Hypoxic Brain Injury Claims

Hypoxic brain injury claims

Any sort of trauma to the brain can have a catastrophic impact on not only the injured person’s life but the lives of their loved ones too. Often affecting every area of a person’s life, it can be difficult to gauge the severity and long-term impact of a hypoxic brain injury.

If the hypoxic brain damage occurred as a result of negligence by another party, you may be entitled to make a claim. While compensation can’t undo the damage, it can help to alleviate the additional financial and emotional stress that the injury can cause.

Working with you, our team of specialist brain injury solicitors will assess your individual situation and needs following your injury, including:

Care, support and assistance
Private medical treatment and therapies
Rehabilitation
Adaptations to your home
Specialist equipment
Loss of earnings or potential loss of future earnings

As soon as you’re ready to contact us, our friendly and experienced team will give you all the help and advice you need about the claims process. We will endeavour to get early interim payments so that we can help to get your life back on track

If you think you have a hypoxic brain injury claim, please get in touch with us today by completing our online enquiry form.

What does hypoxic brain injury mean?

A hypoxic brain injury occurs when the brain is deprived, either partly or wholly, of oxygen. The brain requires a constant flow of oxygen in order to function and, when that flow is disrupted, the brain becomes starved and begins to die – causing irreparable damage.

This is often described as a hypoxic-anoxic brain injury, where ‘hypoxic’ means partial lack of oxygen and ‘anoxic’ refers to complete deprivation.

What causes a hypoxic brain injury?

The causes of hypoxic brain damage are varied. In children, it’s often because of complications during birth. If the brain damage was caused by the negligence of a medical professional, it is classed as medical or clinical negligence. If the damage was the result of the negligence of another person outside of a medical setting, it’s classed as a personal injury claim.

Other causes of hypoxic brain damage include:

Asthma attack
Stroke
Heart attack
Drowning
Errors during a surgery (usually the administration of anaesthesia)
Smoke inhalation
Overdose
Strangulation
Poisoning (including carbon monoxide)

Is hypoxic brain injury permanent?

Sadly, severe hypoxic brain injuries often result in serious and permanent damage, although patients who have suffered mild hypoxia are often capable of making a full recovery.

If treatment and rehabilitation are sought in the early stages, hypoxic brain damage – even severe hypoxia – can be minimised and symptoms can be better managed so, while brain damage is permanent, a sense of recovery is possible.

What is the cost of bringing a hypoxic brain injury claim?

Your initial call with one of our experts is completely free. During the call, we’ll ask you questions about the hypoxic brain injury, including what caused it. After this initial assessment, we will then advise you on whether there is a reasonable chance of a successful claim.

If we think you have grounds for a hypoxic brain injury claim, we will represent you on a No Win No Fee basis. This means that you will only have to pay us an agreed sum if your claim is successful.

We understand the enormous emotional and financial stress that you and your loved ones are under at this time, which is why we will be completely transparent about any fees, and you won’t be charged anything up front.

How do I start a hypoxic brain injury claim?

It all starts with a call. It really is that simple.

We will listen with compassion and provide you with an unbiased and professional opinion. If it looks like the hypoxic brain damage was caused by negligence, we will then provide you with a step-by-step breakdown of how we would proceed with a claim.

Why choose Hugh James catastrophic injury solicitors?

Hugh James has extensive experience in handling serious injury claims. Our team of specialist brain injury lawyers provides expert advice to ensure that you receive not only the care you deserve but the compensation you need.

Our team of lawyers has been consistently ranked in the top tiers by the independent legal guides Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. We’re renowned as being leaders in the field of personal injury and catastrophic injury litigation.

When you choose Hugh James to represent you, you’ll benefit not only from the expertise of our solicitors but also from access to all our welfare advisors, including social workers. Our welfare team can assist you with many of the challenges that you’ll face following a hypoxic brain injury, including sourcing interim payments, seeking rehabilitation and therapy help, making alterations to your home, and much more.

Our specialist solicitors can advise you on the following:

the Hugh James Emergency Fund and how it can assist you and your family
obtaining private rehabilitation
your compensation
interim payments
welfare benefits and other financial support
employment concerns
charities that can assist
wills, trusts and power of attorney
dealing with your mortgage, credit card and loan providers
investigating any insurance cover from which you may benefit
social services and local authority funding for care and equipment
human and disability rights

Key contact

Ruth is a Partner and Head of our Clinical Negligence Department. She has exclusively practised in clinical negligence since qualifying in 1995 and has a wealth of experience in complex and high value clinical negligence claims.

Your questions answered

Hypoxic brain injury claims can often be complex, especially when determining who the defendant or defendants are, so it’s difficult to define a standard timescale for claims.

When you choose Hugh James, though, we’ll do the hard work for you. We’ll gather the evidence needed to make a claim, including talking with medical specialists, and will ascertain information about your current condition and what the future could hold – all of which will contribute to the final compensation figure.

Even if liability is admitted quickly by the defendants, it can still take several months for a hypoxic brain injury claim to settle. This is why we will, where possible, seek to receive early interim payment. These payments can help to cover things that you need sooner rather than later, including rehabilitation, treatment and daily living expenses.

We understand the importance of regular communication, which is why your lawyer will travel to meet you face to face, as well as communicate via video call, telephone and email. They’ll keep you informed and updated about the progress of your claim and will be on hand to answer any questions you might have.

We recommend that you contact a solicitor as soon as possible, as hypoxic brain injury claims are governed by the same time restrictions as other catastrophic injury claims.

You will usually have three years from the date that the hypoxic brain damage occurred. However, in certain circumstances, the three-year time limit doesn’t apply:

If a child suffers negligent care, a claim can be made up until their 21st birthday – and it is that point at which the three-year limit starts.
If you’re acting on behalf of someone who lacks the capacity to act themselves, the time limit only starts when they regain that capacity. If hypoxic brain injury has caused a permanent lack of capacity, no time limit will apply.

Because of the complex nature of hypoxic brain injury claims, it is impossible to provide a definitive amount of compensation that you could receive. However, we will do everything in our power to help you receive the compensation that you need.

The amount awarded is dependent on several factors. The aim of compensation is to ensure that your quality of life is maintained to as high a standard as possible and will take into consideration any financial losses, including any past and future costs of treatment, rehabilitation and care, adaptations to the home and any specialist equipment.

There are known as general damages and special damages. General damages refer to the part of the claim that compensates for the injury itself. To ascertain an accurate figure, we will arrange for medico-legal reports from various leading specialists.

Special damages refer to past and future financial losses as a direct result of your hypoxic brain injury.

Past losses can include:

private medical treatment and rehabilitation
prescription charges/medication
the purchase of aids and appliances
loss of earnings
travel expenses
care costs
personal belongings and clothing damaged in the accident
housing adaptions

Future losses can include:

care
loss of earnings
loss of pension
accommodation costs
future private medical treatment and rehabilitation
aids and appliances

Because we will need to provide proof of all financial losses, we suggest that you start keeping a list of all the things for which you’ve had to pay as a direct result of the hypoxic brain injury.

It is very rare that hypoxic brain injury claims go to court. However, sometimes it is necessary to start court proceedings to give you the best chance of getting the amount of compensation that you need.

In the event that your claim does go to court, however, we want you to rest assured that we will be with you every step of the way. We know how daunting and confusing court proceedings can be, but your lawyer will be there to help waylay any fear and anxiety you may have.

Hypoxic brain injury