A spinal cord injuy attorney may not be necessary in many cases of spinal cord injury.  In some cases the spinal cord may be injured but the loss of function (“stingers”) in whiplash in the neck or in sports accidents can occur without neurological loss and very few of these types of spinal injuries will require hospitalization. 

Every year in the United States, it is estimated that there are about 35 cases per million per year.  This works out to about 7800 cases per year (300 times 32).  Many researchers feel that this number under-reports the actual figures.  When the patient dies instantaneously or very soon after the injury, these cases are not reported..  A rough estimate on people who die before reaching a hospital is 20 cases per million or 4860 per year. 

In the United States there are about 450,000 people suffer from this affliction or one in 670.  Who are these people you may ask and the answer is that the majority of them are males between  the ages of 16 and 30.  Males in that age group take many risks that other members of the country would not even consider.  Males make up 82% of the total.  Falls acount for 21% of the total, while violence (28%) and automobile accidents make up the rest (37%).    Sports related spinal cord injuries are 6% while others equals 8%.

Violence is becoming the major cause of spinal cord injuries while vehicular accidents injuries are going down.

About 52% of the victims have private health insurance when the injury occurs.

Most victims (89%) are discharged from the hospital to private homes while the remaining victims end up in a nursing home.

The number of spinal cord injury victims who are employable eight years after the accident is 63%.  That was when the unemployment rate was at 4.7%/

There are several types of spinal cord injuries, but they all boil down to either complete paralysis or in complete.  At least 50% of the victims suffer from other injuries connected with the accident.

The recovery statistics for the complete injuries is very low; 0.9%.  A complete injury involves total loss of sensation and function below the injury point.  The spinal cord may not have been severed in many cases and this can occur in paraplegia (Loss of motor and/or sensory function of the lower extremities)and quadriplegia (loss of the ability to move and/or feel both legs, both arms, and the parts of the body below the injury area.  After 1988 55% of spinal cord injuries have been imcomplete while 45% are complete.

Most spinal cord injuries that occur in the neck area (c1 and c-2) often leave the victim without the ability to breath and they usually die before receiving treatment.  For those that survive, mechanical ventilators or phrenic nerve pacing is required.

The average lifetime costs are staggering.  For a person who is 25 years  old at the time of the injury, a quadriplegic will cost $1.25 million.  While the cost of sustaining a victim of the same age but who is paraplegic is $428,000.

Other complications of spinal cord injuries:

Muscle atrophy

Abnormal increases in blood pressure, sweating and other autonomic responses to pain or sensory disturbances

Bowel and bladder function dysfunction

Neuropathic pain

Loss of sexual function

Increased reflexes and limb stiffness (spasticity)

 

Spinal Cord Injury

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A Spinal Cord Injury Attorney is a post from: A Spinal Cord Injury Attorney

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Identifying injuries in your spine from a car accident is assisted when you already have an idea of the most common types of injuries to the spinal cord from car accidents. Read here and learn more about the most common types of back injuries from car crash claims.

Spinal cord injuries are typically very severe and often result from car accidents. In this article we explore the common spinal cord injuries in car accidents, because often they are very severe and require immediate medical attention if your or someone you love was involved in a major vehicular accident. In California cities such as Los Angeles, Santa Ana, or Newport Beach, hundreds of accident victims consult car accident lawyers due to spinal cord injury ("SCI") typically caused by accidents involving trucks, big rigs, bicycle, or from recreational activities on motorcycle.

Spinal cord injuries are typically diagnosed by seeing which vertebrae of your spinal cord were injured or disrupted. Quadriplegia, aka Tetraplegia, means loss of all functions and control from the head down. Paraplegia occurs when an individual loses control and feeling from the waist down. The statistics provided by the National Spinal Cord Injury Association demonstrate the typical causes of SCI in the United States as follows:

Forty four percent of all spinal cord injuries caused by car accidents;
Twenty four percent of all spinal cord injuries caused by violence;
Twenty two percent of all spinal cord injuries caused by slips and falls;
Eight percent of all spinal cord injuries caused from sporting injuries;
Two percent of SCI caused from various other activities.

Los Angeles, California is a Mecca for car accident claims. Los Angeles car accident attorneys report that most spinal trauma victims from car crash cases undergo the following types of back injury:

Vehicular accidents from SUVs, and passenger vehicles often result in whiplash, to tetraplegia;
Semi trucks cause spinal cord injuries such as paraplegia, but also result in wrongful death claims from jackknifeing of a semi trailer;
Delivery vans often are speeding and this increases the risk of a disc bulge or disc burst fracture.

So what can a spinal cord injury attorney do for me?

Spinal cord injury (SCI) lawyers in Los Angeles, for example, are local to the courts and know the judges and courtroom staff better than an out of town law firm. Retaining attorneys who understand disc bulge claims, SCI and the related disc injuries coupled with nerve damage helps your attorney comprehend the trauma and horrible circumstances of your suffering. This helps your SCI lawyer negotiate your back injury claims with the insurance adjustor.

To complement the rehabilitation efforts of medical and health providers, spinal cord injury attorneys offer advice on special care and treatment, long-term care and other economic needs, as well as compassionate counsel and support to victims. Aside from medical and legal issues, spinal cord injury lawyers also deal with matters such as the necessity or appropriateness of certain treatment, who will pay for the care, and the consequences and needs of the injured person and the family.

Car accident attorneys who specialize in spinal injury can actually work with your doctor in order to help him or her document evidence, and locate the and document the a prognosis and diagnosis early on. This will eventually help you in determining the past, present and future economic loss associated with traumatic back damages. And you may need lifetime nursing and housing care, so this is another important reason to retain the right legal counsel to solicit your insurance claims for you and your family.

Common spinal cord injuries in car accidents require a team of accident scene investigators and accident reconstructionists, as well as an evaluation of evidence. A highly skilled SCI attorney will assist you to assess the accident claims and locating potential other sources of more immediate economic recovery like disability benefits, or victim of crime benefits, as an example. At the most, spinal cord injury attorneys help victims and their families cope with the grief and trauma of the accident.

If you or someone you love was injured from a spinal cord injury in a car wreck, it is vital that you contact a personal injury attorney with expertise in back injuries and whiplash claims.

By Zulma Perdomo Published: 1/10/2008                                                                           Spinal Cord Injury Levels and Classification « Wise Young @ CareCure The most common cervical spinal injuries involve C4 or C5. Let’s consider a person who has had a burst fracture of the C5 vertebral body. The C5 vertebral injury may have injured the underlying C4 spinal cord, the C5 spinal roots that …   Read more… Fort Myers FL Catastrophic Injuries – Christopher H. Brown … Serious Catastrophic Injuries include, but are not limited to:. Serious Head Trauma; Eye Injury; Shoulder Injury; Foot Injury; Neurological Disorders; Brain Injury; Spinal Cord Injury; Severe Burns; Accidental Amputation …   Read more… FAQ #3: Will the Cure Be for Chronic Spinal Cord Injury? « Wise … 2 Responses to “FAQ #3: Will the Cure Be for Chronic Spinal Cord Injury?” Richard Boyle Says: January 4, 2009 at 5:28 pm. Dear Wise:. My cousin Dr. Douglas Kerr has suggested to me that he intends to start human trials sometime this …   Read more… Spinal cord injury: cytokine transport across the blood-spinal … 4. Gene expression profiling of acute spinal cord injury reveals spreading inflammatory signals and neuron loss — CARMEL et al. 7 … Oct 2007. Oligonucleotide microarrays containing 1200 gene-specific probes were used to quantify mRNA …   Read more… Spinal Cord Injury: Hope Through Researchd Injury | Spinal Cord … Any injury to the spinal cord at or above the C3, C4, and C5 segments, which supply the phrenic nerves leading to the diaphragm, can stop breathing. People with these injuries need immediate ventilatory support. When injuries are at the …   Read more… ZZ C 4 C O M · Spinal Injury Solicitors For Castrophic Accident … However, in a ground breaking case, new york city spinal cord injury lawyers have managed to secure a much more substantial payout for a man that ended up as a tetraplegic after a road accident. The financial implications that result …   Read more…

Common Spinal Cord Injuries in Car Accidents is a post from: A Spinal Cord Injury Attorney

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