Coma Injury Attorney

When your loved one is in a coma, the world seems to stop while everything else keeps moving around you. Hospital bills pile up. Work becomes impossible. Simple questions like "When will they wake up?" and "Will they be the same person?" have no clear answers.

You're handling medical decisions you never imagined making, battling insurance companies that seem more concerned with costs than care, and trying to hold your family together during the most frightening time of your lives. Meanwhile, the person or company responsible for this tragedy may be trying to minimize their accountability.

At the Brain Injury Law Center, we've spent over 50 years helping families in exactly your situation. We know that when someone you love is fighting for their life, you need advocates who will secure the resources and support your family requires to get through this.

Call (757) 244-7000 or contact us online for a free case review with a coma injury attorney who will work to protect your loved one’s future.

Movies and television shows portray coma patients as people who simply "wake up" one day, fully alert and ready to resume their normal lives. The cameras show a dramatic moment where someone's eyes flutter open, they recognize their family, and within days they're walking out of the hospital.

Real families face something completely different.

After weeks of waiting, praying, and sleeping in hospital chairs, your husband's eyes finally open. Your heart jumps. This is it—he's back. But he stares past you like you're not there. You say his name. Nothing. You squeeze his hand. No response. The man who used to laugh at your jokes and help the kids with homework doesn't even know you're in the room.

The doctors use words you've never heard before: vegetative state, minimally conscious, cognitive rehabilitation. You learn that opening his eyes doesn't mean he's awake. You discover that "recovery" might mean years of therapy, specialized equipment, and full-time care. You realize the person you married is still somewhere inside, but reaching him will require everything you have - emotionally, physically, and financially.

This is why families facing coma injuries need more than medical care. They need legal advocates who understand that behind every case is a family whose world has been shattered, and who deserves the resources to put the pieces back together.

Every year, thousands of Americans suffer brain injuries so severe they slip into comas. Brain injury and coma cases represent some of the most heartbreaking situations families face. One day your brother is walking across the street, and the next he's in a coma because someone ran a red light. Your mother goes grocery shopping and ends up in a coma from head trauma because she slipped on a wet floor that had no warning signs.

The person lying in that hospital bed doesn't look injured. There's no cast, no obvious wound. But inside their skull, their brain has been damaged in ways that may change everything about who they are.

Coma victims often show specific characteristics that families find difficult to witness. Your loved one may appear to be "asleep" because they cannot be awakened or alerted. They may be unable to move, respond, or communicate. Some show minimal response to stimuli, including painful stimuli, while others display various levels of non-purposeful movements.

While in a coma, a person can continue to heal and progress through different states of consciousness. Many who sustain severe brain injuries and experience comas make significant improvements. However, they can often be left with permanent physical, cognitive or behavioral impairments that require lifetime care and support.

When someone suffers a coma from head trauma, families quickly discover that the emotional devastation comes with crushing financial pressure. One month in intensive care can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If your loved one needs long-term care, you could be looking at millions of dollars over their lifetime.

Ready to discuss your family's situation? Every day matters when protecting your loved one's future. Call (757) 244-7000 now for a free consultation with attorneys who have recovered over $1 billion for brain injury families.

When doctors use medical terms, it can feel overwhelming. We explain what they mean:

Vegetative State

The person appears awake but shows no awareness of their surroundings. They may open their eyes and have sleep-wake cycles but cannot follow commands or communicate. General responses to pain exist, such as increased heart rate, increased respiration, or sweating.

If your family member is stuck in this state due to negligence, consulting a vegetative state attorney helps ensure their physical care is funded for the long haul.

Minimally Responsive State

Some awareness exists, but responses come and go. The person might occasionally follow simple commands or show signs of recognition. They demonstrate primitive reflexes and awareness of environmental stimulation but inconsistent ability to follow simple commands.

Akinetic Mutism

This condition results when pathways in the brain are damaged, causing minimal body movement, little or no spontaneous speech, and infrequent ability to follow commands. The lack of movement and speech stems from brain pathway damage rather than muscle problems.

Locked-in Syndrome

Full consciousness remains, but the person cannot move or speak. They can typically move their eyes and may communicate through blinking. Vertical eye movements and eye blinking can be used to communicate with others and operate environmental controls.

Each condition requires different levels of care and creates different financial needs. Learning these distinctions helps families make informed decisions about treatment and legal options.

"Families often tell me they feel helpless watching their loved one fight for consciousness. But when we secure the resources they need for proper care and rehabilitation, we give that family hope again. We give them the ability to focus on healing instead of worrying about bills."

— Stephen M. Smith, Brain Injury Law Center

After a severe brain injury that leads to a coma or vegetative state, families face uncertainty about recovery and the future. To determine the severity of the injury and the potential for improvement, specialists rely on several types of evaluations and imaging.

These assessments reveal the extent of brain damage and help establish the prognosis, which can be critical in both medical care planning and legal cases.

• CT scans show structural damage, including bleeding, blood clots, swelling, or compression in the brain.
  
• MRI scans provide more detailed images, especially of deeper brain structures like the brainstem and cerebellum, which often play a key role in coma cases.
  
• EEG (Electroencephalogram) records electrical activity in the brain and can reveal abnormal patterns that indicate the level of brain function.
  
• Neurological Response Scales such as the Glasgow Coma Scale measure a person’s responsiveness, tracking changes over time to help determine potential outcomes.
  

By understanding what these tests reveal, families are better prepared to discuss prognosis, long-term care needs, and the evidence required to support a brain injury claim.

When a brain injury leaves a loved one in a coma or vegetative state, the legal case must account for long-term care needs, significant medical costs, and the impact on the family’s future. In Episode 11 of the Cases for Causes podcast, “Traumatic Brain Injuries,” Brain Injury Law Center attorney David Holt explains what families need to know when pursuing legal action after a life-changing injury.

A national survey found that people who hired a personal injury attorney received settlements nearly over four times higher than those who handled their claims on their own. In cases involving lifetime care and high medical expenses, that difference can determine whether your loved one gets the treatment and support they need.

The episode discusses how these cases are built, the evidence that can be most persuasive, and the steps families can take to protect their rights while navigating an already overwhelming situation.

Listen Now

Comas rarely occur out of nowhere. They are usually the direct result of a sudden, violent trauma or a severe medical mistake. When someone else's mistake causes your loved one to slip into a coma, holding them accountable is essential for securing your family's financial stability. Some of the most common causes include:

• Motor Vehicle Accidents: Car crashes, commercial truck collisions, and motorcycle accidents are top causes of traumatic comas. A reckless driver can cause a sudden head impact that shuts down brain function instantly.
• Medical Malpractice and Oxygen Deprivation: When a hospital or doctor fails to monitor a patient properly, devastating brain damage can happen. Errors during surgery, incorrect anesthesia doses, or a failure to spot internal bleeding can starve the brain of oxygen. If a medical provider's error led to your loved one's condition, working with an attorney who understands coma malpractice is critical to establishing liability.
• Slips, Trips, and Falls: A fall from a high building site, a tumble down unmaintained stairs, or a simple slip on a wet grocery store floor can cause severe skull fractures and brain swelling. Property owners who fail to fix dangerous hazards can be held responsible.
• Workplace and Industrial Accidents: Construction sites, factories, and warehouses carry high risks. Falling objects, machinery accidents, or unsafe scaffolding can lead to catastrophic head injuries when employers skip safety protocols.
• Assaults and Violent Acts: Physical attacks, gunshots, or blunt force trauma to the head frequently cause brain swelling that forces a patient into a comatose state.
• Sports and Recreational Injuries: While less common, severe collisions in contact sports or extreme sports accidents can result in major brain trauma if proper safety gear or emergency responses are lacking.

While doctors run tests and use medical terms, you're trying to process what this means for your actual life. Can you leave the hospital to shower? Who's picking up the kids? How do you pay rent when you haven't worked in two weeks?

The costs add up quickly:

• Immediate Medical Expenses: Intensive care units, ventilators, feeding tubes, and monitoring equipment create bills that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars within weeks.
  
• Long-term Care Needs: Many coma patients require years of rehabilitation, therapy, and potentially lifetime care assistance. These costs can reach millions of dollars over a lifetime.
  
• Lost Income: Family members often must leave work to provide care or make medical decisions. The patient's future earning capacity may be permanently affected or eliminated entirely.
  
• Home Modifications: Returning home may require wheelchair accessibility, equipment, or full-time nursing care.
  
• Family Impact: The emotional toll on spouses, children, and extended family can require counseling and support services for years.

Early settlement offers rarely account for these long-term needs. Companies may offer $50,000 or $100,000 like it's generous, when the actual lifetime costs could reach millions. Filing a lawsuit can provide the financial support families need to rebuild their lives after such traumatic experiences.

To bring a successful legal claim, it must be shown that another person, business, or organization acted carelessly and that their actions caused the brain injury that led to the coma. In legal terms, this is called negligence.

A successful case generally requires proving that someone had a duty to act safely, failed to do so, and caused injuries that would not have happened otherwise.

Depending on how the injury happened, responsible parties might include:

• Negligent Drivers: Drivers who speed, text, drive under the influence, ignore traffic signals, drive while fatigued, or otherwise put others at risk.
• Commercial Vehicle Employers: Companies whose employees cause serious crashes while working, including delivery drivers, utility companies, truckers, rideshare drivers, and other businesses that may be legally responsible for their employees' actions.
• Medical Professionals & Hospitals: Doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, emergency room providers, or hospitals that make preventable errors, delay treatment, fail to recognize signs of a brain injury, misuse anesthesia, or provide care that falls below accepted medical standards. Cases involving these failures may involve coma malpractice claims.
• Property Owners and Businesses: Landlords, stores, restaurants, hotels, apartment complexes, parking garages, or other property owners who fail to fix dangerous conditions or warn visitors about known hazards.
• Manufacturers: Companies that design or sell defective vehicles, tires, airbags, helmets, industrial equipment, safety devices, consumer items, or other products that fail.
• Employers: Companies that fail to provide required safety equipment, proper training, or a reasonably safe workplace, placing workers at risk of catastrophic head injuries.
• Nursing Homes and Care Facilities: Facilities that fail to protect residents from preventable falls, neglect, physical abuse, or delayed medical care that leads to a catastrophic brain injury.
• Security Companies and Property Owners: Businesses or property owners that fail to provide reasonable security in places where violent assaults or other foreseeable attacks occur.

Identifying every responsible party is important because it can affect the financial resources available to pay for lifelong medical care, rehabilitation, and other future needs.

A coma injury attorney from our team will build the strongest case by starting with finding every party whose decisions contributed to a life-changing injury.

Waking up from a coma is rarely the end of your suffering. For many survivors, it marks the beginning of a long and uncertain recovery process. Depending on how long the brain was without oxygen, the location of the injury, and how severe the damage is, long-term effects can impact nearly every area of a person's life:

• Partial or full paralysis
• Chronic pain
• Trouble swallowing
• Muscle stiffness, tremors, and reduced mobility
• Seizures and sleep problems
• Memory loss and difficulty processing information
• Trouble speaking, understanding language, or communicating thoughts
• Problems with attention, decision-making, and completing daily tasks
• Personality changes, mood swings, depression, anxiety, or difficulty managing emotions
• Loss of independence and the need for help with daily activities like eating, bathing, dressing, and moving around
• Need for long-term rehabilitation, medical care, specialized equipment, or in-home assistance

These cases require a deep understanding of how severe brain injuries develop over time. Stephen M. Smith has spent nearly five decades representing brain injury survivors and has consulted thousands of attorneys nationwide on traumatic brain injury cases. His experience allows our team to understand the medical evidence, future care needs, and life-changing consequences that must be considered when building a coma injury claim.

For over 50 years, our legal team has secured life-changing results for families facing these situations:

• Train Accident: $60.26 Million. When a train derailed and crashed into the gas station where our client worked, he suffered a severe head injury that changed his life forever. The railroad company had deep pockets and expensive lawyers, but the jury's verdict ensures he'll have the care he needs for the rest of his life.
  
• Motorcycle Accident: $14.59 Million. A defective tire caused our client's motorcycle to crash, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury. The tire manufacturer and dealer both tried to avoid responsibility. The settlement covers his lifetime medical needs.
  
• Car Accident: $10 Million. A company's negligent driver caused a crash that left our client with a brain injury. They offered a quick settlement that wouldn't have covered his first year of medical bills. Going to trial got him what he actually deserved.
  
• Slip & Fall: $12.26 Million. What seemed like a simple fall at a business turned into a lifetime of medical needs when our client suffered a brain injury. This became the largest slip and fall verdict in Virginia history.
  

Each of these families now has the resources they need for medical care, home modifications, and daily assistance their loved ones require.

Coma cases require extensive expert testimony to show the full extent of injuries and future needs. Our legal team works with:

• Medical Experts: Neurologists, rehabilitation specialists, and life care planners who understand the long-term implications of severe brain injuries.
  
• Economic Analysts: Professionals who calculate lifetime care costs, lost earning capacity, and the financial impact on the entire family.
  
• Accident Reconstruction Specialists: Experts who examine every aspect of the incident to prove how negligence caused the injuries.
  
• Life Care Planners: Specialists who project what equipment, modifications, and assistance your family member will need for the rest of their life.

This team approach helps us build cases that account for the full scope of how comas change lives, addressing both immediate medical bills and long-term care requirements.

In a coma case, the victim cannot speak for themselves, so the evidence has to speak for them. We immediately step in to show who failed you and how they caused the accident that led to the coma.

Depending on how the injury occurred, we may collect:

• Medical records, hospital charts, MRI and CT scans, ICU records, and other diagnostic testing
• Police reports, accident reports, photographs, surveillance footage, traffic camera video, and dashcam recordings
• Witness statements and testimony from people who saw the incident or its immediate aftermath
• Electronic data, including commercial truck "black box" information, driver logs, and other digital records
• Maintenance records, inspection reports, safety logs, and company policies
• Cell phone records or other evidence showing distracted driving or other negligent conduct
• Employment records and wage information to document lost income and future earning capacity
• Testimony from neurologists, rehabilitation specialists, life care planners, economists, and other expert witnesses
• Statements from family members, caregivers, and friends describing how the coma and brain injury have changed your loved one's daily life and future needs