LITTLE ROCK — The trauma Nancy Chu sustained in the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420 has altered her personality, and while the differences might be slight to a stranger, the changes are profound and life-altering, her doctors and a friend testified Wednesday.
And because the front part of her brain is damaged, she might not be able to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the crash, Boston psychiatrist Dr. Bessell van der Kolk said.
Post-traumatic stress disorder causes social dysfunction, stress and anxiety, and depression.
Although Chu can express herself, her intellect has changed, van der Kolk said in the third day of the trial of her lawsuit against American in U.S. District Court. His testimony is the foundation for Chu's contention that she was irreparably harmed in the June 1, 1999, Little Rock crash that killed 11.
Chu's lawyers focused van der Kolk's testimony on the frontal lobes, the parts of the brain that determine how a person interprets social cues -- whether, for instance, he can recognize sarcasm or engage in repartee.
The part of Chu's brain that is injured is the left-frontal lobe, which controls language skills and the ability to perform mathematical calculations. The right-frontal lobe is where a person processes nonverbal ideas and uses logic. The best-known treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder require healthy frontal lobes.
Van der Kolk said Chu might have to live with the disorder forever. Even if the five-woman, three-man jury awards Chu a large settlement, she won't get better, he said.
"Every piece of research shows that settlement of lawsuits has no impact on the long-term course of post-traumatic stress disorder," he said, adding that he had never used a person in his studies who stood to receive compensation.
Tests show Chu, who is 37 and lives in Little Rock, scores in average ranges on some memory and mental tests; they measured her IQ as 106. American's attorneys contended on cross-examination that that score showed the damage to Chu's brain was not catastrophic. Even van der Kolk said he was surprised to learn that Chu filled out her own tax returns.
At times, van der Kolk seemed to be a hybrid witness, both for Chu and against her. American's lawyers pointed out that he had attacked her Little Rock psychiatrist's credentials in earlier depositions, saying Gregory Kaczenski "did not have a clue" about what Chu was experiencing and that he was poorly trained.
Van der Kolk apologized for the remark, saying it was out of line and without basis, adding, "I was only irritated with [Kaczenski's] records."
American's lawyers questioned Van der Kolk's own credentials, citing his reputation for using "eye-movement cessation" as a therapy. That involves having a patient think of a painful memory, then rapidly darting their eyes left to right to dissipate the memory.
"Haven't you been called the eye-waggle doctor?" lawyer Gail Gaines asked, provoking snickers in the public gallery. "Don't they call what you do junk science?"
"Not to my face," scoffed van der Kolk, who runs a mental-trauma center at Boston University and is a former professor at Harvard Medical School.
Neuropsychologist Nancy Lyon, formerly of Little Rock, backed up van der Kolk's testimony. She agreed that Chu had a left-frontal-lobe brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder that was not likely to improve. Lyon said Chu will make mistakes on any job she might secure, and would probably be fired.
Chu's former best friend, Jennifer Jackson, testified by videotape that the two are no longer close because Chu could not participate in the give-and-take conversations that friends normally have.
Jackson, who recently became a mother to twins, said she has stopped calling Chu because Chu seemed lost in her own pain and unable to stop obsessing about the accident.
"I tried to be supportive at first, but it just kept going on and on and on. ... I've not been able to bring myself to say 'I'm tired of hearing about it; move on,' " said Jackson, who seemed near tears.
The subject of Chu's sexual relationship with an American employee who was sent to help her after the crash was barely touched on Wednesday. Chu is to testify, but it is not known when.
U.S. District Judge Henry Woods, 80, who has been battling bronchitis since the weekend, recessed court just before 4 p.m. to see his physician; his staff said his illness could be serious enough to require hospitalization.
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