Category: Spinal Cord Injuries

How will my spinal cord injury affect my future? Some argue that no injury is quite as substantial as a spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries can arise from many types of incidents, like car crashes or falls. Unlike many other personal injuries, spinal cord injuries are likely to last the rest of the victim’s life. They can cost millions of dollars and require highly skilled medical professionals and aids.

Those who have sustained a spinal cord injury must have a compassionate personal injury lawyer that appreciates the long-term effects of a spinal cord injury. Although it can be difficult to predict how much compensation these patients should get for economic and non-economic damages, their attorneys should fight for everything they deserve in their particular circumstances. This is their one shot at getting what they need for the rest of their life. Reach out to a spinal cord injury lawyer.

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Understanding Spinal Cord Injuries

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center estimates that the annual U.S. incidence of spinal cord injury (SCI) is 54 cases per one million individuals, or approximately 17,730 new SCI cases each year. These don’t include anyone who suffers fatal injuries at the location of the SCI-causing incident.

Reports also estimate that 291,000 Americans are currently living with an SCI. Thankfully, every state’s civil statutes allow those diagnosed with an SCI after an accident to pursue compensation for their damages.

The spinal cord consists of a bundle of nerves that allows various messages to travel between the brain and the rest of the body. These nerves provide a pathway for the brain to communicate with the body, for instance, by telling a specific body part to move.

They also let the body communicate to the brain— for instance, notifying the brain that something is hot to the touch. The brain and the rest of the body rely on the spinal cord to function properly to keep it safe and functional. When there is a breakdown along this essential communication highway, serious problems arise.

An SCI is an injury to the spinal cord that can impact motor, sensory and autonomic function with the potential to result in:

• Paralysis
• Loss of sensation
• Disruptions in temperature regulation and blood pressure instability

When an SCI occurs, the nerves above the injury level continue to function normally. However, at the level of injury, nerve messages can get blocked. Messages cannot transmit below the level of injury and vice versa.

Depending on what part of the spinal cord suffers an injury, the individual may suffer paralysis of the muscles, such as those used for breathing, loss of sensation below the location of the injury, and secondary conditions. For those living with SCI, a crucial part of their care is preventing complications and further disabilities. However, the expenses for this type of care over a lifetime are astronomical. Accident victims and their families shouldn’t have to pay for this or worry about how they will afford their necessary care. With the assistance of a seasoned attorney, they won’t have to.

What Determines the Long-Term Effects of a Spinal Injury?

The long-term effects of a spinal cord injury vary from one victim to another. Your personal injury lawyer can consult with financial and medical experts to help determine the amount of compensation you might need.

Factors they will consider include:

• The location and degree of your spinal cord injury
• The chances of recovery or improved condition with therapies
• Your occupation
• Your age
• Your other injuries and health issues

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries and Their Long-Term Effects

SCI injuries are one of the most severe, catastrophic, and debilitating injuries someone can suffer. Their long-term effects are far-reaching and extremely costly. Consider these figures for the medical and day-to-day care and assistance, which don’t include lost income.

High Tetraplegia

High tetraplegia is an injury to the C1 to C4 vertebrae that typically requires assistance with simple, day-to-day living activities. This is the worst type of SCI. Injured individuals might use powered wheelchairs with special controls to move around independently. These types of injuries cost approximately $178,000 after more than $1 million for the first year.

Low Tetraplegia

Low tetraplegia affects the C5 to C8 vertebrae, sometimes allowing partial movement to the shoulder, elbow, or hands. These individuals might breathe independently but often need help with bowel and bladder care. Some can still walk with assistance. Yearly expenses for a lifetime of care begin at around $740,000 in the first year, topping out at about $109,000 each year after that.

Paraplegia

When there is trauma to the thoracic or lumbar vertebrae, the individual usually can still voluntarily move both their upper extremities. Although they have severely restricted movement below the waist, some individuals can walk short distances with assistive devices. Expenses are typically about $500,000 for the first year and $66,000 annually.

In addition to the financial costs, there are other long-term health effects that individuals with spinal cord injuries need to consider long-term. For example, they may suffer from bladder infections, kidney stones, or osteoporosis. Sexual dysfunction and infertility are common.

Doctors also warn about other side effects in spinal cord injury patients, such as muscle spasticity and syringomyelia, bedsores, bowel problems, numbness, and weakness in the extremities. They may also suffer from autonomic dysreflexia, a life-threatening condition that usually affects those with injuries to the neck or upper back.

Paying for SCI

The good news is that if their SCI arose from an incident where another party was at fault, they might recover compensation to help pay for these expenses.

However, they must generally prove that:

• Another person or party owed them a duty of care—for instance, a driver must stop at a red light
• The other person or party breached that duty of care in some way
• The other person or party’s breach of duty directly caused their SCI
• They suffered compensable damages because of their injuries

Proving these points can often be challenging, as can determining how much money an SCI victim deserves in damages. It’s best for those who sustain SCI to meet with a spinal cord injury attorney as soon as possible after their accident. An attorney can protect their rights, determine what they deserve for their SCI, and pursue an injury claim against the correct person or party. Failing to hire a seasoned spinal cord injury lawyer can mean not having money to pay for essential care after an SCI.

What Is Your Spinal Cord Injury Case Worth?

Although spinal cord injuries are not common, they can and do happen in severe accidents. Depending on many factors, including how severe the injury is, a personal injury claim for a spinal cord injury can be of extremely high value.

However, the only way to ensure you receive fair compensation that will cover all of your expenses both now and in the future and your physical and emotional pain and suffering is to hire a well-versed spinal cord injury attorney. You need an attorney who understands how these injuries can impact an injured party and their loved ones.

The Severity of Your Injury

The severity of your spinal cord will be a significant factor in what your spinal cord injury case is worth. Lower spinal cord injuries are usually less devastating and impactful than higher ones. Individuals with a lower spinal cord injury typically still have the use of their arms and tend to live longer than those with higher injuries.

They may require less care and can even work in some capacity. In contrast, someone who develops quadriplegia after a spinal cord injury will need more medical care and daily assistance and probably won’t continue to earn a living wage.

Damages Resulting from a Spinal Cord Injury

The value of your claim relies heavily on the types and extent of the damages you sustain. Damages are the losses, expenses, and inconveniences arising from your injury.

Spinal cord injury claims generally include these types of economic and non-economic damages:

• Medical expenses: Initial and ongoing expenses are substantial for SCI victims. They may face long-term hospitalizations, admission to a long-term care center, surgeries, therapies, and rehabilitation, and require expensive medical equipment, including braces, chairs, or beds.
• Loss of earning capacity: Your attorney will work with a vocational expert, an actuarial accountant, or other financial, medical, or career experts to help determine your expected lifetime earnings had you not sustained your injury. Even if you can return to work, it may be at a lesser wage and fewer hours.
• Lifecare costs: Spinal cord injuries often require varying degrees of care, such as a housekeeper, full-time attendant, or nurse. A life care planner can assess these needs and explain them to a jury if needed.
• Pain and suffering: Also known as loss of enjoyment of life or non-economic damages, these are the damages that don’t have a calculable cost as opposed to other damages like medical bills. Pain and suffering also encompasses loss of consortium, scarring and disfigurement, mental anguish, and humiliation. While pain and suffering may be difficult to observe, it’s no less compensable than economic damages that SCI victims should recover.

Some individuals with spinal cord nerve damage develop neurogenic pain—pain or an intense burning or stinging sensation that may never let up due to extreme physical sensitivity or hypersensitivity in some parts of the body. This pain can occur spontaneously or due to various triggers. It can even impact parts of the body that have lost all other feelings of normal sensation.

Treating chronic pain often includes:

• Prescription medications
• Acupuncture
• Spinal or brain electrical stimulation
• Surgery

Unfortunately, none of these treatments are entirely successful in relieving neurogenic pain. SCI victims deserve compensation under pain and suffering for the chronic pain they may have to endure because of their injuries.

Who Caused Your Spinal Cord Injury?

Depending on the cause of your spinal cord injury, multiple parties can be responsible for your injury and, therefore, liable for covering your damages. Hiring a skilled lawyer is imperative to hold the appropriate party or parties liable for your injuries. If you don’t hold the correct party responsible, you won’t receive compensation for your damages at all.

Potentially liable parties for an SCI include:

• Other motorists
• Employers of other motorists, such as a commercial trucking or delivery company
• Vehicle or vehicle parts manufacturers
• Municipalities that are responsible for road conditions and traffic lights, and signs
• Property or business owners

Your spinal cord injury attorney can ensure that you file claims against the right people and identify all potentially liable parties to maximize your recovery.

Your Injury Attorney Understands Your SCI

SCIs are far-reaching and complex. Such an injury can impact every facet of your life. You likely won’t understand all the medical jargon or the ins and outs. How a spinal cord injury will affect your future depends on the type and severity of your injury and the compensation you receive for it.

However, an experienced SCI attorney is well-versed in these injuries and what kind of lifestyle and the financial impact they can have on you and your family for a long time to come or even the rest of your life.

Suppose you suffer a spinal cord injury because of the reckless behavior of another person. In that case, a spinal cord injury lawyer can help. They will work diligently to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve for your injuries and suffering. They aren’t afraid to stand up to insurance companies to fight for your rights. Reach out to a personal injury lawyer.

Discs in the human spinal cord play a very important role. They support an individual’s upper body, help them absorb shock, and move their bodies in different directions. Although these discs are extremely tough, they may suffer serious damage in a forceful car accident.

Spinal discs have several layers, the outermost of which is tough and rubbery. However, if the disc’s outer layer sustains damage in an accident, it may bulge out. As a result, an accident victim may suffer significant leg and back pain.

Herniated discs often happen in serious car accidents where the collision force knocks the accident victim’s body around the interior of their vehicle. These injuries are equally common when accident victims suffer serious back injuries in a slip-and-fall accident, such as at a restaurant or grocery store.

Herniated disc injuries can cause ongoing medical complications, sometimes requiring accident victims to undergo surgery and other expensive medical treatment. Accident victims may also suffer extreme pain from a herniated disc that can last for the rest of their lives. Even sitting down or driving a vehicle for a long time may hurt if the accident victim suffers a severe enough disc injury.

If you suffered a disc injury in a motor vehicle crash, slip and fall, or some other accident that resulted from another person’s negligence, you have legal options available to you.

First, a knowledgeable personal injury attorney in your area can investigate the circumstances of your accident and determine your eligibility for filing a claim or lawsuit seeking damages. If you are eligible, your lawyer can file the necessary claim or lawsuit to pursue monetary damages for your medical expenses, lost wages, pain, and suffering. Your spinal cord injury lawyer will do everything they can to help you maximize your monetary damages and recover the compensation you deserve for your disc injuries.

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What Is a Herniated Disc?

When a person suffers a herniated disc in an accident, they typically experience damage to one of the rubbery discs sitting between two or more vertebrae going up and down their spine. This condition typically develops when one of the discs that sit between bones making up the spinal column becomes ruptured or torn.

The annulus is the thickest disc layer and encases a softer substance called the nucleus pulposus. Whenever the annulus portion of the disc suffers a tear, the soft portion may stick out through the outer wall, becoming a ruptured—or slipped—disc.

This condition differs from a disc bulge that affects only the annulus, or the outermost disc layer.

There is no disputing that a herniated disc may cause an accident victim to experience significant pain. These conditions are painful because when the disc protrudes, it tends to affect nearby nerves, which are extremely sensitive. This nerve pressure may cause an accident victim to experience swelling and other serious problems.

Moreover, since nerves send communications throughout a person’s body, a herniated disc may cause an accident victim to experience all sorts of pain. In addition to back pain, the accident victim may suffer extreme pain in their legs and arms.

 

How Do Herniated Discs Happen?

A herniated disc may result from any type of spinal trauma. This is especially true when an accident causes a person’s spinal column to twist and turn in an unnatural direction. When this occurs, one or more discs located at various levels on the spinal column may rupture. Although herniated discs can result from relatively minor accidents, these injuries also occur when accident victims suffer injuries in major accidents.

Some common accidents that lead to herniated disc injuries include:

• Motor vehicle accidents, such as car crashes, truck accidents, pedestrian accidents, motorcycle accidents, and bicycle accidents, where one vehicle strikes another, causing serious property damage and injuries to the vehicle occupants
• Slip and fall accidents, where a property owner fails to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition at all times, causing a visitor to fall on the ground—often landing on their neck or back
• Sports injuries, especially for individuals who play contact sports, like basketball or football, fall to the ground.

Potential Herniated Disc Symptoms

Herniated discs often have extremely painful symptoms that can last the rest of the accident victim’s life. The symptoms that an accident victim may experience typically depend upon how their back and spinal cord move and twist during the accident.

In general, herniated disc injuries come with symptoms much like those associated with bulging discs, fractured vertebrae, sprains, strains, and whiplash. Some of the most common symptoms associated with herniated discs include numbness, tingling, and extreme pain. In some instances, healthcare providers mistake these symptoms for less serious injuries. However, the herniated disc may become apparent when the accident victim undergoes a CT scan or MRI.

In most instances, accident victims sustain herniated discs in the lower portion of their spine. However, they can occur in any area of the spinal cord.

When a person suffers a herniated disc in their lower back, they tend to experience pain in their buttocks that radiates down to their legs. When they suffer a herniated disc in the upper portion of their back, including the neck, they may experience pain in their shoulders and arms.

No matter where the herniated disc is, accident victims typically experience the most pain when they are active. However, they may suffer pain in their upper or lower back if they must sit still for a long period, such as when driving or riding in a vehicle on a long road trip.

Another common symptom associated with herniated discs is muscular weakness. For example, when an individual is moving, their arms or legs may suddenly give out and cease functioning. Finally, since herniated discs typically involve nerves that transmit pain to various areas of the body, an individual suffering from a herniated disc can experience pain in any bodily region due to their injury.

If you believe you suffered a herniated disc or other serious neck and back injury in your accident, you should seek prompt medical treatment immediately. You can follow up with a primary care doctor or seek treatment at a hospital emergency room or local urgent care facility. Generally speaking, the sooner you seek this treatment after your accident, the better off you will be. This is because herniated disc injuries often worsen the longer they remain untreated.

At an emergency medical facility, the medical provider on duty can thoroughly examine you and order the necessary imaging studies to diagnose your medical condition. Moreover, the doctor can refer you to a specialist, such as a chiropractor, neurologist, or another provider, for ongoing medical treatment after your initial visit.

Common Limitations that Accident Victims Experience from Herniated Discs

Accident victims who suffer herniated discs may experience numerous limitations. In some cases, a herniated disc can cause a much more serious problem called cauda equina syndrome. This syndrome may develop when a person cannot control their bowel movements due to nerve damage from a herniated disc.

Herniated disc disease also comes with chronic pain and ongoing symptoms. These symptoms can prevent you from participating in activities you once enjoyed before your accident. Those activities may include playing sports, engaging in recreational activities, and spending time with your children and grandchildren. After suffering a herniated disc injury, small tasks like taking your grandchildren to the park or walking your dog can be a harrowing experience.

In addition to the lost quality of life, herniated disc injuries may affect your ability to earn an income. ‘[‘This is especially true if you have to take time off work to recover from your injuries—or to attend medical and physical therapy appointments. Moreover, if your job requires manual labor, you may need to switch positions or take a pay cut due to your accident-related back injuries.

Potential Treatments for Herniated Disc Injuries

If you suffered a herniated disc injury in an accident that resulted from someone else’s negligence, there are several types of treatments that you can undergo for relief. These treatments can help control inflammation, make you feel stronger, and help you partake in activities you once enjoyed. First, you can take common over-the-counter drugs, like ibuprofen, to control inflammation from a herniated desk.

At other times, your doctor may prescribe pain medication to control your symptoms. However, these medications often cause patients to become dependent. In fact, this dependence can happen in as little as five days. Consequently, doctors have a duty to monitor their patients when they prescribe them pain medication on a regular, ongoing basis.

Herniated disc sufferers might also take muscle relaxers for pain relief. These drugs treat muscle spasms connected with herniated discs. However, the downside to these medications is that they may make the accident victim sleepy and prevent them from driving or operating heavy machinery while at their job.

Physical therapy can also significantly help a herniated disc injury. Some of the most common types of PT therapists use to treat this condition include deep tissue massages, cold therapy, and aqua therapy.

Sometimes, a medical provider can supply you with a TENS unit. These units use electrical stimulation to reduce muscular spasms. Using these devices often helps to reduce spasms and significantly relieve pain in the neck or back.

Accident victims who suffer herniated discs can also receive epidural steroid injections. People typically receive these injections in the lower part of their back. However, individuals may risk suffering other complications when they undergo these injections.

Finally, you can undergo a surgical procedure to correct your herniated disc injury as a last resort. Several types of surgeries may be available, including artificial disc surgery and spinal fusion surgery—both of which are invasive medical procedures that can lead to longer recovery times.

Your medical provider can help you make an informed decision about the best medical treatment to undergo to treat your accident-related herniated disc injury. Your personal injury lawyer can help you pay for those treatments and recover compensation for your pain and suffering by filing a lawsuit for you.

Potential Damages You Can Recover Financially for a Herniated Disc Injury

Accident victims who suffer one or more herniated discs might be eligible to recover several types of damages, including compensation for their related medical expenses—and lost wages if they need to miss work time. Other potential damages that accident victims may recover include compensation for loss of earning capacity, inconvenience, mental distress, past and future pain and suffering, loss of the ability to use a body part, loss of life enjoyment, and loss of spousal companionship and consortium.

Call a Skilled Personal Injury Attorney Near You Today

If you suffered a herniated disc injury in an accident that someone else caused, you might be eligible to recover various monetary damages. An experienced and compassionate personal injury lawyer in your area can explain your legal rights and options to help you maximize the monetary damages you recover for your herniated disc injury.

You should focus on your physical recovery and keeping up with your medical treatment. Trying to navigate an injury insurance claim or lawsuit is not something you want to add to your plate. Instead, put your case in the hands of an experienced injury lawyer who handles cases like yours. You have nothing to lose by scheduling a no-cost consultation and case evaluation as soon as possible.

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