Nursing a permanent knee injury

Nursing a permanent knee injury

Our Redlich’s Melbourne team recently assisted a nurse with her claim for common law damages after she was involved in a traffic accident leaving her with a permanent injury to her left knee.

In December 2018, our then 59-year-old client was hit by a car while crossing the road as the driver claimed to have not seen any pedestrians when he came around the corner. The collision caused our client to fall onto her left hand and knee and taken to hospital for treatment. Doctors confirmed that she had fractured her lower left leg and sent her home in a splint and told not to weight bear. However, an MRI scan afterwards revealed that our client had also suffered a ligament rupture and meniscal tears requiring reconstructive surgery to her left knee.

Despite her resilience and every effort to rehabilitate with hydrotherapy, physiotherapy and gym exercises to strengthen her leg after surgery, our client now has a permanent injury to her left knee. She continues to have ongoing pain, stiffness and restriction of movement, and relies on a variety of medications to manage her pain and sleep issues.

Prior to the accident, our client worked as a nurse five days a week, plus overtime when required. Since the accident, our client has needed to access her long service leave and reduce her workload to four days due to her ongoing pain and restrictions. Although she still enjoys her work, she now struggles to manage the emotional and physical demands of her role. She reports being exhausted by the end of the week and doubts whether she can keep working until retirement age like she had planned prior to the accident.

In addition to the impact to her work capacity, our client now struggles with, and tends to avoid engaging in a number of daily and recreational activities which she use to often do such as hiking, running and going to the gym.

We were able to help our client pursue a claim for pain and suffering and economic loss for her injuries and was successful in settling her case at a conference for the amount of $320,000 without the need to issue Court proceedings. It is important to note that this settlement does not prevent our client to make future claims for reasonable medical and like expenses from the TAC.

If you have sustained an injury on the road, at work or in a public place, contact our legal team on (03) 9321 9988 for a free confidential conversation.

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