Proving a Child's Symptoms - How can we show others what we ourselves cannot see?
When a person suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), especially a mild TBI, the symptoms are not always readily apparent. Many of the symptoms, such as irritability, memory loss, headaches or blurred vision, are "subjective." In other words, much of our knowledge of such symptoms comes from the victim reporting them. Because young children usually have more limited communication skills, it is often more difficult to learn what they are experiencing.
Defense counsel will do everything possible to emphasize this, arguing that without "objective" evidence of the symptoms, we must be suspicious as to whether or not they really exist, or how severe they really are. When it comes to injured children, the reliability of a child's testimony can become an important issue.
Lawyers for victims know this, and we have various tools available to demonstrate to a jury not only how real these symptoms are, but also how severely they can affect a victim's life. But it is not an easy task. Evidence to demonstrate such "invisible" symptoms must come from many sources; parents, siblings, extended family, teachers, bus drivers, guidance counselers, fellow students pediatricians, neurologists, psychiatrists and others.
The lawyer must investigate the changes in the victim from before the trauma to after the trauma. Often, it is testimony about changes in the victim as a result of the TBI that is most influential. In a sense, the symptoms start to become visible through the eyes of the witnesses who testify about the changes in the victim since the trauma.
Consistent testimony about the changes in the victim can sometimes make all the difference.
