Viewer Warning: Graphic Content
Summary:
Courtroom Animation created medical legal graphics on behalf of the plaintiff in a medical malpractice case. The case centered on a doctor that delivered a misdiagnosis and, acting on that misdiagnosis, performed a surgery that was not necessary. This resulted in life-long medical conditions for the plaintiff.
This case was settled; in fact mediation discussions were settled in one day. The 3D animations helped the plaintiff attorneys, Michael Greico and Stephan Blandin at the Romanucci & Blandin law firm, land an $8 million dollar settlement.
Challenge:
The plaintiff’s counsel who retained us wanted to highlight the doctor’s perspective during the surgery – and how the doctor’s limited vision contributed to their client’s injury. Without this medical animation, it would be near impossible to fully contextualize for the jury what the doctor could see throughout the surgery. Since the surgery was already completed, and there were no videos or photos from the surgery, there was no other way to fully visualize this perspective.
The doctor used a finger test to incorrectly claim that his patient was suffering from rectal spurs. However, the imaging received from the patient showed that no spurs were present. In addition to this misdiagnosis, the doctor used a large tool to pull out pieces of rectal tissue despite having no visibility, as seen in the animation above. This procedure, based on a wrong diagnosis, was conducted improperly, causing life-long medical issues for the plaintiff.
“Courtroom Animation was instrumental in our ability to show the experimental nature of the procedure. Their ability to create the rendering of the animation helped the mediator understand our case and enabled our expert to walk the mediator through the procedure step by step to show the deviations from the standard of care.”
– Michael Grieco, Attorney at Romanucci & Blandin Law Firm
The attorney could have explained the damages inflicted due to the surgery and the doctor’s process throughout his procedure. But it’s hard for an attorney to say, “The doctor couldn’t see what he was doing,” without some form of visual cues for the jury. Additionally, internal anatomy is harder to visualize without a clear courtroom diagram.
Solution: An Accurate Medical Journey of the Client’s Story
In this case, to increase the lasting impact and explain the case’s complexity, the Courtroom Animation team helped focus the animation on the doctor’s viewpoint. These specific camera angles further supported the plaintiff’s position, backed by expert witnesses, that the doctor performed an unnecessary procedure that caused substantial harm.
The litigation graphics created by Courtroom Animation helped evaluate liability and demonstrate the severity of the plaintiff’s life-long injuries. This supported the plaintiff attorney’s argument of why the doctor shouldn’t have been doing this surgery and was therefore liable.
Most medical legal graphics focus on only the part of the body that relates to the specific case. They do not show massive amounts of blood, skin, or other emphasises of the injury. This way, the jury only focused on the data the attorney or expert witness was explaining.
We ensured that the animation was scientifically accurate, and therefore admissible, by having close coordination between our animation team, the plaintiff attorneys, and the medical expert witnesses.
The main animation combined data from medical reports and photos we received from the plaintiff. Backed with a solid foundation, these visuals helped portray the entirety of the plaintiff’s medical journey. The jury was able to process the complicated facts of the case and evaluate damages and their causal actions. Our team also delivered various 3D animated stills which were used in various litigation presentations during the entire case.
Results: Medical Legal Graphics Help Secure an $8M Settlement
The medical legal graphics provided by the Courtroom Animation team highlighted and supported the core arguments of the plaintiff attorney. The final settlement amount was $8 million.
Courtroom Animation’s team of visual strategists, designers and animators can support your digital presentation for any case involving personal injury, medical malpractice, birth trauma, and more.