Groth Gets it! by Groth Law Accident Injury Attorneys – Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Why should you get a MRI after a car crash?

 

In this episode of Groth Gets it! from Groth Law Accident Injury Attorneys, Jon talks with attorney Mitch and our law clerk Giancarlo about MRIs. They speak about why one should get an MRI and how it can help a car accident victim after a car crash. 

Transcript:

Jon Groth:

Magnetic resonance imaging. So I just googled it, magnetic resonance imaging. This is going to be a fascinating beginning of this podcast here. Resonance means when the frequency of an externally applied periodic force on a body is equal to the natural frequency of the body, the body readily begins to vibrate or free to vibrate with an increased amplitude. The phenomenon is known as resonance. I have no clue what that means. All I know is that MRIs help us understand what’s going on inside of our body and that doctors usually prescribe them when somebody’s having radiculopathy or numbness, the pins-and-needles feeling in their arms or legs, and if you have a brain injury and there might be some burst blood vessels and they need to figure out where they are, you can have, I’ll call it HD MRI, or an MRI that’s going to show what might have been damaged because of some kind of trauma. So, that’s how we know MRIs.

Jon Groth:

The question today is, should you get a MRI? How can a MRI help a car accident victim after a car crash? That’s really the question. So that’s why we’re delving into MRIs today. So magnetic resonance imaging.

Jon Groth:

Mitch, how many times, and sorry we have our special guests here, Giancarlo and Mitch. Mitch is to my left. Giancarlo is to my right. Mitch, how many times a week, I’ll say, do you think you look at MRI? Well, just the word MRI or the letters MRI, and then an MRI image or MRI report?

Mitch:

Five to 10 times a week.

Jon Groth:

So it’s pretty common.

Mitch:

Very.

Jon Groth:

So it’s something that doctors prescribe. After what kind of crash would a doctor more often prescribe MRI?

Mitch:

Definitely more serious crashes with broken bones or when the injuries are more severe, or if somebody goes to the doctor after maybe a not-so-severe crash and they have, like you said, radiculopathy or something that maybe they don’t know what’s wrong with them right away. They might need that further imaging, an MRI.

Jon Groth:

And that’s something that I think is a bigger deal now. When you’re looking at this and trying to figure out what’s going on with the benefit of experience, I’ve had trials, I’ve had cases where the defense attorneys use the lack of an MRI or the delay in getting an MRI against the client, against the victim to say, “Well, if your injury was that bad, you would’ve gotten an MRI,” number one, or, “Well, your MRI took place six months after the crash. If only we would’ve had an MRI a month after the crash, we could maybe associate that injury found in the MRI to the crash because with additional time, then additional excuses get in play.”

Jon Groth:

That’s something that I see defense counsel or insurance adjusters using MRIs against us, because people wait to get MRIs. And that’s what’s frustrating where you have cases where health insurance doesn’t want to pay for the MRI because they want to have other things that are less costly. So, “Let’s go through a session of physical therapy before the MRI,” as opposed to, “Well, let’s get the MRI first and then figure out, is it physical therapy that’s necessary or is there something more serious that’s going on.” So you see that you’re fighting against health insurance on one hand and then fighting against the at-fault car insurance on the other hand. Giancarlo, what kind of device do they use for an MRI? What’s the experience of somebody going into a MRI machine?

Giancarlo:

So I’ve had an MRI twice, and my experience was that they bring you into this room where you’re the only one in there. It’s like a big tube and it looks like putting a pan in the oven. You lay down on the bed and they just slide you into the machine, give you some headphones. Then they tell you, this is going to take 30 and 45 minutes, depending on how many images they need and then you just do your best to think of something else. Some people, it might be a little tougher. They ask you if you’re claustrophobic because you are in a tight space and then that’s it. You just have to wait it out.

Jon Groth:

And then you hear a bunch of noises, right? There’s clicking and that kind of stuff that goes on?

Giancarlo:

You do and that’s why they give you headphones, they ask you what music you like. And then they turn it up as much as they can or whatever you’re comfortable with to distract you. Just because the noises are unsettling for some people.

Jon Groth:

Did you get to see the imaging afterwards?

Giancarlo:

I was given a CD. I didn’t really look at it. I remember I looked at the first one a long time ago and didn’t really understand anything I was looking at. So the second time I didn’t even look. I just had them tell me what they were seeing.

Jon Groth:

What’s going on. And I think that’s an important point is getting that CD. If you do get that CD and you have an attorney like our firm, you should make sure that that CD gets to your paralegal, to your case manager, to your attorneys so we can make sure that gets in the medical records. Many times it’ll come from the doctor to you faster than it’ll come from the doctor, to the medical record provider, to us. So the sooner you can get that, the better and certainly give it to us. You can share information so we can have that and make it part of the claim.

Jon Groth:

I think MRIs are helpful after a crash because they show the hard proof of the injury. You’re going to see in black and white on that piece of paper, the diagnostic imaging report, is that what it’s called? It’s like the imaging report.

Giancarlo:

Yeah.

Jon Groth:

And it’s going to show the picture of what’s going on. Then it’s helpful for us to prove the case, to tell the insurance company what’s going on in that person’s body, how the injury has affected their life. And it’s going to help the doctors because then the doctors can get some kind of plan.

Jon Groth:

I think this is something you see pretty often, Mitch, that if you have some nerve damage because of a crash, there is and I’m thinking of what kind of procedure might be performed after that kind of damage that’s found after you get MRI after a crash.

Mitch:

Would be a EKG?

Jon Groth:

Well, you can get more diagnostic, yeah. But like ablations.

Mitch:

Oh sure.

Jon Groth:

So what’s a nerve ablation?

Mitch:

My understanding, and again, I’m not a doctor, so I’m going to be very off, I’m sure. But it’s just burning of the nerves.

Jon Groth:

Exactly.

Mitch:

And then they grow back so you can get multiple, obviously you can’t get them back-to-back, you have to give them some time in between ablations, but it’s essentially just burning of the nerves.

Jon Groth:

And there’s a case that I’m thinking about that we have now where the doctor is saying, this particular client needs to go back, I think it’s yearly, to get the nerves burned. So they don’t have that continued pain. And that treatment plan was in part put in place after the client had an MRI. So again, that’s another reason why you should have the MRI, because doctors can then figure out what exactly should go on or who they should maybe refer the client to or the victim for additional care. So should they go to a pain management and rehab doctor, a physiatrist, is it a orthopedic surgeon or somebody else or physical therapy or whatever, so that’s important.

Mitch:

And just to add to that, just like with MRIs, health insurance is fighting against you. Same thing with ablations. You have to get a certain procedure many times before you can get another ablation ordered. So it’s a lengthier process again, because health insurance is fighting against you.

Jon Groth:

Which is frustrating because you have then, your own insurance is fighting you because that’s how health insurance makes money, is they don’t pay out claims. And that’s what’s so frustrating about health insurance. All right. Images, pictures speak a thousand words. Is that the same? Pictures? A picture is worth a thousand words is, I think a better saying, so that makes sense. Why MRIs are better? Because you can see it, it’s right there, you can explain it. The treatment plans, the bills should get paid by the at-fault and that’s why you hire law firms like us. So we can help you understand where those bills are going to get paid. You submit them to your health insurance or you submit them through Medpay or there is a doctor’s [inaudible 00:08:57]. Those are all different podcasts we could do and talk about those things, so that’s important.

Mitch:

And I think just to add to that, a common misconception with a lot of clients is that the at-fault party is going to pay the bills as they come in. That’s not the case. Your health insurance should pay them. That’s the best case scenario in Wisconsin. And if they don’t, then have your own auto insurance medical payments cover them in the meantime, before you get a potential settlement or judgment down the line from the at-fault party.

Jon Groth:

Yeah. A hundred percent. It’s a matter of who are we fighting against and how are we navigating the whole process. Interesting. All right. So if a doctor says, “Get at MRI,” the answer is?

Mitch:

Get an MRI.

Jon Groth:

Get an MRI. I think it’s going to help us. It’s going to help you as the victim in a car crash to get an MRI. Giancarlo, what do you think? You agree?

Giancarlo:

Yes. And I think it also helps reveal things that you may not know at the moment. With my MRIs, there was the MRI itself didn’t say, “Hey, you have this,” but it gave the doctors a direction of where my problem lied. And I’ve gone to six, seven doctors over the last 10 years for the same issue and it’s always, “It could be this, this, this or this.” But then once you get the MRI, they say, “Hey, you have a compressed disc here so this is what we’re thinking.” And then you can figure out what your next course of action is. For me it was, I had to get cortisone injections in my neck and for a lot of people that do that, that’s a lifelong thing. They only last six weeks to six months so that’s something that you have to do for the rest of your life.

Giancarlo:

I went to an orthopedic surgeon and he said, “At your age, there is no way I recommend you having neck surgery. So the best course of action for you is, you’re going to have to deal with this, get the cortisone injections and then just manage it the best you can because it affects your daily life.” So this is a lifelong thing until something changes. If I start dropping things and I can’t hold things with my arm, then that’ll change and I’ll have to look at other options. But for now, it’s a lifelong, every six months go and get those injections.

Jon Groth:

Well, and that goes back to, I think what you’re describing as a differential diagnosis where the doctors are trying to figure out what the treatment plan is. We have to rule out this, rule out that, and then we’re going to say, “Hey, cortisone, because we don’t want to do,” like you said, “the surgery.” Interesting.

Jon Groth:

All right, good stuff. Thank you very much. This is informative. Hopefully this is helpful for others to understand what they should consider after a car crash and what the options are, what to do. Hopefully put a little good karma out in the universe to help people understand and be a little bit less stressed after a car crash.

Jon Groth:

Thank you. Talk to you guys soon. Thanks.

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