Husband T-boned, $200k+ in bills, both policies maxed — are we just stuck with the rest?
I'm still kind of in shock writing this out. My husband was hit broadside at an intersection about four months ago — the other driver ran a red light going pretty fast and slammed into the driver's side. Our SUV got pushed into a guardrail. The other car was totaled, ours was totaled, and my husband ended up airlifted to a trauma center.
He had a shattered hip, internal bleeding, and nerve damage in his left leg. We're talking two major surgeries, a 10-day hospital stay, and he's still doing outpatient PT twice a week. The bills are absolutely staggering — we're well north of $200k and more are still coming in.
Here's the nightmare part: the at-fault driver only had state minimum liability coverage. That maxed out embarrassingly fast. We have underinsured motorist coverage but it's also got a cap that doesn't come close to covering the gap. Our own health insurance has covered some of it but there's still an enormous amount just... sitting there.
A few questions I'm losing sleep over:
- Is there any realistic scenario where the at-fault driver's insurer pays beyond their policy limit?
- What happens to the portion our health insurance covered — do they come back and want that money if we settle?
- If the at-fault driver owns a home or has a small business, is it actually worth pursuing them personally?
- Does hiring a PI attorney change any of these calculations, or is it just rearranging deck chairs at this point?
I feel like we did everything right — we had coverage, he wore his seatbelt, the light was clearly documented by a traffic cam — and we're still potentially drowning. Anyone been through something like this?