Attorneys who work to help accident victims recover full compensation for their losses know that incidents like motor vehicle collisions, falls, medical malpractice, and truck accidents can cause a wide variety of injuries. All too often, those injuries are extremely serious, and victims are left with pain and disability that haunt them for years.
If you’ve been hurt in an accident, you may be wondering about the long-term effects of your injuries and whether you’re eligible to receive compensation. Our team offers free case evaluations where we can answer questions based on the specifics of your particular case. For background information, we thought it would be helpful to provide a guide to serious injuries in personal injury lawsuits. This information may aid you in determining the questions you should be asking your doctor as well as your attorney.
Spinal Cord Injuries
The spinal cord is a collection of nerves that connect your brain to the rest of your body. These nerves send information back and forth constantly so that your brain can tell parts of your body what to do, and various body parts can relay information to your brain. When you touch something warm, nerves send a message up your spinal cord telling your brain so that you can decide what to do about it. If you touch something dangerously hot, your spinal cord controls reflexes that automatically move you out of harm’s way even before you have time to think about it.
When your spinal cord is damaged, you may be paralyzed throughout large portions of your body. You can’t feel or control body parts that are below the point of injury. If the injury occurs high up on your spine, around your neck, then you may not even be able to breathe without medical assistance.
The spinal cord is such a complex system that doctors do not really have an effective way to repair damage. They may try to stabilize areas around the spinal cord, hoping it will heal on its own. But the damage is often permanent.
Because of these factors, spinal cord injuries are among the most devastating injuries people suffer in car accidents. When you can’t control your lower body due to a spinal cord injury, you can’t walk and may not even be able to control your own bladder or sexual functions. If you have an injury higher up, you may become a quadriplegic, unable to control your arms or legs, hands, or feet. You may not even be able to swallow.
In addition to not being able to work, you lose the ability to care for yourself and enjoy activities. You may need help to accomplish simple tasks such as eating. Even if you lose most sensation because of paralysis, you may still experience shooting pains or spasms in your muscles. The quality of your life changes drastically.
An accident attorney cannot restore the physical abilities you’ve lost. However, an experienced legal team knows how to anticipate many of your needs for the future when you’re facing this type of serious injury. This enables your attorney to seek a full damage award that accounts for each aspect of your loss and every future need, from ongoing therapy and assistance to modifications to your home and specialized vehicles. At a time when losses seem overwhelming, guidance and assistance from a knowledgeable and compassionate legal team can help you see a way forward.
Injuries to Your Face and Head
When your eyes, ears, face, or brain are damaged, you lose the ability to function in different ways, all of which can have a profound impact on your life. In addition to loss of hearing, eyesight, or cognitive abilities, injuries to the face and other parts of the head often result in disfigurement that leaves you with mental and physical pain that may never heal.
Even a small amount of damage to the eyes can have effects that interfere with your ability to drive safely, read, or do other things that are a part of daily life that we tend to take for granted. Damage to your ears impacts your ability to communicate with others and can interfere with balance. When you suffer damage to facial tissue, scar tissue can make it difficult to eat, talk, or see properly. What is often much worse, however, is the trauma due to concerns about disfigurement. People with facial injuries often suffer damage to their self-image that makes them reluctant to leave the house or interact with others.
While injuries to the ears, eyes, or facial tissue may heal to a degree and can sometimes be improved with surgery, the disabilities and disfigurement often remain long-term.
By contrast, injuries to the brain may not be physically apparent at all, yet they can be extremely debilitating. Brain injuries can prevent you from concentrating or being able to make mental connections to think clearly. They can destroy your memory patterns and increase your levels of anxiety. Like spinal injuries, brain injuries can also reduce your ability to control parts of your body.
Overall, injuries to the ears, eyes, face, or other parts of the head can have a variety of negative impacts on your life. If you’ve suffered one of these injuries, you need to ensure that you work with an attorney who is prepared to fight for compensation for every consequence of your injuries.
Amputation
Unfortunately, it is all too common for an accident to sever a limb or cause crush injuries that require amputation of an arm or leg. Losing a limb or digit leaves you feeling incomplete both physically and mentally. Depending on the situation, it may be possible to accomplish certain tasks with the use of a prosthetic device, but these are often painful and difficult to manage, and their application is limited. They cannot come close to replacing what you’ve lost.
Favorite activities are likely to become a thing of the past, and it may be extremely difficult to work or even accomplish simple tasks such as bathing or dressing. The amputation can also lead to other complications, such as:
- Infection
- Joint instability
- Tissue necrosis (dead tissue)
- Circulation problems and vascular pain
- Autonomic dysfunction
A large percentage of people who lose a limb or digit require additional amputation or other traumatic surgeries. The pain is immense. Even in the best of situations after recovery, amputation victims suffer from painful blisters and muscle weakness. As the victim adjusts to moving the body differently to account for the loss, the changes in body symmetry cause stress and pain in other joints and soft tissue.
You become dependent on devices and assistance from others, which can change your entire sense of self-worth. In addition, self-consciousness about your appearance can make you unwilling to go out even when you can manage to find a way to move around effectively.
When the loss of a limb or digit is caused by negligence such as medical malpractice or reckless conduct such as a drunk driving accident, a dedicated attorney can work to recover compensation to offset your losses, provide the things you will need now and in the future, and bring you a sense of justice.
Severe Burns
Burn injuries often prove to be catastrophic for victims. Severe burn injuries cause unimaginable and unrelenting pain. Victims often need multiple rounds of surgery, and even when they reach their maximum level of recovery, they are left with scar tissue that is ugly and inflexible. It limits mobility and leads to disfigurement.
When an accident causes severe burns, victims suffer long-term mental and emotional scars that often cause them to withdraw from life completely. While first-degree burns are extremely painful initially, they will usually heal. Second-degree burns, however, damage tissue deep within the skin, frequently leading to infection and intense pain. By contrast, third-degree burns may not be as painful initially because nerve endings have been burned away along with the rest of the skin, leaving tissue exposed and open to dangerous infections. When someone suffers a life-threatening fourth-degree burn, they lose not only skin but muscles, tendons, and other tissue, putting the entire body into shock.
Other Severe Injuries
Many different types of injuries can have catastrophic effects on the victim’s life when the damage is severe. This includes:
- Injuries to the spine, spinal discs, or muscles and tendons of the back
- Broken bones
- Damage to lungs or tissue due to inhalation or exposure to harmful substances
When an injury causes extreme pain or leaves lasting disabilities, it can be considered a serious injury, and your legal team needs to be prepared to act accordingly.
Work with Attorneys Who Understand the Effects of Serious Injuries
The effects a serious injury can have on life may change over time. Initially, you might only notice certain problems, limitations, and losses. However, at Searcy Denney Tallahassee, we’ve been helping victims of serious injuries for decades, and we know that the impacts can increase as the years go on.
We can help you anticipate your future needs and the effect your losses could have in the years to come. This enables us to ensure that insurance companies are made fully aware of what you should receive for your losses. If they don’t provide adequate amounts to meet your needs, our team knows how to achieve maximum compensation in court.
If you or a loved one suffered a serious injury at least partially caused by someone else’s irresponsible behavior, call us for a free case evaluation and consultation to learn what may be possible in your case. To get started, call 888-549-7011 or contact us online now.
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