Michael Sabbeth – Sabbeth Law
$1.1M Settlement: Illustrating Facial Fractures After Head-On Motorcycle Collision
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Illustration
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Medical Illustration
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Legal
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Personal Injury
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Case Study
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Two friends were riding motorcycles in a backyard when they collided with each other head-on. The plaintiff was wearing both his helmet and a neck guard, but he suffered massive fractures throughout his skull and upper maxillary jaw with facial lacerations and his front teeth completely knocked out. He also suffered a lacerated spleen with devascularization, bilateral lacerations to the upper poles of his kidneys, and wrist fractures.
Approach
Michael Sabbeth of Sabbeth Law, a Vermont and New Hampshire Personal Injury Law Firm, needed to visually summarize his client’s long list of injuries while reinforcing radiographic evidence that showed clear signs of massive fractures throughout his client’s skull and jaw. He tasked us with building a Medical Illustration series that would achieve the following visual objectives:
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01
Summarize all the Plaintiff’s fractures and lacerations throughout his body in one cohesive visual.
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02
Illustrate the Plaintiff’s head injuries with emphasis on his skull fractures and facial lacerations.
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03
Demonstrate the surgical procedure the Plaintiff underwent to have his skull and jaw fractures reduced with wires, plates, and screws.
“There's no question the exhibits were extremely powerful. We intended to use them repeatedly and keep them up through various witness examinations during our case in chief. These exhibits were critical, as you couldn't tell from looking at him what he had been through. There were no apparent facial deformities. The exhibits allowed us to show the depth and severity of what this boy went through in a way the medical records, testimony, and even radiographs simply would not have been able to. There is no question the exhibits raised the stakes for defense, considerably.”
Summarizing Full-Body Injuries
The first illustration captures all the Plaintiff’s fractures and lacerations throughout his entire body in one cohesive exhibit that grounds these visuals with colorized radiography.
The Plaintiff’s full body is presented in the center with facial lacerations and a significant presence of blood in his peritoneal cavity. Illustrated pop-outs around his image depict his brutally fractured face and lacerated anatomy. Colorized CT scans and an X-ray along the bottom ground these visuals with real-world radiographic evidence while highlighting the damage.
Illustration showing summary of full body injuries.
Illustrating Facial Fractures
After summarizing the Plaintiff’s long list of injuries, the next exhibit focuses attention on his most brutal damages throughout his face and skull. The primary image in the center captures the massive destruction throughout the Plaintiff’s skull, which included bilateral LeFort II facial fractures, left zygomaticomaxillary complex fractures, and mandibular and nasal fractures. The Plaintiff’s lacerated head is illustrated in the top-left, a Colorized CT scan is pictured in the bottom-left, and three colorized 3D volumated renders of his fractured skull are presented down the right side of the illustration.
Illustration showing complex facial fractures.
Demonstrating the Surgery
Once we had established the Plaintiff’s head injuries, the next exhibit shows the step-by-step surgical procedure he needed to undergo to have his fractures reduced.
The first image depicts the Plaintiff’s pre-op condition directly after his injury. Plates and screws were placed around his face and wires were placed around his jaw. The final post-op condition shows the massive amount of hardware the victim would have installed in his face throughout his ongoing recovery.
Illustration showing repair of complex facial fractures.
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High Impact’s team of visual strategists, artists, and developers can build and customize your digital presentation for any case involving personal injury, medical malpractice, birth trauma - or any subject involving complex information.
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