Juries can sympathize with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

The rare condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is definitely on the minds of its patients. Contributing to destructive challenges from intense pain to depression, the syndrome can become all-consuming.

An injury that sparks CRPS can become the costliest experience of a person’s life, and it may not surprise its sufferers that juries can strongly support CRPS patients.

Ordinary moments that change everything

A woman was crossing a street in East Los Angeles on her way to a doctor’s appointment when a tour bus struck her. She suffered severe leg injuries and developed CRPS. During the 2018 trial, the bus driver and expert witnesses admitted that the driver failed to take appropriate precautions, and a Los Angeles jury awarded her almost $6.3 million.

A Colorado construction worker was installing flooring in a house under construction, when he tried to flip circuit breakers in an “old, out of date, jury rigged electrical box.” The resulting electrical shock left him suffering from CRPS and unable to work again or even play with his children. The jury awarded him $16 million, the largest premises liability verdict in Colorado history, last November.

Store video confirmed a Fresno woman’s account of going to a chain-owned discount home furnishing store to return four chairs. An employee struck her with a cart, causing her to fall and injure her ankle and hip. She developed CRPS and endured multiple surgeries. The company initially offered a settlement of $15,000, but in May 2017 a jury awarded her more that $2 million.

Settlements and sufferers

Although these stories could go on, those suffering from CRPS know that none of them are about people striking it rich or truly being “made whole” or “finding closure” for the incidents that cause this life-changing syndrome.

But CRPS is a special condition. It’s expensive to treat, and sometimes to try to treat again and again, as well as to pay for and do without lost wages.

CRPS sometimes comes with unique and dramatic emotional, psychological and mental trauma. The arbitrary and senseless character of the events leading up to such a debilitating condition is particularly difficult to confront when those events were someone else’s fault.

It can help when you see some acknowledgement of your reality reflected and affirmed in the world around you. If you think you may suffer from CRPS, it’s critically important to be treated for it by the right doctors as soon as possible.

You should also consult with attorneys who have made extraordinary achievements in CRPS litigation. Most important of all, reach out and don’t suffer alone.