The long-term effects of a spinal cord injury typically affect your bone health, disrupt the function of various organ systems (including the cardiovascular system), limit mobility, and reduce or eliminate sensation in certain parts of the body.
These are a few of the many possible long-term effects of a spinal cord injury. Our team is available to fight for the compensation you deserve for medical treatment, lost income, and other damages resulting from your spinal cord injury.
- Short- and Long-Term Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries
- Types of Spinal Cord Injuries That Often Cause Long-Lasting Symptoms
- Spinal Cord Injury Victims Could Seek Compensation From Liable Parties
- A Lawyer Will Seek a Financial Recovery for Your Spinal Cord Injury
- Call Friedman & Simon, L.L.P. Today for a Free Consultation About Your Spinal Cord Injury
Short- and Long-Term Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries
You cannot measure the toll of a spinal cord injury by its health effects alone. When someone suffers an injury to the spinal cord, they generally experience:
Health Effects
Mayo Clinic lists some of the common symptoms of spinal cord injuries, including:
- Loss of sensation in certain body parts
- Loss of the ability to move certain body parts
- Loss of bladder and bowel control
- Loss of sexual function
- Severe pain
- Difficulty or inability to walk
- Breathing difficulties
- Uncontrollable reflexes or spasms
- General weakness
These symptoms sometimes improve with time and rehabilitation, depending on the type of injury you’ve suffered.
Effects on Your Personal Life
The symptoms of a spinal cord injury could:
- Adversely affect your current relationship or any relationships you’ll pursue in the future
- Change your abilities as a parent
- Cause substantial mental health problems, as spinal cord injuries often cause depression, suicidality, and other serious conditions
- Deprive you of physical activities that bring you joy
Few injuries affect one’s quality of life as substantially as spinal cord injuries.
Effects on Your Professional Life
A spinal cord injury could prevent or restrict you from doing your job, which might:
- Require you to abandon a career that you’ve invested years into
- Deprive you of the fulfillment your career provides
- Cause you to lose income, bonus opportunities, promotions, and professional benefits
- Diminish your earning capacity
We will calculate the cost of these professional damages and any other harm resulting from your spinal cord injury.
For a free legal consultation, call 516-932-0400
Types of Spinal Cord Injuries That Often Cause Long-Lasting Symptoms
Our team is familiar with many spinal cord injuries that cause pain, impair quality of life, and warrant a claim or lawsuit, including:
- Cervical spinal cord injuries: These injuries affect the seven vertebrae (bones) in your neck, which are known as the cervical vertebrae. Injuries to these vertebrae sometimes cause paralysis and other serious symptoms.
- Thoracic spinal cord injuries: 12 vertebrae at the chest level of the spine are called thoracic vertebrae. Injuries to these vertebrae also contribute to paralysis.
- Lumbar spinal cord injuries: Vertebrae in your lower back are known as lumbar vertebrae, and this is a common site of back pain for those who suffer spinal cord injuries. Nerves in this area of the spine generally allow the function of your lower body, including your legs.
- Sacral spinal cord injuries: The vertebrae at the end of your spinal column are the sacral vertebrae. Injuries to these vertebrae often cause pain and other symptoms, including dysfunction in your hips and legs.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) notes that two other injury categories describe the severity of the spinal cord injury:
- Complete injury: A complete injury ends all nerve function below the location of the injury, and this generally means that the victim has some degree of paralysis.
- Incomplete injury: An incomplete spinal cord injury allows for some communication between the injury location and the brain, which could allow the injured person to retain some feeling and function in affected body parts.
Both complete and incomplete spinal cord injuries are expensive to treat and will almost certainly diminish, to a significant degree, the injured person’s quality of life.
Spinal Cord Injury Victims Could Seek Compensation From Liable Parties
When someone’s negligence causes a spinal cord injury, those affected should seek compensation from the liable parties. Negligence happens when someone acts in any way that a “reasonable” person would not have in the same circumstances.
Some common instances that lead to spinal cord injuries and related claims are:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Rideshare accidents
- Construction accidents
- Slip and fall accidents
- Trip and fall accidents
- Medical errors
- Animal attacks
If you or a loved one suffered a spinal cord injury in these or other circumstances, our team wants to hear from you.
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A Lawyer Will Seek a Financial Recovery for Your Spinal Cord Injury
Those with spinal cord injuries often face a long road to recovery. You might also be struggling with the psychological and emotional toll of your injuries. Few spinal cord injury victims have the time, will, or energy, let alone the specific education, training, and experience to effectively lead a lawsuit or claim without an attorney’s guidance.
Those who hire an attorney for their spinal cord injury case benefit from:
- Allowing the lawyer to handle every step in the legal process
- Having the lawyer handle stressful communication with adversarial parties
- Knowing that deadlines which, if missed, could limit or prevent a successful outcome, will be met in a timely and technically appropriate manner
- Focusing on recovery
- Protecting their mental health
- Allowing the law firm to shoulder the financial cost of your case
Our firm requires no upfront fees from you. We cover the cost of your case, and we only receive a fee if we secure a settlement or judgment. This contingency-fee arrangement ensures that you have access to our representation regardless of your financial circumstances.
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Call Friedman & Simon, L.L.P. Today for a Free Consultation About Your Spinal Cord Injury
A spinal cord injury lawyer from Friedman & Simon, L.L.P. will fight for the financial recovery you deserve. We’ll seek money for medical bills, pain and suffering, assistive equipment, rehab-related expenses, lost income, and other damages from your injury.
Our team has recovered more than $250 million for our clients, and we want to add your case to our list of recoveries. We will consider it a privilege to help you rebuild your life to the greatest extent possible. Call Friedman & Simon, L.L.P. today for your free consultation.
Call or text 516-932-0400 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form