Painful Scale

            Have you ever had to experience a deposition before? For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, a deposition is an oral testimony taken outside of court by the defendant, plaintiff or witness. Lawyers are present and both parties are allowed to question the opposing side. It’s nerve racking, intimidating and beyond frustrating.

            I’ll try to give you a little insight on a case that I am familiar with and the reason I am actually writing this for a blog post. Over three years ago someone I know was in an accident (nothing serious, just bumper hitting bumper). We’ll call the someone Jane for confidentiality reasons. The individual Jane was in an accident with, decided to sue her. The individual will be named Sam. I would classify this as a rather large hurdle. Unfortunately, Jane was at fault because she had the stop sign, but crazy 18 year-old her just didn’t see the individuals car and they went bump.

            Now, back to the present, Jane got to experience her first deposition this week. She met with her lawyer and walked into a rather friendly looking room with bright green cups filled with water for everyone to drink. Despite the cheerful cups, Jane was sweating profusely and I could actually see her heart beat through her sweater (honestly, her sweater was moving). Of course she forgot to put deodorant on to top her day off.

            As Jane faced the miserable looking individual from the accident, she almost choked on her gum. Jane took her seat and decided to just swallow the chunk already moving down her throat. Jane’s lawyer began asking the plaintiff, Sam, questions about the accident, injuries, doctors, etc.

           

            Jane’s lawyer had already concluded that Sam was in it for the money. As Sam described her “injuries”, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that was caused by the accident (or should I say bump), Jane just let her head fall into the palm of her hand as her elbow rested on the arm of the chair. Sam began describing her pain on a scale out of 10 as a five on some days, eight on other days and 10 on most days. Jane heard this pain description and immediately began thinking of the short story, “The Pain Scale” by Eula Biss.

            How can Sam truly describe her pain as a 5, 8, or 10? Has she ever broken a bone, been starved for days, fell from a five story building, been shot or stabbed, lost a leg to a bomb or had half her body burned? Jane sat staring at the individual from the accident in disbelief. Does Sam even know what pain is?

            This one time I watched a girl face plant after tripping over a hurdle in a track meet. As this poor girl fell down, her face broke her fall first. The girl stayed on the ground for a while, but I could hear her scream in pain. The left side of her face smeared with blood and small pieces of the track. I would call that severe pain, but I couldn’t give it a number.

            Is having half your face peeled off by a track more or less painful than Sam’s injuries? I wonder how that girl classified her pain. To make a long story short, thank you Eula Biss for helping Jane through the deposition and for confusing the rest of us about the pain scale.