afford to gamble when it comes to experts. The right trauma surgery expert witness will not only have the credentials and experience you need, but also the ability to offer compelling, accurate testimony in depositions and, if necessary, at trial. That’s why vetted, experienced experts put attorneys in the best position to win their cases.
For nearly four decades, the team at Rieback Medical-Legal Consultants has been providing the best in medicine to assist the legal community, and our network includes doctors in all medical specialties and subspecialties, including trauma surgery. If you need a trauma surgeon for a catastrophic injury case, give us a call or contact us online to find out how we can help.
"Rieback Medical-Legal Consultants has consistently connected me with well-credentialed, objective physicians who are willing to call it like they see it. Thanks to you, I have worked with some of the best specialists in their fields. I have worked with a number of different expert witness services over the years. Ellen, you are in a different league from any of them." — Hartley Hampton, Hampton & King, Attorneys at Law, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐