Case type: Medical malpractice — pediatric encephalitis resulting from delayed diagnosis and treatment
Production type: Day in the Life Video + Life After Loss® Settlement Documentary
Jurisdiction: State court, Midwest
The child was seven years old at the time of the malpractice. She had been a healthy, developmentally normal girl — social, verbal, doing well in school — when a physician’s failure to recognize and treat early symptoms of encephalitis resulted in prolonged brain inflammation and permanent neurological damage. By the time her family retained counsel and contacted Colton Legal Media, she was nine. She was recognizable as herself in some moments. In others, she was not.
Productions involving children who have experienced neurological injury require exceptional care. The camera cannot be a clinical instrument. It cannot feel intrusive or institutional. Andrew Colton spent time with the family before filming began — not to plan shots, but to understand who this child was before, and to earn enough trust that she could simply be herself on the day of production. Her parents described what the morning of the incident looked like. Her teachers provided statements. Her younger brother, who had grown up watching his sister struggle through the years that should have been uncomplicated childhood, sat in front of the camera and told the truth about what their family’s life had become.
The combined Day in the Life and settlement documentary was presented at mediation. The neurological defense — which had centered on arguments about plateau and adaptation — collapsed in the room. The case resolved that day.
What this production type is designed to do: Restore personhood to a child who has been reduced to imaging studies and developmental assessments. Defense medicine is very good at describing what a brain injury is not. A properly produced Day in the Life video is very good at showing what it is — in a kitchen, on a school morning, in the space between who a child was and who she is now.
To discuss a case confidentially, call 877-484-4611 or contact Andrew Colton here. Sample productions are available upon request to retained counsel.