Personal Injury Law and Spinal Cord Injuries

As with most personal injury lawsuits, spinal cord injury claims are very complex cases to deal with in court and at the negotiating table.  In many spinal cord injury cases, the individual is oftentimes left permanently disabled as a paraplegic or a quadriplegic.  In addition to their physical disabilities, there could also be a great deal of psychological damage when the person can no longer work.  Worst of all, spinal cord injuries can and oftentimes do leave the families of these victims financially devastated.

Differentiating between Whiplash and a Spinal Cord Injury

Ironically, there are accident victims who feel that they’ve sustained a whiplash injury when in reality, they’ve actually injured their spinal cord.  This can be a very frightening experience, especially when taking the worst case scenarios into consideration (e.g. paraplegia or quadriplegia).  There are times when even the best doctors and hospitals will miss or overlook things when examining and diagnosing someone.  After all, these professionals are human beings like the rest of us.

Keep in mind that spinal cord injuries do not always mean that the individual will be paralyzed for the rest of their life.  However, these types of injuries are not always that obvious.  Furthermore, no physician wants to perform a surgical procedure such as a neck fusion if the injury is not deemed as 100% mandatory.  Consequently, doctors are oftentimes conservative when making their diagnoses.

Despite the fact that they are no less painful, the more subtle spinal cord injuries may transpire as follows.  The treating physician may clear you initially but you notice that the pain isn’t improving, even after two or three weeks.  The stiffness in your neck has gotten progressively worse and now you are unable to move your neck.  Obviously, this is an indication of a much more serious condition that demands immediate medical care and attention so no unexpected complications arise.

Your Lawyer can help financially

There are a number of ways that a person can sustain a spinal cord injury.  They can be injured in a motor vehicle accident, as a pedestrian, a slip and fall accident, and so on.  Unfortunately, many individuals that sustain catastrophic injuries of this nature don’t have sufficient insurance coverage for dealing with it.  When this happens, the injury victim must pay any additional expenses out of their own pocket.

Fortunately, if you’re working with a personal injury lawyer, they can help by accessing certain services that you would normally not be able to pay for up front.  So if you have recently incurred a spinal cord injury in any type of accident, you should contact an experienced lawyer in Ottawa to evaluate your case and determine what it is worth.  Remember, he or she may be your only hope of being compensated fairly and reasonably. Start looking online or get referrals to work with a knowledgeable injury lawyer in Sudbury or even in Toronto.