Texas Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

The spinal cord is paramount to life. Any damage to it can impact your movement and ability to function because the spinal cord carries all the nerve signals to and from your body and brain.

These nerve signals tell your body parts what to do, alert your brain to pain, and direct your overall behavior. As a result, any type of spinal cord injury can be deeply life-altering. Spinal cord damage can impact your ability to remain independent.

In some cases, spinal cord injuries are caused by another’s reckless or negligent actions. Due to the severity of these types of injuries, if you suspect that someone else may be at fault for you or your loved one’s accident, consult with a Texas spinal cord injury lawyer. A quality attorney can help establish if another party’s negligence may have contributed to or caused your accident. If legal liability exists, you may be able to file a claim for compensation to help you cope with the financial losses associated with your accident and injury.

Learn more about spinal cord injuries, personal injury claims, and how our legal team here at DFW Injury Lawyers may be able to help you pursue compensation.

Spinal Cord Injuries: Essential Information

Spinal cord injuries happen when any part of your spinal cord or the nerves attached to it become damaged. When these crucial body parts get hurt, it could cause permanent damage.

Some of the most common symptoms of spinal cord injuries include:

• Experiencing an altered sense of touch or feeling
• A loss of control over your body parts, bowel, or bladder
• Muscle spasms and exaggerated reflex activities
• Changes in sexual sensitivity and function
• Pain, stinging, or tingling sensations in the extremities
• Difficulty breathing
• Weakness or paralysis

Seeing a doctor if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms after an accident is vital. When you delay medical treatment, you could make your injuries worse and put any future claim for compensation at risk, too. That being said, it’s always in your best interests to have a healthcare professional assess your situation.

Complete Vs. Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries range in severity and may be classified as either complete or incomplete. This classification and the severity of your injury are typically based on where the damage occurred and the level of neurological impact.

A complete spinal cord injury usually means that the patient has lost all ability to control movement below the spinal cord damage. An incomplete spinal cord injury happens when the patient still retains some motor functioning below the spinal cord damage. Don’t let the term “incomplete” mislead you into thinking that these injuries aren’t serious.

Incomplete spinal cord damage can still have life-altering effects. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, 65% of all spinal cord injuries are incomplete ones.

What is the Difference Between Paraplegia and Tetraplegia/Quadriplegia?

Spinal cord injuries can further be classified into two categories when the damage results in paralysis: paraplegia and tetraplegia.

Paraplegia happens when spinal cord damage causes paralysis in the trunk, legs, and pelvic areas of a patient. Paraplegia damage stems from the following areas: thoracic (T1-T12), lumbar (L1-L5), or sacral (S1-S5). In general, this type of paralysis only impacts half of the body.

Tetraplegia, on the other hand, impacts all four limbs and the torso area. That means it impacts a person’s arms, hands, trunk, legs, and pelvic areas. This type of spinal damage stems from an injury to the cervical area (C1-C8).

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, incomplete tetraplegia and paraplegia are the most common diagnoses after a spinal cord injury.

Spinal Cord Injuries: Commonly Asked Questions

Spinal cord damage is complicated, and so is dealing with the aftermath of this type of injury. From learning more about your medical condition to finding ways of coping with your injuries, you’ll likely have a lot of questions.

Below, we’ll help you get started on building a foundation of knowledge about spinal cord injuries by answering some of the most frequently asked questions.

How Is a Spinal Cord Injury Diagnosed?

Spinal cord injuries are often the result of a serious accident. They’re often attributed to a crash, sports injury, fall, work-related incident, or another type of jarring physical event.

Brain and spine trauma seem like something that would be immediately obvious, but symptoms can take some time to show up. It’s best to seek treatment as soon as possible to rule out these types of injuries.

To diagnose spine trauma, your doctor will likely perform a series of tests. An X-ray of spinal cord injury damage can help your doctor identify damage. Your medical team might order tests like a CT or MRI scan as well.

Who Treats Spinal Cord Injuries?

Unless injuries are mild, many patients tend to require emergency medical care. Depending on the severity, patients may need stabilization surgery, removable braces, or another type of immediate medical intervention.

Treatment can be very expensive, especially when you need consistent care for an extended period of time. If you’re not sure where to seek treatment, consult with local legal experts. In non-emergency situations, they may be able to recommend essential resources like healthcare practitioners or a Texas spinal clinic.

Once you’re in stable condition and recovering, you can seek out financial assistance to help pay medical bills. One way to get help is to file a claim for compensation from another party who contributed to or caused your accident. A Texas spine and injury lawyer can help determine if filing a legal claim is best in your situation.

How Many Types of Spinal Cord Injuries Are There?

The spinal cord is surrounded by a bony layer of rings, or vertebra. Spinal cord injuries are broken down into four broad categories based on where on the vertebra the damage occurred.

This classification scale breaks down four main types of spinal cord injuries:

• Cervical: The vertebra in the neck
• Thoracic: The vertebra in the chest
• Lumbar: The vertebra in the lower back between where the ribs attach and the pelvis
• Sacral: The vertebra from the pelvis to the end of the spinal cord

Statistics show that the higher up the spinal cord damage occurs, the more likely the person is to suffer a more serious injury.

Traumatic Brain Injuries and Spinal Cord Injuries

A traumatic brain injury happens when the brain suffers damage. TBIs generally happen as a result of accidents, and they can mimic similar symptoms as a spinal cord injury. Both of these conditions can lead to impaired motor functioning, confusion, or weakness in your extremities. Currently, there are no simple cures for severe TBIs or spinal cord injuries, but alleviation of symptoms may be possible. Both types of injuries can have permanent life-altering consequences.

There are specific steps to take after an accident to ensure that you get proper treatment for either one of these conditions. Once you’ve received medical care, you can get a better understanding of your specific condition and what you’ll need to do to get better.

How Does a Spinal Cord Injury Affect the Brain?

A spinal cord injury doesn’t damage your brain, but it does hinder your brain’s ability to function. How?

To make decisions about the environment around us, the brain needs the nervous system to send the proper stimuli and corresponding messages. When a spinal cord injury happens, it interferes with this messaging system. Consider a list of building instructions: If several steps are missing, you can’t build correctly.

How Do Spinal Cord Injuries Happen? 3 Most Common Reasons

Spinal cord injuries almost always result from a violent incident. Most violence is accidental, like in the case of a car crash or fall, but it can result from intentional and criminal behavior, too.

Here are the top three causes of spinal cord damage:

1. Motor Vehicle Accidents

One of the leading causes of spinal cord accidents is auto collisions. In a motor vehicle accident, people go from moving at a very high speed to a sudden stop.

This jolt of the collision can result in a blow or damage to any area of the spinal cord and surrounding tissues due to the trauma itself. What’s more, some crashes can lead to crushing injuries, dislocations, or puncture-related spinal cord damage.

Motor vehicle accidents include several types of collisions:

• Car Accidents
• Pedestrian Accidents
• Truck Crashes
• Bicycle Accidents
• Motorcycle Collisions

In these types of accidents, usually, one driver’s negligence is what causes the collision. With such substantial injuries, it is worth considering filing a claim against a negligent driver or a similar party if their behavior caused the crash.

2. Catastrophic Falls

Another common cause of spinal cord injuries is a catastrophic fall accident. A fall broken by someone’s arms or shoulder can lead to significant damage, and any fall from a height can lead to severe spinal cord damage.

Slip and falls can be catastrophic even when they aren’t from a height. If you suffer a fall accident on someone else’s property, it might be necessary to consider your legal options.

A personal injury lawyer can help determine if your fall was caused by unsafe conditions on the property or negligence on behalf of the property owner. If so, premises liability laws could work to your advantage by allowing you to file a claim for compensation.

3. Violence and Physical Attacks

Unfortunately, acts of intentional violence are the third leading cause of spinal cord injuries. This includes gun violence and knife injuries. In some cases, it may be possible to seek out both criminal charges and a personal injury lawsuit against the perpetrator. If the attack occurred on private property, such as a nightclub or in the parking lot of a store, and lax security and safety measures helped enable the violence to occur, you may have grounds to file a lawsuit.

Is a Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit Right for You?

If you’re undergoing treatment for a spinal cord injury and are considering your losses, you might want to know more about your legal options. Local spinal cord injury lawyers can help recommend the optimal path forward based on the circumstances of your accident, the severity of your injury, and the extent of your losses.

In general, a spinal cord injury lawsuit might be a good decision for you if you or your loved one’s injury was likely caused by someone else and you’re experiencing significant financial losses as a result.

A claim can help you recover financially from losses like:

• Medical Bills
• Lost Wages
• Pain and Suffering
• Future Care Costs
• A Loss of Quality of Life
• Punitive Damages
• Costs of In-House Services and Care
• Funeral and Memorial Expenses, in the Event of a Wrongful Death

Filing a spinal cord injury claim can be a time-consuming process: Hire a reputable firm to take the burden off of you and secure the compensation you need to move forward.

How Much is a Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit Worth?

In general, a spinal cord injury lawsuit will be worth what the individual lost. This includes all the damages we’ve outlined above. The point of pursuing a personal injury lawsuit is to help financially restore you to the same position you were in prior to the accident.

There are a few things that could impact the value of the claim, though, including:

• Who is at fault for the accident
• Whether any legal duty of care existed in the situation
• Whether your own negligence contributed to the accident
• How long you waited to file a claim
• The extent of your losses

Spinal cord injury lawsuit results can vary, but working with a firm with proven past case results may give you a better chance of securing a favorable legal outcome.

How a Texas Spinal Cord Injury Attorney Can Help

When seeking compensation for spinal cord injuries, you have the full responsibility of proving what happened, what you lost, and why the other party should be held legally liable. While you might think your case is straightforward, the other party is likely to push back against your claims.

A personal injury lawyer can help you throughout the entire process of filing a claim. First, you’ll have a free consultation with the lawyer to discuss your situation. Right away, your attorney will help in determining whether you have the basis to seek out a claim.

From there, an attorney will help you file your paperwork, collect evidence to back up your claims, prove your losses, negotiate with the necessary parties, and bring your case to trial if necessary.

How Do I Find a Spinal Injury Lawyer Near Me?

There may be many local lawyers in your area, but not all of them will be equally prepared to handle a spinal injury personal injury claim. To find the best legal representative, take the following steps:

1. Look for Local Personal Injury Firms

First, look for a local lawyer who handles personal injury claims. A law firm that focuses on other areas of the law, like divorces or criminal cases, will likely not be able to take on your type of situation.

2. Look at Previous Case Results

Next, check out the lawyer’s previous case results to get a better idea of the types of cases they’ve handled in the past and what type of settlement awards they were able to secure for their clients.

3. Check Reviews and Testimonials

Next, check out previous client’s testimonials. Previous clients will be able to give you a better idea of how the attorney communicates, tackles their claims, and represents them.

4. Ask for a Free Consultation

Finally, schedule a free consultation with your potential attorneys. During the consultation, ask specific questions to get a better idea about whether the lawyer will be a good fit for your case.

During the consultation, you’ll discuss the specifics of your accident and losses, but be sure to also ask more about how the lawyer will handle your case.

Talk With a Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer Today

Are you currently attempting to cope with the financial losses associated with your spinal cord injury? Do you believe that someone else may share some legal liability after contributing to or causing your accident?

Rather than attempting to deal with your situation on your own, it makes the most sense to consult with an attorney. An initial meeting with a lawyer shouldn’t cost you anything, but it can help you learn more about your legal rights and options.

Here at DFW Injury Lawyers, we’d be happy to talk to you more about your accident, injuries, losses, and rights. Schedule your free consultation with our team now to get started.