The eye is an extremely fragile organ that requires optimum health to function properly. Many people believe that of our five senses, sight is the most significant. A person’s freedom and sense of self can be taken away by a loss of eyesight – whether it is partial blindness or total blindness – making formerly simple things incredibly difficult.
What is Blindness?
Blindness is a condition whereby a person cannot see with their eyes. The term “blindness” refers to a wide range of visual impairments, ranging from total blindness to vision loss severe enough to make it difficult to do daily tasks like reading, working, or operating a vehicle.
Blindness can be temporary or permanent. However, it could also be complete or partial. While complete blindness means you are completely unable to see anything, partial blindness, on the other hand, refers to having very restricted eyesight.
Whichever way it is, it is a condition that is a life-altering devastating permanent injury that could significantly lower their quality of life. This is one reason why legal animation is needed to properly portray the causes of blindness to enable one to get suitable compensation from the other party.
According to an article by MedicineNet, it was reported that “worldwide, between 300 million-400 million people are visually impaired due to various causes. Of this group, approximately 50 million people are blind. Approximately 80% of blindness occurs in people over 50 years of age.”
What can cause blindness?
Several factors can cause blindness, ranging from glaucoma and infection of the cornea to traumatic injuries. We will now explore some causes of blindness and how legal animation can help you get adequate compensation.
1. Medical Negligence
Blindness could be a result of an eye procedure gone wrong or medical issues resulting from surgery or treatment on a patient’s body in a completely different section of the body.
For example, in Larrabee v. U.S, the court awarded $100,000 to the plaintiff as damages for the blindness of one eye alleged to have been caused by injuries negligently inflicted at birth.
Moreover, in Owen v. United States, the court granted a 42-year-old man who had been rendered partially blind in one eye by the negligence of a Navy doctor $60,000 in general damages.
If you have suffered a decrease in your vision due to the negligence of your treating physician, you should seek compensation in court, and your attorney should opt to use a demonstrative aid like animation.
2. Accident
According to Montlick, it was reported that there is an annual auto accident occurrence of more than 5.5 million in the United States; you can imagine the number of injuries that result from all these accidents. The victims are usually left with injuries ranging from minor bruises to serious injuries and traumatic injuries such as loss of eyesight.
According to the National Federation of the Blind, approximately 50,000 Americans lose their vision each year, with accidents and injuries accounting for 50% of those cases. The eyesight is usually damaged when there is blunt trauma to the face which injures delicate optic nerves.
3. Eye Trauma
It describes an injury to the eye or the vicinity of the eye brought on by a strong blow, a wound, or a physical assault with a dull instrument. Ocular injuries cause damage to the eye as a result of the eyeball’s rapid compression and indentation at the time of contact. Injury with a blunt edge has the potential to cause permanent blindness.
According to an article by Vision Center, it was reported that “young men are more likely to develop blunt eye trauma. 95% of ocular trauma injuries occur in men under 30 years of age, often caused by interpersonal violence.”
4. Drugs
Numerous substances or chemicals in drugs are responsible for unwanted physiological alterations in our bodies. Some of these might have an impact on major organs of the body, such as the eyes.
Toxic medicines can cause changes in the eye that varies from mild/no symptoms like dryness to severe vision loss and endophthalmitis, which can cause irreversible blindness. This is one reason why blindness should not be taken with levity.
In Yarrow v. Sterling Drug, INC, the plaintiff brought a case against the defendant, a drug manufacturer, for permanent injuries caused by side effects of the drug chloroquine phosphate. The court awarded her damages for the injuries.
Conclusion
Legal animations are significant support in effectively establishing a case at trial. Eyesight loss cases should never be taken with levity, as they change a person’s entire lifestyle. In illustrating the causes of blindness with the use of legal animation, a demonstrative exhibit would be employed to show the devastating impacts of blindness. By doing this, the lawsuit would be won with ease, with adequate compensation being awarded to you.
