BEREAVEMENT

From a global perspective, about 2 million households annually experience devastating loss and injury from natural disasters ¹. 

In the aftermath of death and severe injury, the secondary victims may be ill-equipped to articulate their own losses. 

Frequently, those who are bereaved or deprived of the meaningful relationship with a loved one do not seek professional care for themselves, and their injuries may go undiagnosed. 

In one study, those who had not experienced a disaster but were bereaved by it had more severe symptoms that those who had survived ². 

The claimant lawyer who understands the likely or possible consequences of bereavement will be better placed to advocate for the surviving family members. 

Death of a child

Parents of children who suffered a violent death generally took 3-4 years to adjust and return to relatively normal functioning³. 

The cause of the child’s violent death - accident, suicide or homicide - did not appear to influence the timing or magnitude of that readjustment. 

However, another study found that parents of a murdered child were twice as likely to suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as parents bereaved by suicide or accident⁴. 

A characteristic feature of homicide bereavement is experience of recurrent “intense and terrifying...re-enactment” of the violence⁵.

35% of the parents and 45% of the siblings of a child who had died of trauma or murder suffered pathological grief ⁶ (grief that is abnormally prolonged, severe or disabling).

Personal Injury lawyers should be aware that the terms pathological grief⁷, traumatic grief⁸ and complicated bereavement or grief⁹ are not adequately distinguished¹⁰ from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

Nor are these terms sufficiently clearly defined for general use. 

Death of a parent

The child who both experiences the disaster directly and loses a parent is more likely to progress to pathological grief or complicated bereavement¹¹. 

Up to a quarter of children will subsequently develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder¹².

As well as symptoms commonly seen in adults, children may express their distress as behaviour problems,  school difficulties, clinging, bed- wetting, and anger displays^{13 [FULL TEXT]}.

Small children may also develop phobias and fears of being alone.

Children, like adults, are prone to develop various bodily symptoms^{13 [FULL TEXT]}.

Beyond the medium-term response to childhood loss of a parent or sibling, there is evidence¹⁴ that life-long vulnerability may follow. 

Evidence of secondary injury

In reviewing clinical records, counsel should be aware that such pathological grieving is common and often goes undiagnosed. 

Particularly around the anniversaries of bereavement, survivors may consult for a variety of complaints:  organic or bizarre symptoms, over-activity without a sense of loss, panic attacks, apathy, taking on symptoms of the deceased, or triggering of relapses of organic disease, such as ulcerative colitis¹⁵.

Psychiatric Independent Medical Examiners should be asked explicitly to consider whether secondary victims fulfil Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for a wide range of potential psychological injury:

“Thin Skull”

PI lawyers can identify those clients who are more prone to develop pathological grieving responses to traumatic loss of a loved one¹⁶: