A total of 26 people affected by the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia, which struck a rock off the island of Giglio (Italy) on January 13, 2012, are claiming compensation for the persistence of their sequelae, which have worsened over the years and become chronic.
The lawyer for the Association of Spanish Victims of the Costa Concordia 2012, Antonia Barba, has filed a brief requesting that they be paid the difference between the amounts paid at the time for sequelae and those now being claimed, given their subsequent appearance or worsening.
This association is made up of about fifty people from the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, the Valencian Community, and Madrid.
In his statement, which EFE has accessed, it is explained that said request is made after observing for 12 years the persistence and evolution of the sequelae and it is specified that, due to this, it fits into the category of consolidated and permanent sequelaeThe affected individuals, after 12 years of persistent symptoms and impact on their daily lives, have hired the services of a medical expert.
Expert reports
From the medical reports provided by the patients of the Spanish Affected Association, it is "clearly" evident that the affected individuals present a condition consistent with chronic and long-lasting post-traumatic stress disorderBarba told EFE that the persistence of symptoms for more than ten years, their resistance to applied treatments, and their significant impact on the daily, work, social, and family lives of those affected "attest to the existence of continuous, serious, and clinically objectifiable psychological damage."The documentation provided in the expert report issued within the first year after the accident already identified "clearly and rigorously" the presence of acute post-traumatic stress disorder, directly related to the traumatic events experienced during the shipwreckThe shipwrecks have gotten worse over the years However, the clinical evolution observed in the following years shows that this disorder, "far from remitting, has progressed chronically" for 12 years, despite the therapeutic interventions carried outOnce the persistence of symptoms and the lack of complete recovery have been confirmed, it can be stated, according to the lawyer, that "they are chronic psychological sequelae compatible with a moderate post-traumatic stress disorder that is situated at an intermediate level according to the traffic scale."The lawyer has specified that subsequent medical reports demonstrate the evolution towards chronicity, which were not previously assessed, given the short time elapsed since the accident and the reports provided in the initial case, on which the medical expert of the defendant company and the sentencing court based their decisions.In fact, the company has reached agreements for amounts much higher than those set by the court with other passengers, precisely because they were evaluated later and the chronicity and extent of the sequelae were already objectively assessed
Shipwreck
The Costa Concordia sank on January 13, 2012, when it was traveling with 4,229 people on board after colliding with a reef off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio, in the Tyrrhenian Sea
The shipping company admitted that the shipwreck, which caused 25 deaths and seven disappearances, occurred after the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, approached the island's coast by deviating from the established route.
