Key Takeaway
Court ruling shows how medical testimony linking trauma to accelerated disc degeneration can overcome preexisting condition defenses in personal injury cases.
How Trauma Can Accelerate Disc Degeneration: A Key Legal Victory
In personal injury cases involving spinal injuries, defendants often argue that a plaintiff’s symptoms stem from preexisting degenerative conditions rather than the accident. This defense strategy can be particularly challenging when medical records reveal evidence of prior degenerative changes. However, a recent New York court decision demonstrates how proper medical testimony about trauma’s effect on disc degeneration can successfully counter these arguments.
The case of Giap v Hathi Son Pham illustrates a crucial principle: even when preexisting conditions exist, medical experts can establish causation by explaining how trauma accelerates the natural degenerative process. This distinction between pre-accident asymptomatic degeneration and post-accident symptomatic deterioration often determines the outcome of personal injury cases.
Understanding how courts evaluate causation in cases with preexisting conditions is essential, as a plaintiff’s own hospital records can sometimes work against their case if not properly addressed through expert testimony.
Jason Tenenbaum’s Analysis:
Giap v Hathi Son Pham, 2018 NY Slip Op 01568 (1st Dept. 2017)
Since plaintiff’s own medical records showed evidence of preexisting degenerative conditions, she was required to address those findings and explain why her current reported symptoms were not related to the preexisting conditions (see Lee v Lippman, 136 AD3d 411 ; Alvarez v NYLL Mgt. Ltd., 120 AD3d 1043, 1044 , affd 24 NY3d 1191 ). To the extent plaintiff’s physicians asserted that plaintiff Pham had degenerative joint disease which was common for her age, that she was previously asymptomatic, that the accident aggravated her underlying degenerative joint disease, and that trauma “increases the rate of disc desiccation,” rendering her now symptomatic, this was sufficient to raise an issue of fact as to causation (see McIntosh v Sisters Servants of Mary, 105 AD3d 672, 673 ).
Key Takeaway
When facing preexisting degenerative conditions, plaintiffs must provide medical testimony explaining the causal connection between the accident and current symptoms. Expert testimony that trauma accelerates disc degeneration and transforms asymptomatic conditions into symptomatic ones can successfully establish causation, even when defendants highlight pre-accident degenerative changes in medical records.
