Using a Life Care Planner Following a Severe Injury Accident

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Every year in Texas and across the United States, men, women, and children find themselves the victims of catastrophic accidents. Sadly,victims end up with incapacitating injuries. These permanent injuries come in many different forms and prove life-altering.

There are several critical resources for a person with an injury from an incapacitating incident. These include an array of different types of medical professionals. Resources also include attorneys.

Victims of debilitating accidents like big rig truck wrecks are usually unaware of life care planners. A life care planner can be invaluable in the aftermath of an accident resulting in permanent disability.

What is a Life Care Plan?

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Before fully understanding the role a life care planner can play in the life of a person incapacitated because of a truck accident, a life care plan itself must be understood. A life care plan is called a dynamic document or a document that evolves.

The plan aims to provide an organized, concise, comprehensive plan to address the current and future needs of a person who experienced a catastrophic injury through something like a truck accident.

A variety of factors is considered when preparing a life care plan. These include the goals and needs of the patient and the family. The resources available in a particular geographic region are considered.

In developing a life care plan, a thorough review of medical records, the medical treatment plan set for a patient, with substantial input from treating physicians, as well as any relevant research about the type of incapacitation afflicting the person for whom the document is created.

Who is a Life Care Planner?

A life care planner is to maintain a level of objectivity when it comes to making recommendations for a person catastrophically injured in an accident. These recommendations are based on the various sources of information and data drawn to create the life care plan. In the grand scheme, a life care planner serves as an educator instead of an advocate.

The recommendations include establishing attainable rehabilitation and other goals for an incapacitated person.

Charged with being an educator, a life care planner must effectively communicate the nature of an incapacitated person’s limitations and how the disability can best be addressed to optimize the potentially positive elements in that individual’s life.

Why is a Life Care Planner Needed?

The best accident attorneys use a life care planner to calculate the future cost of medical care for the victim.A personal injury attorney at Baumgartner Law Firm in Houston says lifecare planners are essential to lay out future medical expenses in catastrophic injury cases.

Planners also provide invaluable testimony regarding medical needs in the future. Lifecare planners are an essential element of a successful personal injury case in many instances.

How a Life Care Planner is Used in a Personal Injury Case

Typically, a life care planner will be retained by the plaintiff’s attorney to develop the plan to show the need and costs of future medical care in a personal injury case. The attorney will hire the life care planner to create and present to a jury the future medical needs of the injured person.

The professional life care planner we’ll meet with the victim and most of the treating physicians to document the medical opinions of the treating doctors regarding the needs of going forward for the victim. Then the life care planner will calculate the costs of the medical care needed to treat the injuries and be prepared to testify in a personal injury trial regarding future damages.