Catastrophic injury claims involve harm so severe that the injured person’s future life is fundamentally and permanently altered. Common categories include hypoxic and anoxic brain injury, spinal cord injury with paraplegia or quadriplegia, severe traumatic brain injury, amputation, blindness, and significant cognitive impairment. Birth injury cases involving hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and cerebral palsy are among the most common catastrophic injury claims in medical malpractice litigation.
Catastrophic injury cases are the most resource-intensive on both sides of the bar. Damages typically run to several million dollars and require detailed expert evidence on future care costs, loss of income or earning capacity, and the cost of adaptive housing, equipment, and therapies. The injured person, particularly in pediatric cases, may have a long life expectancy requiring decades of future care, and the present-value calculation of that care is one of the most heavily contested issues in the case.
Settlements and judgments in catastrophic injury cases are also subject to structured settlement options, court approval where the plaintiff is a minor or otherwise under disability, and management orders through the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee or a private litigation guardian.
Posts tagged Catastrophic Injury analyze Ontario decisions involving the most serious clinical injuries and the legal frameworks that apply to compensation in those cases.
The Court of Appeal dismisses the appeal in Brown v Meaney, upholding findings that two pediatric neurologists breached the standard of care and the duty to obtain informed consent when they abandoned a pyridoxine trial in an infant with a rare epilepsy. The decision affirms that a defensible first impression does not excuse the failure to revisit it, and that causation need not be proven with scientific precision.
Ontario court finds emergency physician negligent for failing to refer 17-week pregnant patient with pPROM to obstetrician, leading to septic shock and amputations.
Ontario court denies defendant doctors’ motion for in-home security camera recordings in catastrophic injury malpractice action. Privacy prevails over relevance.
A settlement on behalf of a patient discharged from hospital despite signs of acute psychiatric illness, who suffered catastrophic injury within 24 hours.
The Court of Appeal affirmed a $12 million plaintiff verdict for catastrophic maternal brain injury, rejecting the defence theory of amniotic fluid embolism.
The Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of a medical negligence claim alleging failure to report child protection concerns. The causation chain failed at multiple links.
The Ontario Court of Appeal affirmed liability against three physicians for failure to disclose the cumulative risks of a multi-step brain AVM treatment plan.
A young man developed paraplegia from an undiagnosed spinal dural fistula his neurologist failed to investigate. A jury awarded $1.5M; the Court of Appeal affirmed.
A settlement involving a 65-year-old man whose ankle fracture went 40 days without orthopedic follow-up, leading to joint infection and below-knee amputation.
