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Contributory negligence
Broadly, carelessness on the plaintiff's part. More precisely, conduct which falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of one's self against unreasonable risk of harm.
Punitive damages
Also called exemplary damages, which are designed to punish a defendant whose behavior in causing the plaintiff's injuries was especially egregious.
Vicarious Liability
When a person who did not actually cause an injury is held for the injury. Sometimes called imputed liability.
Ambulatory Surgery
Ambulatory surgery refers to previously scheduled surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed on an outpatient basis in a hospital or freestanding ambulatory surgery center's general or main operating rooms
Burden of proof
A party's job of convincing the decisionmaker in a trial that the party's version of the facts is true. In a civil trial, it means that the plaintiff must convince the judge or jury "by a preponderance of the evidence" that the plaintiff's version is true -- that is, over 50% of the believable evidence is in the plaintiff's favor.
Eggshell skull
A hypothetical medical condition used to illustrate the idea that if you are at fault when you injure someone, you are responsible for all the consequences, whether you could have foreseen them or not.
Falls and Hip Fractures
Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths (Murphy 2000) and the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma
Quadriplegia
Complete paralysis of the body from the neck down, usually caused by damage to the spinal cord.
Trauma
Any injury, whether physically or emotionally inflicted. "Trauma" has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, "trauma" refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound, or shock.
Whiplash injury
Hyperextension (over-extension) injury to the neck, often the result of being struck from behind, as by a fast-moving vehicle in a car accident.
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