Each year, between 12,000 and 15,000 people in the United States become victims of spinal cord injury (SCI). Of this, close to 10,000 people become permanently paralyzed and require long-term care and rehabilitation. Most spinal cord injuries occur among healthy males of between 15 and 35 years of age. The Mayo Clinic estimates that close to 45 percent of all spinal injuries result from automobile and motorcycle accidents, while falls, sports injuries and violence are major contributors to SCI as well. In addition, spinal injuries can sometimes also result from illnesses such as cancerous tumors, developmental disorders, degenerative diseases and causes such as aneurysms and strokes.
Types of spinal cord injury
Clinically speaking, a spinal cord injury occurs when the spinal cord is either severed or when the cells and nerve roots that carry messages between the brain and other parts of the body, are critically damaged. Typically, a spinal cord injury impairs movement and feeling below the point where the injury occurs while all functionality above the injury level remains largely unaffected. For instance, an injury to the lower or the sacral region of the spine can affect some or all functionality of the legs, the stomach, chest bladder and bowels, while an injury to the upper spine can impact the functionality of all four limbs. When SCI causes all four limbs to be paralyzed, the condition is called quadriplegia or tetraplegia. Quadriplegia victims usually lose all sensation and movement below their shoulders. When a spinal cord injury results in only the victim’s legs, becoming paralyzed, the condition is known as paraplegia. In general, paraplegia victims retain most upper body functionality and are able to lead far more independent and functional lives, as compared to quadriplegia victims.
Complete and incomplete injury
The degree to which a spinal cord injury affects sensation and motor functions depends on whether the injury is a complete one, or an incomplete injury, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. A complete injury is one in which the victim feels no sensation, or motor functions in the lowest, sacral regions of the spine. Most victims of complete injury are paralyzed for life. In case the victim has sensation and motor function in lowest sacral region, the spinal injury is classified as an incomplete injury. Victims of incomplete spinal cord injury can have varying degrees of motor and sensory function. In some cases, the damage caused to the victim’s nerve fibers can heal over time and the victim may recover some of their lost motor and sensory functions.
Spinal injuries can result in permanent and life-altering consequences for victims and often require long-term rehabilitative care and therapy. Victims are often given functional goals during the rehabilitation stage, which they then try to achieve with proper care and treatment.
Goldberg & Osborne, a personal injury law firm, has provided this article for informational purposes only, written by an independent author, and has not reviewed or edited this article and is not responsible for its content or accuracy.
Have you faced a major accident and have injured your head badly? Are you facing major physical distress and financial problems because of that accident? If so, you are entitled to claim damages for your brain injury especially if it is found that you are not at fault. Now, before you can claim compensation, there are a few essentials that you need to keep in mind. First, you must ensure that you were completely careful about your own safety. For instance if you work in a construction site, you must wear a helmet during your duty hours or wear a seat belt while driving. In spite of paying attention to safety attributes, if you still meet with an accident owing to someone else’s negligence then you can file a case again him and demand for brain injury compensation.
Before you go ahead and file your charges go ahead and talk to an expert physician and get your condition ascertained. Some of the common symptoms which you might face if you have injured your brain badly are a feeling of nausea and vomiting tendencies, seizures, getting exhausted and fatigued frequently, bleeding with vomiting, bad headaches and such. If the situation worsens you might even suffer from loss of memory, loss of vision, stuttered speech, dejection, loss of balance etc. If you want to avoid such a condition then do not delay much and go get expert help as soon as you can.
Now, these symptoms might not be immediate all the time and can be delayed. Hence if you have hurt your head badly, do not wait for the symptoms to crop up. Straightaway get in touch with your physician. It is also advised that you should seek help from an attorney pertaining to such cases if you want to claim compensation for your brain injury. Treatment of brain injury can leave you with a major hole in you pocket. If the accident was not your fault and you want to be reimbursed accordingly, getting in touch with an attorney can be a fine idea. They are experts at handling such cases and can cater to your problems well.
Now, if you can furnish evidences that prove that the accident was entirely due to fault of the other party, such as eye witnesses, your case becomes much stronger. Thus, keep all your medical record ready and stay in touch with the eyewitnesses to make the process of demanding compensation a smooth sailing one.
Pretty similar to the fact that a responsible citizen has to perform certain duties towards his/ her country, in return he too is entitled to certain benefits. A basic right which every citizen should have is to get proper medical care as and when needed. If you are deprived of that right and any sort of negligence is shown towards you on medical grounds, then you have every right to claim damages on the ground of breaching laws. Now, before you get into further legal intricacies, it is advised that you get yourself more aware of the sorts of clinical negligence and the ways to combat them by claiming damages.
First, be very clear of the fact that you are entitled to proper care and medical service, if you are paying for them. Do not hesitate to ask for more, if equivalent service is not being delivered to you as paid for. If in spite of the warnings, still no improvement shows in service then you have every right to claim damages. But, the only snag in the process is that simple facts like miscommunication and misbehavior on the part of the staff cannot be grounds for filing a case against them. It is only when that sort of clinical negligence has made your medical condition much worse; you can go ahead with filing the case. Now, before the insurance company remunerates you for these damages, they make it a point to undertake a much detailed investigation.
In order to steer clear of all the intricacies and making the process a smooth sailing one, make certain that you have all your evidences ready with you and can produce them as asked for. Hence, whenever you feel that you have been shown negligence on clinical grounds, make sure that you keep records of the incidents. Misdiagnosis, birth injury, surgical error, unnecessary surgeries, faulty medication, misbehavior on part of the staff etc. are few common grounds on which you can claim damages for.
Since, clinical negligence is nothing but a sort of professional negligence; therefore you have very right to claim compensation for it. Now, if you have been misdiagnosed and the doctors have prescribed you wrong medications or gone ahead with unnecessary surgery, you can very well go ahead and claim compensation. These are serious issues and can be fatal too if attended to in a substandard manner. Keep all your evidences handy, and do not hesitate to ask for a fair decision if you have been attended to in a substandard manner.
Effects of brain injury can cause severe memory loss in the patient. They suffer from concentration and focus problems and lose their confidence level. They lose the ability to read and write, feel de-motivated and face problems in any sort of adult decision making.
In earlier days, when someone suffered from brain injury,”spontaneous recovery” is what one expected within a period of 6-8 months. However, as time went by, various methods of brain injury rehabilitation was the only hope of recovery as the family members realized that the injured person was not responding and showed no further progress. Fortunately, individuals suffering from head injuries can retain old skills, learn new ones and lead a normal healthy life if the right kind of brain injury rehabilitation is provided to them.
It is always advisable to carry the brain injury rehabilitation process in the house as that setting is familiar to the injured individual. Firstly, assessment of speech, cognitive and behavioral problems and identification of the individual’s strengths and weaknesses need to be done. Depending on the requirement of the individual, the right kind of physical and occupational therapy, language and speech therapy has to be provided. Structure plays a very vital role in the life of a brain injured individual. Most often the head injured individual is allowed to sleep throughout the day or eat anytime making the daily routine completely haphazard. Hence, a tight structure is essential to give the injured individual a chance to adapt new skills and increase his or her capabilities.
If the injured individual is throwing tantrums and behaving badly, is destructive or becoming extremely demanding it immediately needs to be checked as it might worsen. Also, if the individual’s behavior goes out of control, then learning new things for him will become extremely difficult. In that case, a change of environment and an attendant has to be employed. Until and unless the injured individual is able to focus and concentrate, signs of recovery would be far.
A person who has sustained a head injury once is likely to suffer some more additional ones in the future. Hence, here are some more quick key points to keep in mind for head injured individuals. They should stay away from an environment that contains high levels of toxic substances and fumes like paints, chemicals, alcohol and non-prescribed medicines. It is imperative for you to ensure that the head injured individual is maintaining a good balanced diet with the right nutritional supplements. Overdose of vitamins and minerals should be avoided as they are toxic in nature and may react in the wrong way.
If you’ve been accumulating traffic tickets one too many times, sometimes posing a challenge to the police officer to rethink the scenario of what actually took place can be rather easy. A police officer can make a subjective decision depending on the situation and whether you actually violated the law. This is the first strategy of fighting a traffic ticket.
In a situation where the police office must make an objective decision, it often comes down to whose version of the story seems most acceptable. For instance, if you failed to stop at the red light, or made a prohibited turn the judge can decide depending on what he hears and believes from the two versions. Most of the time, the police officer’s version is deemed true. That is unless you can cast a doubt on the accuracy of the officer’s story. There are several ways of raising reasonable doubt. For instance, you can obtain witness statements such as bystanders and passengers to testify on your behalf citing your version of the story. Present a clear diagram placing your vehicle and the police officer’s vehicle with traffic signals and retell your version of the story to prove its accuracy.
Some judges allow leniency if your circumstances were beyond control. If you prove that you made an honest mistake, the judge may claim ‘mistake of fact’ which means that you won’t be getting another ticket. Some examples where this kind of leniency is practiced if you couldn’t clearly see the pedestrian crossing because they were faded or you didn’t stop at the stop sign due to a broken branch blocking your view or a major storm.
You may argue that your conduct was legally justified considering the situation of the so called violation. For instance, if you were pulled over for driving slowly, you can always state that in order to make a left turn you were forced to slow down. This situation does not cause you to deny any of the facts, simply justify them. You can also provide additional facts to legally justify this supposed unlawful action.
The fifth strategy of fighting a traffic ticket it to prove you had to avoid necessary harm when breaking the law. All 50 states recognize ‘necessity defense’ where emergencies created by another person puts you in the safe seat. For instance, if you were driving at high speed to avoid an oncoming truck which seemed to be out of control, you can convince the law that you were simply trying to avoid immediate and serious danger.
Most arrests made on DWI or driving while intoxicated is usually the result of illegal drugs or alcohol. However, there are legal prescription drugs you can buy over the counter that can also result in impaired driving which leads to possible arrest.
While a State generally punishes a person who was driving while intoxicated, it does not purely limit to those on illegal drugs and alcohol. A person impaired by over the counter legal drugs can also be found just as guilty as someone driving under the influence. The law in Massachusetts, for instance, specifically states some of the drugs resulting in impairment including depressants, narcotic drugs and other similar substances. The law in California also states that if a person is charged with driving under the influence and is on a legal drug that resulted in impairment, the state will not go about making a defense case for the individual. California also singles out methodone which is used to treat addiction to heroin, but all other drugs are fair play. It is possible that as much as illegal drugs lead to impairment, so do legal drugs.
At the moment, the levels of drugs that can be in the system of someone without resulting in impairment have not been standardized. For alcohol it specifies the standard level in your blood is 0.08%. This issue is set to receive proper attention in the future because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has voiced its concern about the use of drugs while driving and the effect it can have on one’s thinking. According to reports released in 2009, they found that there was a decrease in drunk driving, while up to 16% of drivers indicated that they have drug impairment in their system. This potential impairing lead them to study and conclude that it was not the effect of illegal drugs only, but over the counter prescription drugs such as sedatives, stimulants, narcotic analgesics and antidepressants were also equally capable of resulting in impairment.
