Spinal cord injuries are some of the most traumatic injuries a person can suffer, as they can have catastrophic consequences for a person’s physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. Not only can these injuries result in permanent disabilities that can drastically alter a person’s lifestyle and future wage-earning opportunities, but they can cause a frustrating loss of independence that can weigh heavily on your mind. In some cases, these injuries may be treated or managed through extensive treatment and rehabilitation programs, but the process can be costly.
Personal injury law allows victims, including those with scarring injuries caused by other people, to seek compensation to cover medical bills, lost wages, and other damages. McAllen residents can rely on the compassionate and hard-working McAllen spinal cord injury lawyers at Patino Law Firm for help with fighting for the maximum financial compensation they deserve.
The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that extends from the base of the skull to the waist area, encased within the bony vertebra of the spine. It operates as a message center, delivering impulses from the brain that control the function of the rest of the body. A spinal cord injury refers to damage to this cord, causing loss of sensation and function beneath the injury site.
Spinal injuries are often referred to as incomplete or complete, depending on the amount of sensation and function remaining. An incomplete spinal cord injury means the sufferer retains some function beneath the injury site. A complete spinal cord injury indicates that all sensation and function below the injury site has been lost.
The loss of sensation and function suffered after a spinal cord injury is known as paralysis. Paraplegia is paralysis that affects all or part of the body’s trunk, legs, and pelvic region. Tetraplegia — also known as quadriplegia — affects sensation and function in the shoulders, arms, hands, chest, trunk, pelvis, and legs.
The spine is made up of segments, and each one controls the messaging to different areas of the body. These segments and the portion of the body they control include:
The most significant impairments caused by spinal cord injuries happen in the cervical region, paralyzing much of the entire body from the neck down.
Our experienced McAllen spinal cord injury attorneys have compiled a list of the most common accidents that lead to spinal cord injuries:
After spinal cord damages or any injuries from any of the above accidents, consider speaking to an experienced spinal cord injury attorney to discuss your potential legal options.
Around 90 percent of spinal cord injuries are caused either by preventable accidents or acts of violence.
Some of the ways these injuries occur include:
Alcohol use is considered a factor in about one-quarter of all new spinal cord injuries.
Between 243,000 and 347,000 people in the U.S. currently live with spinal cord injuries. While this type of injury can happen to any person of any age, spinal cord injuries are most often seen in men, with males making up around 80 percent of all new spinal cord injuries each year. The average age of injury onset in the U.S. is currently 42. This is a significant leap from the average age of 29 in 1970 and could be associated with the increasingly active lifestyles of those in middle age.
White, non-Hispanic Americans make up roughly 63 percent of all new spinal cord injury cases in the U.S. Black Americans are disproportionately affected by the injury. The country’s non-Hispanic Black population accounts for around 12 percent of the total population of the U.S. but accounts for 22 percent of new spinal cord injury cases.
In addition to paralysis, spinal cord injuries often present serious complications throughout the sufferer’s life that require medical treatment.
Some of those complications include:
Because of their complexity, spinal cord injuries can be extremely expensive. The average length of a hospital stay immediately after a spinal cord injury is 11 days, followed by a stay at a rehabilitation facility for an average of 35 days.
A person who has suffered an injury to the cervical area of the spine and subsequent high tetraplegia may have to pay more than $1 million for the first year of their treatment and more than $184,000 a year on treatment and living expenses for each following year. On the other end of the scale, those who have suffered an incomplete loss of motor function at any level may face first-year treatment and living expenses of almost $350,000, with the cost ranging around $42,000 for each subsequent year.
Those who suffer a spinal cord injury that results in high tetraplegia at the age of 25 may face a lifetime of costs upwards of $4.7 million. People with the same injury at 50 years old could have to deal with costs that exceed $2.5 million during their lifetime. Patients who retain some motor function after experiencing a spinal cord injury at 25 may still have to pay more than $1.5 million to treat their injury throughout their life.
These figures represent the costs of injury-related medical treatment and living expenses alone. They don’t account for either the indirect costs of the injury (such as lost income) or the extraordinary impacts that this type of injury creates in all facets of the injured person’s life.
People living with a spinal cord injury are two to five times more likely to experience premature death as a result. The risk of mortality is at its highest in the first year after the injury occurred. The leading cause of death in individuals who have suffered a spinal cord injury is pneumonia, followed by septicemia.
As with most things related to this type of injury, the impact on life expectancy depends on the location and severity of the injury. Those who retain motor function have a life expectancy that’s only six or seven years lower than those without a spinal cord injury. However, people who suffer from paraplegia or tetraplegia, due to their injury, have a life expectancy between 15 and 40 years lower than those who do not.
Spinal cord injuries can have a devastating impact on a person’s life. These injuries may result in the following concerns, some of which can be permanent problems:
Covering the costs of spinal cord injuries may put an unfair burden on an injured individual. However, if another person or party is at fault for the injury, the victim may be entitled to seek compensation to make up for his or her losses.
If you or your loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury in McAllen or elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley that was caused by someone else’s careless actions, you may be entitled to compensation.
A McAllen spinal cord injury lawyer will seek to prove two things: liability and expenses. Liability is established by demonstrating the following:
Some of the damages you may seek in a McAllen spinal cord lawsuit include:
To learn more about the legal process of obtaining compensation after suffering a spinal cord injury and for a free case evaluation, contact the McAllen spinal cord injury attorneys at Patino Law Firm online or by calling 855-LAW-NINJA.
Suppose you or someone you love has sustained a spinal cord injury because of someone else’s negligent or thoughtless action in driving, practicing medicine, operating a nursing home, or other such responsibilities. In that case, there may be legal options available to fight for financial compensation. For more information about how to prepare a claim after an injury, contact a McAllen personal injury lawyer from Patino Law Firm today.
You can reach us 24/7.
In a personal injury case, a lawyer will seek to prove that another person’s negligence was the cause of the victim’s injury. The lawyer will also seek compensation for the victim, according to the costs incurred to the victim due to the injury, and also to compensate for pain and suffering.
Some legal experts say the average personal injury lawsuit in Texas takes about two years to resolve. Simple personal injury cases can be settled within a few weeks, but spinal cord injury cases are rarely simple and may take months or even years.
Speak to an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer today to get your case moving.
The compensation you can claim depends on your total economic, non-economic and punitive damages. Your economic damages are calculated by assessing medical expenses, loss of income and benefits, property damage, and other out-of-pocket expenses.
These economic damages can be significant in the case of a spinal cord injury. According to the Christopher Reeve Foundation, the healthcare costs and living expenses for someone with High Tetraplegia are $1.163,425 in the first year and $202,032 each subsequent year. This does not include loss of income.
There are no caps on recovering economic damages. But in Texas, there are caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice, which cover pain and suffering, emotional pain, the loss of companionship, and loss of consortium. In a medical malpractice claim, the maximum amount of non-economic damages you can get among all defendants is $750,000.
There’s a limit of $200,000 or two times the amount of the economic damages, whichever is larger on punitive damages (also known as exemplary damages).
If you suffered a spinal cord injury at work, it’s best to speak to an experienced personal injury lawyer to see if you may be eligible for compensation. A personal injury lawyer will support you throughout your case and help you recover the maximum compensation you are entitled to.
At Patino Law Firm, we work on a “no fee until you win” basis, so you’ve got nothing to lose by picking up the phone and giving us a call. For a spinal cord injury in McAllen, call 956-631-3535.
Generally speaking, you can only claim compensation from an at-fault party. If you were the only party at fault, you would not be able to claim compensation. However, are you sure that no one else was at fault? If someone else’s negligence contributed to your accident, you may be able to claim compensation. The best thing to do is speak to an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer to discuss your case.
It depends. If your employer has workers’ compensation coverage, Texan law limits their liability for workplace accidents.
However, if your employer does not have workers’ compensation coverage, they are considered a non-subscriber. An employer may be liable for damages from an employee’s injury, even if the injured employee is partly at fault.
You may be able to sue your employer if their negligence caused your injury. In Texas, businesses that have workers’ compensation coverage are protected from regular negligence claims. However, an employer can be sued for gross negligence, even if they have workers’ compensation coverage. Gross negligence is when an employer knowingly puts employees at extreme risk.
Generally speaking, there’s a two-year limit on personal injury claims from the time when the incident occurred. However, some employers place stricter limits in their contracts, only allowing employees one year to sue in the case of a workplace injury. As always, we recommend checking your specific case with an experienced personal injury lawyer as quickly as possible to avoid having your case time-barred.
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