The minor claimant sought a determination that he suffered a catastrophic impairment as a result of the accident due to traumatic brain injury under the post-2016 definitions. Section 3.1(1)5.i. of the SABS required that a person under 18 years of age be accepted for admission on an in-patient basis to a public hospital with positive findings on a computerized axial tomography scan, MRI, or other medically recognized brain diagnostic technology, indicating intracranial pathology resulting from the accident. The insurer denied that the claimant met the test because the hospital admission was due to a fractured femur rather than brain injury, and the imaging showing intracranial pathology a few months after the claimant was discharged from hospital. Adjudicator Gosio accepted the insurer’s position, holding that the definition required a temporal connection between the imaging and the person being in-patient at the hospital. He reasoned that the changes to the catastrophic impairment definitions were made to make the process more accurate, consistent, and objective, and speed up determinations and reduce dispute costs.
