Finding Justice Following a Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal cord injuries can be devastating both medically and mentally for you and your loved ones. Whether you’re driving, in the wrong place at the wrong time, playing your favorite game at the court or you take a spill, spinal cord injuries can occur in a split second — and they can have lasting impacts on your quality of life and ability to work.
The most common causes of serious spinal cord injury include:
- 40 percent: motorcycle and motor vehicle accidents;
- 25 percent: falls from distance or slip and fall scenarios;
- 15 percent: violence, including assaults or confrontations with negligent security officers; and
- 8 percent: Sports injuries.
Catastrophic injuries, like spinal injuries, however they occur, can have devastating, lasting impacts.
Spinal cord injuries are defined as a blow to the spine causing fractures, dislocation, crushing or compression of vertebrae. In severe cases, the spinal cord could be severed entirely. Spinal cord injuries are also potential cause for paralysis or loss of feeling in parts of the body. In some instances, you may still have some function of affected limbs or areas of the body. This determination often depends on whether it is a partial or complete spinal cord injury.
The types of spinal cord injuries include but are not limited to:
- Paralysis: This refers to losing all ability in a certain part of your body and it occurs to the part of your body below the area of the spinal cord injury. When the lower part of your body, including both of your legs, is paralyzed it’s referred to as paraplegia. Quadriplegia occurs from the neck down, meaning both of your legs and both of your arms are paralyzed. Paralysis is caused when you have a complete injury to your spinal cord.
- Anterior cord syndrome: The anterior cord supplies blood to the spine. This syndrome is caused when the anterior cord is injured, blocking blood to the spine. As a result, you may lose ability to move affected areas of the body. You may retain some sensation.
- Central cord syndrome: Your spine nerve fibers communicate from the spinal cord to the brain, traveling between the two providing information. When this is injured, it can cause loss of movement in the arms, minor loss of movement in the legs and/or loss of total bladder control.
- Posterior cord syndrome: When the posterior cord is injured, it may cause sensory loss and in some cases creates an electrical-type sensation moving down the back of the legs.
Filing a personal injury claim
If you live in Florida and you’ve recently been dealt a catastrophic injury, including an injury to the spine, contact the Boone & Davis. The accident attorneys in the Fort Lauderdale-based law firm have more than 40 years combined years of practice. The lawyers at Boone & Davis have helped Floridians recover $1 million and above settlements in more than 100 cases. Contact Boone & Davis today.
