Compensation When a Back Injury Occurs
Whether you are hurt in a car accident, a slip and fall at the grocery store or assaulted in a parking lot, back injuries can result in serious trauma. Some are disabling and others resolve with rest and analgesics. Most are in the middle and can cause persistent back problems for many years. Back injuries need to be verified by a medical professional, and evidence must support that the accident was due to negligence. Let’s look at the way back injuries occur, their impact and how to obtain the compensation you deserve.
Categories of Back Injuries
There are many different types of back injuries. A large number of them are caused by rear-end collisions. This type of accident, despite its relatively slow speed, causes the head, neck and upper back to decelerate and accelerate in a whip-like fashion. When this occurs, the tendons, ligaments and muscles are stretched and injured.
In other types of injuries, a vertebra may slip or put pressure on a nerve exiting the spinal cord, causing pain and dysfunction. Here, resolution of the injury may require medical or surgical intervention. A slip and fall can cause a spinal fracture and result in persistent pain.
The Human Back
The human back stretches from the neck (cervical area) to the base of the spine (sacrum). It is made up of vertebrae that shelter the spinal cord and allows nerves to exit as they travel to different areas of the body. There are seven vertebrae in the cervical area, 12 in the thoracic area or mid-back and five in the lumbar. The sacrum has five fused vertebra and the tail bone has four.
Types of Back Injuries
- Sprain: This type of injury results when a ligament stretches beyond its length.
- Strain: Here, a tendon or muscle is overstretched.
- Herniated disk: Vertebrae are separated from each other by a gel-like sac called a disk. The gel prevents the vertebrae from rubbing on one another or the nerves that exit the spinal cord. After an accident, the gel may leak, and the vertebrae can rub on each other or a nerve, causing pain.
- Fracture: On occasion, the vertebrae fracture. This is often due to a fall.
- Spinal cord injury: This injury often results in limited or full paralysis. Greater spinal cord injury occurs when the cervical cord is damaged. Today, treatment for spinal cord injury is evolving.
Treatment Cost
The type, length and intensity of treatment depends on the seriousness of the injury. Spinal cord injury often involves long-term therapy. This can include home care after the injury is treated in the hospital. Overall, spinal cord injury causes the greatest monetary issues and requires the most compensation.
Spinal cord injury requires extensive work-ups to pinpoint the damage and sophisticated methods of treatment. After leaving the hospital, a patient often requires medical care at home along with rehabilitative therapy. This results in high costs, all of which should be paid by the negligent party.
Morris Law Firm
The Morris Law Firm fights for your rights. They work hard to obtain the compensation you deserve and ensure that you be treated fairly and with respect. We understand the pain a serious back injury can cause. Give us a call at (843) 232-0944 to schedule a free case review. You can also contact us online. We will answer your questions and give you your options moving forward. It is bad enough that you must suffer the physical and emotional pain a negligent party caused, don’t assume the cost too.
