Hi, I am new to this forum though not new in Taiwan. I’m looking for some helpful information, I’m a foreigner and I had an accident some time ago. It was in January, I was in the passenger seat of a scooter (my friend was driving). We were traveling along a pretty empty road at the time, moderate speed and then pretty much out of nowhere a taxi took a left turn from the opposite lane and we T-Boned him. It was pretty bad the scooter got totaled, the Taxi’s door got smashed in, my friend’s face got cut up and I got some injuries I am not sure if I was knocked out or in a daze but I couldn’t move when I was down on the street. Other people called the police, it was an experience I don’t want to relive. We were rushed to the hospital and got treated but only for our scrapes and bruises. I was told that my injuries would heal soon but after about a month my knee would not stop being swollen and painful to move. I went to the doctor/clinic repeatedly to find the answer until they eventually ran some tests and found that my ACL/PCL had been partially torn. Soon after that I started losing feeling in my left foot, I couldn’t twist, turn, or stand on it. Up to this point all I had received were pain killers, and assurances that everything would just fix itself. Well as my foot got worse, I searched for more help and information but it was difficult to find. The first hospital I went wanted to schedule MRI’s 3 months so I had to switch to get it done more quickly. Eventually they found I had neuropathy in my foot (so they think) so in order to give a diagnosis, a proper one. This is where the fun begins, I was recommended an EMG test to check for nerve response. I agreed to do it and a month later I am in the bed getting the test done and it is the most painful thing I have done. I screamed like a little girl that day, with an electrified needle a few inches (it felt like) in my back, thigh and leg. I shook from the current passing through my body, my skin felt like it was burning off. After the test they gave me a paper and told me to wait for the results. On my way out of the hospital before I left the door, I started to shake again, just like the EMG test but I wasn’t hooked up to anything, I shook and shook that eventually descended in to an uncontrollable seizure. I was rushed to the emergency room and put through tests and “nothing” was found. Apparently (they said), I was simply too scared or nervous or perhaps depressed at the time so that’s why I had a seizure (After the test???). Though after I went home I found that I would shake involuntarily from my back but from specifically one place, the place I got pierced with the needle from the EMG. The shaking would be sometimes incredibly intense sometimes I couldn’t breathe. It could be triggered from a variety of ways like touching the injection site or simply walking. A month more of this, the hospital denied any and all fault, I still shook. Eventually it stopped but in its place was a strong pain in my back; a herniated disk.
They haven’t even given me treatment for my foot, though it eventually came back to about 50% of what it was, my knee is still healing from the tear and back is in pain every day.
I couldn’t take the stress of chasing doctors, I had to force myself to work because I had no money and had to pay for school. So I stopped taking treatment up until now just sporadically doing rehab when I can. To top it off the guy that hit us, is currently not answering calls and is avoiding meeting us. My friend who is Taiwanese has apparently already settled their side of the damages but has said I am a separate case and will be compensated fully. I feel uneasy about this because they all say just leave it to their insurance company, but life is never so simple.
What can I do? How do I get better? How will I get compensated for 5 months of my life so far going to 0?
Lawyer. If you listen to the idiots you call friends avout.legal.matters you are essentially saying fuck it. The judges in the future will also have that opinion about you.
Its too late, but should be said and taken into account. When you have an accident you always claim pain from the beginning. doesnt mean go.screw someone for.money but it does mean you have more on the official first record and this will always be looked back.upon when anyone reviews the case. Be it .police, laywers, judges, jnsurance companies etc.
For now, sounds like some seri out nerve problems. The health care system here is cheap but isnt always great quality. If you care about walking when youre old seriously start getting other opinions. You might not like this, but the pay doctors generally are better. Its a shit situation but holding out for.someone else.to.foot the bill isnt worth your long term.mokbility. I know from personal.experience.
You have 2 jobs.
Get proper help even if.you have to pay out of.pocket. Walking is a seriously underrated luxury.
Get actual proof (not verbal bullshit) and a lawyer. Taxi companies tend to be well connected, you likely wont.ever win more than a.tiny settlement on your own.
Alright I will do go ahead and pay what I can to get my leg better. I got the 3 months no work paper but I don’t know how that helps me. Is it that during those 3 months I can’t work at all? I was on the verge of getting fired as well so I had to go back after a month.
The only proof I have is from the doctor for my torn ligament, not much about the back nor the foot and not much medical expenses cause I had/have to avoid a bit of it for expenses. I don’t know what to expect if and when I finally see the Taxi guy and he has been avoiding us so far, is there something I can do about that? Damn this stressful.
Get a lawyer immediately. Start documenting everything, everything, to the greatest extent possible. Conversations with the driver. Conversations with your friend. Conversations with police. Conversations with doctors. Get all police records and hospital records and make sure you document what happened at each touch with the medical system. Preserve everything, even if it’s just a journal entry you make to yourself.
If a hospital record or police record doesn’t accurately reflect what you think happened, tell them and ask them to document your objections.
I agree with @Explant . Get the best medical treatment you can afford. This sounds serious. While getting this treatment, document everything. Make sure in all conversations with the doctors or hospital staff you explain very clearly that your conditions started with the accident (or the test, as the case may be). Make sure they document that. Then get all those records.
This sounds like a horrible situation, but don’t compound it. Get the lawyer. Get the medical help. And document everything, even if it’s just a journal entry to yourself.
Another thing that surprised me in the Taiwanese system is the ability to do multiple consults right away. In the US I’m used to a serious of escalating consultation that are fairly thorough (local doc–> tests --> specialist --> more tests). In Taiwan you could probably go take your test results and show them to doctors at three hospitals next week and they might each give you a different opinion. Best wishes on it!
Well that’s just the thing my friend told me since they were driving and I was a passenger then I am covered under their insurance and therefore I don’t need to document anything. All I need to do is collect receipts and then make a claim. I always felt that strange because who would so easily pay my claim if I said it was a really high number, but they insisted that this is the Taiwanese system.
I have school insurance but I believe it is after everything is done and then it is some percentage of only medical bills and it is paid 3 months or so later. I am trying to be healthy but I run out of money to pay sometimes.
I just don’t want to be ill-treated, I had a situation here before where I broke my foot because a car hit me from behind and the guy ghosted me and I had no idea what to do, the police just shrugged and said they didn’t know anything, so I am looking for information this time around.
Does anyone know why the doctors didn’t help me with information about the shaking? After the EMG test they all just said the needle couldn’t cause me harm but no answer why I had a seizure, why my back shook and why it is still painful now.
If your friend has insurance, he/her insurance company has responsibility to help you. Caz you are passenger, your friend has responsibility on law.
What you can do now, you need to collect all documents you have, and keep going to hospital til your leg is alright.
During this time, I suggested you go to sue the taxi driver within 6 months, to prevent if the taxi driver eventually doesn’t want to pay you money then you can use law to get money from him.
My injury was not caused by other people so no lawyer. I was talking more about tleaving.the injury too long and having permanent problems which I now have with my spine and nerves. The 40,000 or so out of pocket then to hopefully get all fixed at the time I greatly wish I spent cause im losing.probably half that monthly due to my inability to do certain things anymore.
Mkney is one thing. lawyer up if you want it back.
Yiur body is another . Nerve damage cares little about your bank account.
in my opinion, if there is ever going to be a good reason to blow your lifes savings, the ability to walk in the future is a damn good one!
Update: about to go to settlement hearing. Some improvements from my injuries. Though my foot injury seems more permanent than not does one have any advice as to what I do in the the hearing?