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When an accident happens with little or no warning and causes a spinal cord injury, you or a loved one’s life is changed forever. If that moment comes, we at Shealey Law Firm are Columbia spinal cord injury lawyers here to help you in your journey to seek compensation for your potential losses. Contact our catastrophic injury lawyers to start your case.
How Spinal Cord Injuries Occur
A paralysis injury may happen in different ways.
For example, you may suffer from spinal damage if you get into a serious car crash. This is one of the most common ways for serious injuries to the head, neck, back and spine to occur.
Unfortunately, as the average size of a privately owned vehicle on American roads continues to grow, the severity of damage and injuries in car crashes also goes up. You have a higher chance of dealing with a back injury in a car crash today than you might have five or 10 years ago.
A severe fall could result in damage to the spine as well. While you may assume that such a fall must occur from an unusual height, that isn’t necessarily the case. Even slipping on a wet surface in a store or parking lot could lead to spinal cord injuries or damage to the spine’s vertebrae. It all depends on factors such as how you hit the ground, the angle of impact and the surface you fall onto.
As Columbia spinal cord injury lawyers, it’s our job to determine the source of the injury and find the fault behind it. In the above example, if you slipped on a wet floor which didn’t have signage or wasn’t cleaned up in a reasonable timeframe when the business was made aware of the issue, the property owner may be at fault for your injury. In cases with such liability, it’s possible to gain compensation, which can help you with your medical challenges moving forward.
Complete vs. Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries
As with most injuries, spinal cord injuries can differ in severity.
A complete spinal cord injury involves the full and irreparable damage of the spinal cord, often resulting in paralysis.
By comparison, an incomplete spinal cord injury involves partial damage that may not cause as severe effects and could possibly heal over time. Both injuries are very serious, though, and require immediate medical care and ongoing treatment.
Our Columbia spinal cord injury lawyers can help you seek compensation regardless of which type of injury you suffer from. The consequences of complete spinal cord injuries can have a huge impact on your daily life. However, even a partial injury can cause significant problems with both minor and major motor skills.
Complications from Injuries to the Spine
The severity levels for spinal injuries can differ to a great degree; no two patients will have the same injury impact or recovery process, even if they got into the same type of accident or experienced damage to the same part of the spine. Our attorneys work to ensure that you have the tools you need to move forward no matter what your healing process looks like.
Unfortunately, complications from spinal cord injuries can last for long periods of time. They may involve lengthy periods of recovery, and in some cases they may not heal at all.
Paralysis
Common complications from complete spinal cord injuries involve paralysis to some degree. Paraplegia involves the partial paralysis of the body. Tetraplegia is full paralysis, meaning the individual can’t move their arms or legs.
Needless to say, in the event of partial or full paralysis, it becomes incredibly difficult for someone to live on their own. They may have trouble walking, bathing yourself, cooking meals or cleaning their home. It might be impossible for someone to have the same level of freedom that they once did. A full-time caretaker may even be necessary, which can cost a huge sum of money. On top of that, medical bills from treatment often create unexpected financial hurdles.
Further issues
Even if a spinal cord injury victim doesn’t suffer from full or partial paralysis, any damage to the spine can cause a cascade of health issues. They may suffer from pain because of nerve damage. They might find themselves dealing with mobility issues or trouble with bladder or bowel movement and control. These seemingly small problems can add up quickly and affect one’s overall quality of life in a significant way.
Healing From SCIs
Unfortunately, complete SCIs are incurable with the current level of medical technology. This is why our spinal cord injury lawyers work hard to provide you with the maximum possible compensation, because one must, unfortunately, live with the aftermath of the injury for their entire life.
That said, while no cure exists currently for SCIs, it’s still possible to get treatment that can prevent permanent damage and additional injury. This is why immediate medical attention and ongoing medical care are such a crucial part of the recovery process.
There may be good news to come, too, since medical science continues to advance at a rapid pace as technology also races forward. Because of this, new therapies and potential ways of treating spinal cord injuries emerge every day. At some point in the future, it may be possible for spinal cord injury victims to recover to a more normal life.
Compensation for Paralysis Injury
At Shealey Law Firm, we are constantly looking for ways to help you through the recovery process. Spinal cord injuries are difficult to recover from. The process is long and tiring, and many of the most cutting-edge treatments are expensive and hard to obtain.
As Columbia spinal cord injury lawyers, we work to provide you with a path toward compensation. Collecting economic and noneconomic losses can be vital not only for the continuation of a client’s health journey but also to make up for the work they may lose out on as a result of the injury and related lack of mobility.
To look further into your potential compensation options, you can reach out to our attorneys in Columbia and schedule a consultation to learn more.