$800,000 Award for MS After Whiplash
A recent British legal judgment awarded a police officer $820,875 in damages after he developed multiple sclerosis (MS) after a car accident in which he sustained whiplash injuries. "Peter Behan, professor of neurology at the University of Glasgow, emphasized that such injuries would not cause multiple sclerosis by themselves but could bring on the condition in already susceptible individuals."
"In a written judgment Lord Dawson acknowledged that there is controversy within the medical profession about the role of trauma in multiple sclerosis. 'That controversy is not for me to settle. I am satisfied that Mr. Dingley did sustain a whiplash injury...[and] that the symptoms he later displayed indicated that multiple sclerosis had developed in the very area which had been affected by the trauma. I also accepted that the historical, anecdotal and experimental evidence supported the proposition that trauma can be a causative factor in some cases and in some circumstances.
" 'More compelling, however, was the evidence of the medical witnesses for Mr. Dingley who had all themselves seen cases where they had accepted that the onset or recurrence of symptoms had been brought about by trauma, especially whiplash injury. In my opinion, these circumstances are far too strong to be put down to mere chance.' "
Christie B. Multiple sclerosis linked to trauma in court case. BMJ 1996;313(7067):1228.