Seven years after a woman underwent surgery to address a spinal injury from a vehicle collision, two metal screws being used to reinforce rods in her back broke. All the hardware would need to be removed, replaced, and expanded - but her insurance company refused to pay for a new surgery. Attorney Michael J. Delay, needed to show why the insurance company should finance a new surgery by illustrating the progression of damages, and the surgery that the woman would need to fully recover.
The first Color Diagnostic highlights three radiographic snapshots in time: the initial injury from 2008; the completed hardware after surgery in 2011; and the defective screws highlighted in red in 2014. Adding color and illustration to radiographic images adds familiar context and brutal realism to otherwise ambiguous black-and-white films.
The second exhibit illustrates the fixation procedure the woman needed to replace defective hardware, and expand it up to the L3 vertebrae. Surgery illustrations simplify and explain complex procedures, capture the totality of a patient's experience, and anchor the audience's understanding of the case with a strong visual they will remember.
The exhibits helped triple the value of Delay's undisclosed settlement, and afforded the plaintiff more than enough to pay for her new surgery.
