A court in Cantabria ruled that a young hairdressing student’s insurance company must pay her €75,300 ($85,470) after the accident and subsequent surgery hindered "her training and her future".
The wannabe hair stylist was 16 when she was involved in a serious traffic accident in 2007 that left her right hand so badly injured that doctors had to replace her thumb with one of her toes, local newspaper El Diario Montañés reported on Thursday.
According to the court, the consequences of the injuries affected her ability to "complete school assignments that required both hands as well as ones that required certain skills from her right hand, therefore limiting three of the six clipping functions of that hand".
The court ruled that the woman’s "hairdressing studies were hindered by the difficulties produced by the consequences" of the accident.
Therefore, the court said there was "sufficient justification" to award her the maximum legal compensation.
The young woman was not a paid employee anywhere, but this did not prevent the court from recognizing that she had a partial, permanent disability, stating that "the legal system of assessment of damage is not limited to the profession, industry or trade, but covers all types of activities, including leisure and ordinary life."
The ruling stated that the woman had been left with "limited possibilities for personal development in that moment and in the future due to an injured hand, a body part that is extremely important and essential."
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