Settlement?

fenash · #1 10-15-2006, 03:52 PM

What is the name of your state? West Virginia

i had a guy 22yo diabetic, who didnt take his insulin or meds, and his blood sugar went to 26, he passed out, crossed into my lane clipped my truck head on, knocked my truck into a telephone pole. my neck and back was in pain,back was shooting pains. i refused ambulance but went to emergency room with family. got x-rays, nothing broken. went back to work for two hours the next day, thought i was gonna die from muscles in back,so seen DR. he gave me refferal to MRI, got the MRI it showed degenerative disk disease in L2 disc, and slight herniation. total missed work 2 and a half months before i had to quit, the pain was too much. i have muscle spasms almost daily even with muscle relaxers. his insurance company claimed fault immediatly. they call me every couple of weeks and i claim i am not home (they dont know my voice)

now the wreck happened on december 14th, it was in the local paper, the guy was charged with failure to maintain control of vehicle...

to this day i still hurt like hell, my DR said it will never get better only worse. but im not disabled so to speak so i have to work, but physical labor hurts. so im kinda stuck, i want my due, i have severe money problems, my quality of life is total crap resulting from this accident. now i have a prospective local lawyer no papers signed yet, but i go later this week for that.

i am wondering the settlement moneywise that is possible from this? the main issue is pain and suffering, his insurance company said 15% to 20% of total medical bills, but a lawyer i talked to said no 3 to 4 TIMES the medical bills. im confused...

moburkes · #2 10-15-2006, 05:11 PM

Do not accept for a PORTION of your bils to be paid. However, your attorney will better be able to tell you what a good settlement offer is. Do you know how much liability coverage this person has?

fenash · #3 10-15-2006, 07:55 PM

sorry, i should have explained what was meant by 15% to 20% of the medical bills.

in all cases 100% of the bills would be paid according to the person i talked to... what i was reffering to was the amount given for pain and suffering, aside from missed work and other expenses paid.... 15-20% of the medical bills for settlement for pain/suffering or 2 to 3 times for pain/suffering???

and as far as his coverage i believe it was 35 thousand. but then again ill have to have it disclosed at some point to find out for certain.

ecmst12 · #4 10-15-2006, 09:32 PM

FYI if his blood sugar was 26 then he took TOO MUCH insulin. Normal is 75-100-ish.

fenash · #5 10-15-2006, 10:04 PM

i asked the responding state trooper if the guy was ok first then asked if he was drunk because he had been acting in a stupor, the state trooper said, "No, but he might as well be, his blood sugar was at 26 when the emt's got to him."

there was only one ambulance responding at the scene, he obviously needed the ambulance, i had loads of adreneline running thru me, my mind racing millions of miles an hour. so i declined the ambulance then. but the EMT checked me out and i asked her how he was, she stated his bloodsugar was rising back up but had been at 26.

about one month later after getting the vehicle settlement taken care of i asked the claim adjuster about the guy, she stated he had been diabetic since he was young, so knew he shouldve taken care of himself before leaving for work that morning. she said he didnt take his insulin, surely she must have meant he didnt take his medication, now if he has the version of diabetes where his blood sugar drops if he doesnt take meds, all of the above makes sense. or if he took too much insulin, sure.

im smart enough to know he was in fault all the way. and his insurance company also claimed fault right off the bat...

ecmst12 · #6 10-15-2006, 10:33 PM

Diabetes means your blood sugar is too high because your body either isn't producing enough insulin or isn't responding properly to the insulin it does produce. Taking too much insulin and bring on a rapid drop in blood sugar which absolutely can make you pass out and get disoriented, which is what obviously happened to the guy who hit you. The claims adjuster clearly doesn't understand diabetes very well. But that's ok and is irrelevant to your situation.

With injuries as serious as you report, you had best hire a lawyer to get a fair amount for your pain and suffering. 15-20% of your medical bills sounds awfully low even for an initial offer.

janedoe23 · #7 10-16-2006, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fenash

she stated he had been diabetic since he was young, so knew he shouldve taken care of himself before leaving for work that morning. she said he didnt take his insulin, surely she must have meant he didnt take his medication, now if he has the version of diabetes where his blood sugar drops if he doesnt take meds, all of the above makes sense. or if he took too much insulin, sure.

im smart enough to know he was in fault all the way. and his insurance company also claimed fault right off the bat...

Excuse me! It doesn't matter how long a person has been diabetic for, T1's can go low for many reasons. It doens't mean your not in control. He could have simply injected in a vein to where it would drop his blood sugar faster then normal. Some diabetics can't feel a low come on until it's to late. Did you know that? I don't feel low until I'm already in the 30's. That's the problem with society these days, have hte people are so ignorant and no nothing about diabetes. Don't even compare a drunk to a diabetic low, it's insulting! We can choose whether to drink and drive but we can't choose when it comes to this disease.

ecmst12 · #8 10-16-2006, 07:41 PM

The fact that the low could have happened entirely by accident doesn't make the crash any less his fault, any more then if he'd had an epileptic seizure or a heart attack. And clinically, it COULD be difficult to distinguish someone suffering a blood sugar crash from a drunk person, at least on first glance. To a lay person, it would be even harder to make the distinction. Saying that is not calling a diabetic a drunk, don't take things so personally. A dangerous low is more likely to be a simple accident then a spike of 250-300 which is more likely to be caused by not following doctor's orders, but then again it also has a lot more effect on functioning. I've seen blood work come back with glucose of 500 when the patient hadn't been showing any adverse symptoms in the office.

But look at it this way - the car accident certainly wasn't the OTHER driver's fault!

moburkes · #9 10-17-2006, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janedoe23

Excuse me! It doesn't matter how long a person has been diabetic for, T1's can go low for many reasons. It doens't mean your not in control. He could have simply injected in a vein to where it would drop his blood sugar faster then normal. Some diabetics can't feel a low come on until it's to late. Did you know that? I don't feel low until I'm already in the 30's. That's the problem with society these days, have hte people are so ignorant and no nothing about diabetes. Don't even compare a drunk to a diabetic low, it's insulting! We can choose whether to drink and drive but we can't choose when it comes to this disease.

And WHY would you expect a person who does not have diabetes to know SO MUCH about it? Okay. So I supposed that I should be educated on diabetes, epilepsy, high cholesterol, obesity, MD, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, autism, heart disease, etc, etc? Does that make sense? There are WAY too many diseases/problem/health concerns for a person to KNOW all of the details about them. That's just a silly thing to expect people to know all of the details about, especially if it hasn't affected them. Goodness.

And, by the way, some people ARE able to make informed decisions to avoid diabetes.

janedoe23 · #10 10-17-2006, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moburkes

And WHY would you expect a person who does not have diabetes to know SO MUCH about it? Okay. So I supposed that I should be educated on diabetes, epilepsy, high cholesterol, obesity, MD, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, autism, heart disease, etc, etc? Does that make sense? There are WAY too many diseases/problem/health concerns for a person to KNOW all of the details about them. That's just a silly thing to expect people to know all of the details about, especially if it hasn't affected them. Goodness.

And, by the way, some people ARE able to make informed decisions to avoid diabetes.

Please point to where I said everyone needs to know about different diseases????? If you don't know about a certain disease then don't make up what you assume to be true about the disease. Let me guess your one of those people that are just as ignorant and think every person gets this disease because they're FAT right? GET A LIFE!!! I suggest you educate yourself on it because whether your fat or not you may just get it sometime in your lifetime. Don't assume because a diabetic driver had an accident because they were low has anything to do with how long and how well they have cared for themselves. I never said the diabetic driver wasn't at fault!!! I'm just tired of people relating diabetics as drunk drivers or off their meds. We are entitled to drive just as well as with anyone else with a disease. But soon as we are at fault for an accident it's always well he was diabetic and probably not taking care of himself. GIMMIE A BREAK!!! You guys are pathetic! You don't like my opinion? TUFF!!

moburkes · #11 10-17-2006, 08:39 AM

JaneDoe: When I read through the posts, it appears to me that OP got ALL of his information about this driver from the state trooper, the EMT tech, and the claims adjuster. The OP did NOT profess to know a damn thing about the person who hit hit, or his medical condition. Just a few months ago one of my co-workers was killed in an auto accident after having a diabetic attack (not sure of the right word). I have no IDEA if he could have done something differently through diet/exercise. Another co-workers 2 year old daughter was diagnosed with diabetes. I'm in nursing school and and thinking about specializing in diabetic care. More than 1/2 of my family members have diabetes.

You made a stupid statement that that's what wrong with society..because they don't know about diabetes. Why would you make such a blanket statement? I added on the rest of the diseases because doing so was as ridiculous as YOUR statement. I'd like to know how not knowing or understanding about diabetes makes our society "wrong". Please answer that. I'm just looking for clarification of YOUR statement. So, then, if all of society "knew" about diabetes, then our society wouldn't be so "wrong" anymore. WOW! That's all it takes to make our society "right"?

OP was repeating what he heard. Have you never done that? Wow! I'm amazed. Even my 2 year old repeats what she hears. OP is NOT required to study diabetes now, because he's been hit by a driver with diabetes. He's not an expert. He was repeating what he heard. Period. He, apparently, thought that it might make the at fulat driver, not at fault somehow.

ecmst12 · #12 10-17-2006, 08:42 AM

Obesity IS the leading cause of diabetes. Not the only, very true, my great grandfather had it and he was skinny as a rail, but definitely the most common cause. And if a diabetic person's blood sugar drops to 26, well it definitely means they were doing SOMETHING wrong in terms of caring for their disease. You seriously need to chill out.

moburkes · #13 10-17-2006, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecmst12

Obesity IS the leading cause of diabetes. Not the only, very true, my great grandfather had it and he was skinny as a rail, but definitely the most common cause. And if a diabetic person's blood sugar drops to 26, well it definitely means they were doing SOMETHING wrong in terms of caring for their disease. You seriously need to chill out.

Did you also think that she was being drama queen?