Home > Research Legal Advice > Criminal Defense > I got a concussion before i went to jail one night, and went to the hosp...
Asked 4 months ago - Genoa City, WI
Flagi got a concussion and the cops took me to the hospital before they took me to jail and the staff at intake where i stayed overnight did not wake me up every 2 hours making it very possible i could have slipped into a coma on their watch. they even had the paperwork from the hospital and did nothing. could they be held liable and if so is it worth pursueing?
Unless you suffered some adverse medical consequence, you don't have any damages, so even if a theory of liability, like failure to provide proper medical care, could be developed, there is nothing to recover, making it unlikely that the situation would justify the time and expense associated with a lawsuit.
I am not a doctor, but I believe that the procedure of waking up a person suspected of having a concussion every 2 hours (or more frequently) is no longer used. Sleep and rest are important for anyone with a concussion (so long as the person doesn't sleep far more than they normally sleep). See the following information: http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/traumatic-brain-i...
If you did not slip into a coma or suffer any other injury from the intake staff failing to provide a reasonable amount of appropriate medical care, then you don't have a potentially successful lawsuit.
You should probably focus more of your efforts toward the reason(s) you were taken to jail in the first place. I suggest starting with contacting the State Public Defender's Office to see if you qualify for an SPD-appointed attorney.
If AODA issues and/or anger management issues were a contributing factor in your concussion, you may want to consider getting some appropriate treatment. Seeking out such treatment and starting a treatment program before it is ordered by the Court can go a long way toward convincing the prosecutor and/or judge to go lightly on you with any potential punishment for criminal wrongdoing. When your focus is on correcting what YOU may have done wrong instead of those things that others may have done wrong, you are demonstrating that it will take less punishment to get you back on track towards responsible citizenship.
Don't speak legalese? We define thousands of terms in plain English.
Browse our legal dictionary
