Spinal Cord Injuries & Personal Injury Claims

Spinal cord injuries involve trauma that dislocates or fractures vertebrae, the bones around your spinal cord. Consequently, bone fragments, ligaments or disc material can rip into spinal cord tissue. These spinal cord injuries may be caused by falls, car accidents, sports, assaults or industrial accidents.

If you or a loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident in Hawaii, you should speak with a Honolulu personal injury lawyer to discuss whether someone else’s negligence caused your injuries. A Honolulu personal injury lawyer might be able to help you recover damages for medical expenses and pain and suffering.

Complete and Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries

A spinal cord injury can be either complete or incomplete. With complete spinal cord injuries, you will lose the ability to feel sensations and move voluntarily below the area where the injury occurred.

With an incomplete injury, you will have some functioning below the area of injury. For example, you might be able to move one leg more than the other or feel parts of your body that you are not able to move.

Both complete and incomplete spinal cord injuries could result in one or more of the following symptoms:

• loss of mobility;
• loss of the ability to feel;
• loss of bladder and bowel control;
• exaggerated reflexes or spasms;
• changes in sexual sensitivity or function;
• pain from damaged nerve fibers; and
• difficulty breathing.

The body parts affected by the spinal cord injury will depend on where it has occurred. Injuries that occur higher along the spinal cord could result in quadriplegia. With quadriplegia, your arms, chest, pelvic organs and legs will be affected. If the injury has occurred in the upper part of your neck, you will likely need the assistance of a ventilator for breathing. Injuries that occur lower along the spinal cord could result in paraplegia, which affects your legs, pelvic organs and chest.

Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries

Since there is no cure for spinal cord injuries, treatment involves preventing additional injuries and helping those who are affected to lead a fulfilling and productive life.

Treatments include medication to reduce damage to nerve cells shortly after the injury has occurred, traction to keep your spine stabilized and surgery to remove foreign objects that may be compressing your spine.

The cost of living with a spinal cord injury can be excessive, but if your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence, you might be eligible to file a Hawaii personal injury claim with the assistance of a Honolulu personal injury lawyer.