Keith Mitnik, left, and Dan Shapiro deliver opening statements at trial over a car crash that a woman says left her daughter with a traumatic brain injury. Watch the trial.
Jacksonville, FL—Attorneys debated whether a 2019 car crash left a child with a traumatic brain injury, as trial opened in the case Wednesday. DeGuzman, et al. v. Dixon, 2020-CA-002661.
The child, who was six at the time, was a passenger in a car traveling down a Jacksonville street when it was struck by a vehicle driven by Tyrinda Dixon. The child’s mother, Rachel DeGuzman, claims her daughter suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI, in the collision, and that the injury has left her with a range of neurologic and other issues.
Dixon has admitted fault for the crash, but has challenged whether the child suffered a traumatic brain injury. As trial opened, attorneys from both sides highlighted conflicting evidence on the issue.
During his opening Wednesday, the DeGuzman family’s attorney, Keith Mitnik, of Morgan & Morgan, said imaging of the child’s brain supported a TBI finding. And he noted that the child has suffered from recurrent headaches, double vision, balance issues, changes in awareness, and other problems that medical experts would testify are consistent with an injury to the brain.
Mitnik told jurors it was likely that these issues would continue throughout the child’s life. “This didn’t go away. It didn’t go rosy,” Mitnik said. “And at this point in time, she’s so far out, the likelihood of it suddenly going rosy is very low.”
But in his opening statement, Dixon’s attorney, Dan Shapiro, of Cole Scott Kissane, pushed back on any TBI diagnosis. Shapiro told jurors there was no evidence of a TBI when the child was examined in an emergency room shortly after the accident. He also noted specific medical records, from well-child exams and other medical visits in the years following the crash, where the child’s mother reported no complaints consistent with a brain injury.
Meanwhile, he said, evidence would show symptoms such as recurring headaches and behavioral changes were explained by other causes, such as nearsightedness and environmental stressors.
“You’re going to see lots of medical records, lots of therapy records,” Shapiro said. “And they’re all going to point to the same conclusion at the end of the day: that this was not a case about her having a brain injury.”
Trial is expected to run into next week.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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