What Is Considered A Catastrophic Injury?
Surviving an accident can leave you with a variety of ailments, ranging from small bumps and bruises to fractured bones and catastrophic injuries from which you will never fully recover.
Though many injuries are serious, only a few are considered fatal.
Catastrophic injuries alter your life entirely.
Whether you were in a violent automobile, truck, or motorcycle accident, burned in a fire or explosion, or fell from a great height, catastrophic injuries are extremely dangerous. To survive, they require lifelong medical and nursing care.
However, there is no clear definition of what constitutes a catastrophic injury.
Fortunately, there are some workable definitions of what a catastrophic injury is used by Atlanta catastrophic injury lawyers and insurance companies that are appropriate for most legal and medical purposes.
What is Considered a Catastrophic Injury?
What will be regarded catastrophic if a serious injury like a bone fracture or one that necessitates surgery isn't?
Catastrophic injuries to the neck, head, or spinal cord are common. When these body parts are harmed, they can often result in permanent damage and a severe reduction in your quality of life.
After the accident, you may not be able to work, walk, or even conduct basic tasks on your own.
Catastrophic injuries can take a variety of forms.
They can happen in car accidents, slip and fall accidents, or sports accidents.
An injury at a construction site could result in dismemberment, deformity, serious burns, or other forms of catastrophic injuries, while a violent confrontation could leave someone crippled, blind, or deaf.
The long-term ramifications of a catastrophic injury are the same regardless of where or how it happened.
Long-term physical pain, emotional agony, substantial and continuous physical treatment and medical expenditures, a loss of earnings and earning potential, and a decrease in general enjoyment of life are all possible outcomes.
A catastrophic injury claim focuses on getting you the aid you need now and in the future as you deal with the physical and financial consequences of this sort of accident.
Common Types of Catastrophic Injuries
The following are just a few of the most prevalent catastrophic injuries:
- Spinal cord injury: These can be complete, resulting in permanent impairment, or incomplete, resulting in partial damage. Injury to the entire spinal cord might result in paraplegia or tetraplegia. The nature and degree of an incomplete spinal cord damage will vary substantially. If you have a spinal cord injury, you will most likely have loss of sensation, mobility, sexual dysfunction, inability to control your bladder and bowel, and a higher chance of developing other medical problems.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): TBIs, which are very serious head injuries, come in a variety of degrees of severity. A severe TBI is frequently accompanied by long-term cognitive and physical impairments, behavioral abnormalities, or a condition of limited consciousness. They may potentially cause a vegetative state, coma, or even death due to brain damage.
- Amputations: These are when a hand, arm, foot, or leg is amputated. Even the process of recuperating from an amputation can be stressful. You'll have to recover from the procedure, which has a high infection risk. Physical therapy will be required to relearn how to do daily duties.
- Severe Burns: First-degree burns are the most superficial and aren't regarded a serious injury. The damaged area of a second-degree burn will seem bloated, red, and blistering. Third-degree burns necessitate a lot of medical attention. A fourth-degree burn penetrates the skin, muscle, and bone, damaging nerve endings along the way. A third or fourth-degree burn victim will have severe agony, infection, deformity, and long-term physical impairments.
- Internal Organ Damage: An accident can damage one or more of your internal organs, such as your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and so on. You may need surgery depending on the nature and severity of your injury. For a period of time or permanently, the damaged organ may not function at its typical levels. If the organ cannot be spared, you will either have to live without it or will need a transplant.
Damages in A Catastrophic Injury Claim
Because of the serious ramifications for the victims' lives and the tremendous losses that follow from catastrophic injuries, legal cases involving catastrophic injuries frequently include substantially higher damages than a regular personal injury case.
We frequently hear about multi-million dollar settlements and assume that an accident victim is financially secure for the rest of their lives.
The truth is rather different.
When you factor in a lifetime's worth of missed wages, massive medical bills, and the victim's physical and mental agony and suffering, these "life-changing" verdicts just provide the accident victim with some financial stability following their devastating injury.
In the area of catastrophic injury litigation, one truth that can be acknowledged is that every victim would gladly trade the amount of money they obtained from the at-fault party for the life they had before the catastrophe.
But because that isn't possible, catastrophic injury legislation is their sole hope for justice and compensation.
Let a Catastrophic Injury Attorney Help You Pursue Damages
If you were recently injured in a tragic accident and are suffering with long-term or permanent disability or disfigurement, you should contact a personal injury lawyer right away.
A catastrophic injury attorney will have the required abilities and knowledge of personal injury legislation to help you win your personal injury claim.
The Mabra Law Firm has successfully handled significant, catastrophic, and complex personal injury matters for many years.
The Mabra Law Firm will chat with you and analyze your medical records so that they can advise you on the severity of your injuries under the law and how it will affect the value of your personal injury claim.