Have you ever been in an accident and didn't know who to turn to for help? Did you have to rely on the insurance company to make arrangements and settle up what was owed? If you answered yes, you know just how hard that can be.
It's very important to know what your rights are and to have somebody on your side, not the insurance company side, in the event of that happening.
In February of this year I received a call from my sister in law, your mom and stepdad have been in an accident and we don't know where they are. here they left about 15 minutes ago heading to your house. She was on the phone with my brother when the accident happened.
My brother and I both left their houses driving in the direction of each other we met up on the scene, she was about 7 minutes from my house. It was a horrible scene. I drove up the grassy side of the road around the traffic to get closer. When I got there I could see my brother running from his car from traffic the other way. I am so happy that we were both able to be there with them.
When we arrived on the scene the ambulance was pulling up, our mom was trapped and we didn't know how bad any of it actually was. She was in excruciating pain and couldn't move. There are fluids coming out of the car and we knew we had to get her out.
Immediately, we knew the car was totaled. There were pieces of it covering two lanes and median. They were traveling straight and a vehicle from oncoming traffic turned in front of them. They were all going about 55 miles per hour. The other driver said they didn't see them coming. The point of impact what's the front passenger side. That driver literally drove into the front of my mom's car.
When they got my mom to the hospital they were unsure of her injuries. She was banged up pretty bad but no major cuts we were also thankful she was in one piece. It's amazing how the human body can look while hiding injuries like whiplash. The did some scans and that's when we knew it was going to be a long road to recovery. Her injuries included shattered kneecap, broken arm in two places, fractured spine, and 9 broken ribs.
It was so scary. It's like what you hear from other people's stories, not something that you hear from your mom. There were so many times in the next 48 hours that we weren't sure what was going to happen. She was in critical condition and Chattanooga Erlanger hospital. It was there that we found out the other driver had no insurance and all of her injuries we're not going to be covered by anyone but herself.
When she was discharged she came home with me. There is no way she was going to be able to get up the stairs and into her own home. She was displaced for eight months was just going to therapy and trying to heal up. She just went home 2 weeks ago. I know this had to have been one of the scariest journeys in her life.
During the entire healing process, she wasn't sure how she was going to be able to make it. She had life-changing injuries and only her own insurance to cover it. We all worried so much was it going to be enough. To be honest that shouldn't have been on her mind at all. She should have had someone to advocate for her to help her know what to do and let her focus on healing.
We know now that we needed an attorney. She went through all of that alone with no one to back her up. Even her own insurance tried to come up with ways to deny and limit her claim. In my opinion, they shouldn't be allowed to do that.
If that ever happens again we know we need a personal injury attorney like Tampa personal injury attorney they can help make sure that she has taken care of the right way. After they settled with her, she barely had enough money to modify her home her new way of having to live. She had to learn how to walk, bathe, and function with a limited hand.
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