Brain Injury Turns Top High School Student into Dominatrix

by David Christensen on April 3, 2015

What happens when a brain injury affects a car crash victim’s impulse control and libido? An auto accident  in August 2008 transformed Alissa Afonina from a bright young student into a dominatrix for hire.

The Effect of the Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injuries, like the one Afonina suffered, can affect a person in any number of ways. Sometimes they can cause major disability, including paralysis and coordination problems. Other times, brain injuries can cause more subtle changes that can be just as devastating to day to day life.

Before the accident, Alissa Afonina was a promising student, ranked in the top two percent of her high school class. She was planning to go to college and become a film maker. But her traumatic brain injury made a significant change in Afonina’s character and left her with no impulse control. She couldn’t follow through with tasks and became prone to sexually inappropriate comments. Because of her new-found impulsivity, she could not hold down a job or complete college. Instead she found employment as a dominatrix named Sasha Mizaree.

Future Earning Damages

After the accident Afonina’s attorney sued in Canada for recovery of “future capacity loss,” future care, pain and suffering, and special damages. All of these fall within a Third Party lawsuit in Michigan. The Canadian judge agreed that Afonina’s new profession could be counted as a loss, and that her brain injury had interfered with her academic and employment goals:

“She is now only qualified and able to deal with entry level jobs for a few hours a day. Without the injury, she could have completed college or university and been qualified for a better job.”

He awarded Afonina a total of $1.5 million in damages based in large part on the fact that she was no longer able to pursue the film making career she had intended prior to the accident.

This case shows why victims of car accidents resulting in brain injury need to hire expert attorneys who can help put dollar values on abstract ideas like loss of future earnings.

David Christensen
David Christensen of Christensen Law in Southfield, Michigan has been representing traumatic brain injury clients, auto accident victims, and victims of electrocution for 20 years. David is a tenacious trial lawyer and an authority on Michigan’s no-fault law. He also serves as Chairman of the Michigan Association for Justice’s no-fault committee.
David Christensen
David Christensen
David Christensen

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