Top Five Back Injury Causes

The lifetime medical bills associated with a serious spine injury could be more than $5 million. This financial figure doesn’t begin to cover the severe emotional distress that these victims, and their loved ones, must deal with. $5 million doesn’t buy much. Generally, the only available treatment options available are risky surgery or addictive pain pills. Both these options are quite unattractive, to say the least.

A Missouri City back/disc injury attorney cannot undo the accident that caused a serious back injury. However, an attorney can obtain the compensation these victims need to pay these medical bills and move on with their lives. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and non economic losses, such as pain and suffering.

High-Speed Car Crash

Today’s vehicles are so big and so fast that a safety restraint system, no matter how advanced it is, can possibly absorb all the force in these wrecks. Therefore, immediate and catastrophic spine injuries are very common in high-speed collisions. The aforementioned medical expenses are just the beginning. These victims must also pay for costly renovations to their homes.

Minor spine injuries, like bruises and cracked vertebrae, happen a lot as well. Since back injuries are so difficult and expensive to treat, many doctors do not address these injuries. Instead they tell these victims to do some exercise and take it easy. This passive treatment approach might work in the short term, but it usually causes long-term problems.

Low-Speed Car Crash

The spine, especially the cervical spine, is a delicate area. Any sudden, violent motion could knock the spine out of alignment. This combination makes whiplash, a head-neck injury, very common in low-speed vehicle collisions.

Whiplash is almost impossible to diagnose. This soft tissue injury doesn’t appear on X-rays and other common diagnostic tests. Additionally, initial whiplash symptoms, like soreness and disorientation, mimic accident shock. Therefore, most doctors don’t properly and promptly treat these back injuries.

A Missouri City personal injury attorney connects crash victims with doctors who specialize in these matters, so these diagnosis and treatment problems usually aren’t an issue.

Fall

Falls combine the trauma of a high-speed wreck and the motion of a low-speed car crash. The force isn’t nearly as bad, but fall victims have no seat belts or airbags to protect them.

Fall-related spine injuries are especially severe if the victim has arthritis or another pre-existing condition. Most fall victims are older adults who have such pre-existing conditions.

In Texas, landowners usually have a duty of care to make property reasonably safe for invitees, who are usually business customers or social guests.

Muscle Strain

Repeated heavy lifting or a sudden awkward movement usually strains back muscles and spinal ligaments. For people in poor physical condition, constant strain on the back often causes painful muscle spasms.

These injuries often happen at work. If that’s the case, workers’ compensation benefits may be available. These benefits replace lost wages and pay medical bills.

Ruptured Disk

Disks are cushions between bones in the spine. The soft material inside a disk can bulge or rupture and press on a nerve.

Additionally, a bulging or ruptured disk might not cause back pain. Since victims aren’t in pain, they don’t immediately see doctors, and their backs get worse. Once again, insurance companies usually cannot use this lack of immediate treatment as an excuse to reduce or deny compensation.

Reach Out to a Tough-Minded Fort Bend County Attorney

Injury victims are entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Missouri City, contact the Henrietta Ezeoke Law Firm. You have a limited amount of time to act.

Source:

christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/costs-and-insurance/costs-of-living-with-spinal-cord-injury