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MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: If you have hepatitis A or B, your liver is inflamed because you have been infected with either the hepatitis A virus or the hepatitis B virus. Your liver is a soft, flexible organ that performs many important functions. The functional parts of your liver are called hepatic lobules. Your hepatic lobules filter all of the blood in your body. As the blood passes through, your hepatic lobules breakdown harmful substances, remove bacteria and worn out blood cells, and forms clotting factors that control bleeding. After a meal, your liver stores nutrients to provide your body with energy when needed. Your liver also makes a substance called bile. Your gallbladder stores bile and releases it into your small intestine to help digest fats in the food you eat. If you have hepatitis A, the virus entered your body when you were exposed to fecal matter from a person infected with the virus. You may have been exposed to the virus by eating contaminated food or water, contact with infected feces such as during a diaper change, or having unprotected sex with a person infected with the virus. If you have hepatitis B, the virus entered your body when you were exposed to the blood or other body fluids from a person infected with the virus. This could have happened from sharing a drug syringe with an infected person. Other ways you may have been exposed to the virus include having sex with someone infected by the virus, sharing personal hygiene items such as razors or toothbrushes used by an infected person, direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, or when a mother passes it to her baby during birth. When either the hepatitis A or B virus enters your liver, it invades your liver cells and makes copies of itself. In response, your body sends immune cells to attack both the virus and liver cells infected with the virus. As a result, these liver cells become inflamed, and then die. Over time, scar tissue forms around dead and infected liver cells which prevents your liver from working properly. If you have a chronic hepatitis B infection, your liver contains a large amount of scar tissue called cirrhosis which limits blood flow, and results in permanent shrinking and hardening of your liver. If you have hepatitis A, your doctor won't prescribe any medical treatment because your immune cells will eventually find and destroy all of the hepatitis A viruses in your body. If you have hepatitis B, your immune system will usually remove all the hepatitis B viruses from your body. In some people with chronic hepatitis B, particularly children, their immune cells are unable to remove all of the hepatitis B viruses. If you have chronic hepatitis B, and your immune system can't get rid of the virus completely, your doctor may prescribe anti-viral medication. If you have a severe case of chronic hepatitis B, your doctor may recommend a liver transplant operation.
"Thank you very much for the great work on the medical exhibits. Our trial
resulted in a $16 million verdict for a 9 year old boy with catastrophic
injuries, and the medical illustrations definitely played key role in the
trial."
David Cutt
Brayton Purcell
Salt Lake City, UT
"Thank you for the wonderful illustrations. The case resulted in a defense verdict last Friday. I know [our medical expert witness] presented some challenges for you and I appreciate how you were able to work with him."
Robert F. Donnelly
Goodman Allen & Filetti, PLLC
Richmond, VA
"We got a defense verdict yesterday! Your exhibit was extremely helpful in
showing the jury how unlikely it is to damage all four of the nerve branches
which control the sense of taste."
Karen M. Talbot
Silverman Bernheim & Vogel, P.C.
Philadeplphia, PA
"Medical Legal Art wins our firm's highest accolades for professionalism and
exhibit quality. In fact, many of the doctors I work with request color
copies of your outstanding artwork to show to patients during the informed
consent process."
Jeanne Dolan, BSRN, AlNC Legal Nurse Consultant Golden Valley, MN
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.
