Neuropsychology Central

[eaglewings]

I am a 57 woman who was involved in an accident 3 years ago. Immediately following the accident I felt a searing pain in my head, my head ached (hurt) soon after, amnesia followed for two days and I still had the head ache. I was advised to wait the weekend out at the scene and see a doctor on Monday. I did but no xrays were taken and the doc treated me for neck injury. Pain worsened over weeks and I began to discover memory and cognitive problems. MRI post accident four months came up normal, eegs came up normal. Neuropsych tests showed memory problems, especially with numbers, word problems. I had a Qeeg done which showed problems in the right temporal area. The head pain in my occipital (rt) area is treated with shots, that helps, the Migraine type head aches have not gone away but are lessened from 24 days a month to 12 to 15 days of severe pain with Topamax twice a day. They have found in neck MRIs that the cervical injuries are on several areas, where there is flattening of the spinal cord. I do have loss of feeling and weakness in my left arm and hand.
My problem is ---- in order to be compensated so I can get further care, everyone wants me to prove the injury - no one will say what it is that is causing it. Some say maybe it is the neck injury that is causing all these debilitating problems. I am told that the neck injuries are giving my chronic pain problems that would make anyone forget things. Problem is that I had the memory problems before the pain became chronic. I feel like I am living in void. Looking for answers but no one is willing to give them. I tried to get a SWI mri but it was taken without the proper resolution and showed nothing, I don't have the money to keep this up as I was canceled.
Thank you for any help or assistance.
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[drejb]

If you are seeking compensation for a neurological or neuropsychological injury, most likely you will need to seek expert evaluations and studies through an attorney. It is best to get a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation paid for by the attorney since such evaluations often include measures of effort and must address complicating pre-existing condition. If the evaluation is not favorable to you, and it was done by a retained expert it usually remains confidential unless you or your attorney decide to use it.

Some (probably the more experienced in forensic evals) neuropsychologists will not evaluate unless retained. Some attorneys send clients out to get their own evaluations because they dont want to risk the costs of these eval (which can be expensive due to the extra time required), particularly when it does not seem to be a "good" case.

Findings on imaging studies are not necessary, injury can occur without that and if imaging was not done in the right time frame it might not show later.

Not intended as legal, psyhchological or other professional advice,
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Ernest J. Bordini, Ph.D.
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http://www.NeuropsychologyCentral.COM

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