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Catastrophic Impairment

Catastrophic impairment is considered a severe physical, emotional and psychological injury, which causes a significant impairment in one or more factors that include work, performing daily activities, concentration and social functioning. It usually occurs suddenly, mostly through motor vehicle accidents, and can include serious head trauma, spinal cord and neurological damage, multiple bone fractures, accidental amputation, severe burns, organ damage and paralysis.

The Glasgow coma scale, a scoring system designed to measure the levels of consciousness in a person following trauma, is often used to accurately characterize an injury as catastrophic and is based on a scale of 3 (worst) to 15 (best). Other parameters that may be considered when classifying catastrophic impairment include a patient being down for a considerable period of time after the accident or the presence of whole body impairment of 55%, including physical, psychological, emotional and brain injury.

A catastrophic injury can have a long-term impact on the victim’s productivity and ability to function, is associated with huge financial implications and can also affect the victim’s family. Our services help determine the quality of medical care, other support and future quality of life applicable for the victim and victim’s family.