Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) frequently occur throughout the United States. The 2020 National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC) data sheet reported that 17,810 new SCI cases occur every year. Spinal cord injuries are complicated to manage and require acute care in hospitals, followed by extensive rehabilitation therapy.
These treatments can leave struggling patients on the brink of bankruptcy. Fortunately, there’s hope. If you sustained your SCI at work or in a car accident, a Houston spinal cord injury lawyer with Dolman Law Group could help you claim restitution.
Understanding Your Spinal Cord Injury Claim
Apart from putting the patient’s life in grave danger, an SCI can impose great individual and societal costs that are hard to overlook:
- Delaying school enrollment
- Affecting school attendance
- Requiring accommodations from employers
- Difficulty driving a motor vehicle
- Causing depression and other mental health issues
If you incur spinal problems due to someone else’s negligence, you can bring an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit against them and demand financial recovery. Unfortunately, insurance adjusters are keen to maintain the bottom line and thus often deny claims. As your legal counsel, we’ll investigate the incident to determine what transpired, who’s at fault, and compute a settlement figure.
Steps to Take After a Spinal Cord Injury Accident
Falls, traffic accidents, or acts of violence are tragic events by any measure. However, should the unthinkable happen to you, take the following steps to protect your interests:
- Report the accident to the police and get an official report
- Inform your supervisor or employer
- Document the scene and your injuries
- Get witness statements and their contacts
- Seek medical treatment without delay
- Refrain from admitting fault or accepting a quick settlement
- Contact an injury attorney
SCIs can generate medical complications during treatment and rehabilitation, and these problems may linger for a lifetime. Your lawyer can request more compensation if you suffer a spinal cord injury that needs ongoing therapy by calculating future expenses.
Damages to Recover From a Spinal Cord Injury
Managing your SCI figures to be an arduous journey with mounting hospital and rehab bills. When determining how much compensation to request, your lawyer will need a detailed log of your medical procedures and their costs. In addition, your attorney will factor in your living expenses while away receiving treatment and your household bills.
Direct costs are highest in the first year of injury and lessen as time progresses. However, indirect costs such as lost wages and productivity could eventually overrun direct costs, overwhelming families who depended on you as the primary wage earner.
Dolman Law Group is adept at computing damages for spinal cord injuries in Houston. Our team considers the following cost-related matters:
- Managing spinal cord injuries can become more expensive than other accident-related conditions
- Needing adjacent healthcare due to comorbidities like muscle atrophy
- Remodeling your home to accommodate your injury (e.g., installing a wheelchair ramp or wider doors)
- Acquiring a new vehicle or modifying the old one
- Your need for in-home care for the rest of your or your loved one’s life
- Patients often bear the brunt of these costs even with insurance coverage
Let Our Houston Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer Identify Blame
Your SCI places a financial burden on your family, and bankruptcy often looms, no matter your financial position before the injury turns your life upside down. However, when things appear dire and your medical condition is irreparable, you will want to hold someone accountable for harming you.
You can count on the Dolman Law Group team to step in. We understand the leading causes of spinal cord injuries and who often has liability for when they occur.
Traffic Accidents
Drunk driving, speeding, teen drivers, bad weather conditions, poor road maintenance, and distracted driving are all plausible reasons for crashes leading to an SCI. If you sustained an SCI in a vehicle crash, we’d work with authorities to understand who caused the accident.
Workplace Accidents
If your employer violates their duty of care and you sustain spinal cord injury, we can sue them for negligence. Falls in the workplace could result from factors such as:
- Unsafe working conditions
- Malfunctioning equipment (e.g., forklifts or cranes)
- Inadequate safety training
- Lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Improper lighting during night shifts
- Objects blocking passageways
Other Factors
Contact sports and complications from surgery while addressing other medical issues can also trigger SCIs. However, no matter the reason, our team will identify the liable parties and prepare a claim demanding compensation for your losses.
Types of Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injuries arise from spinal trauma, causing damage in different locations. Expenses correlate with the level and severity—injuries occurring higher up the spinal cord are often more expensive to treat.
SCIs fall into two broad categories:
- Complete spinal cord injury results in irreversible damage below where the SCI occurred. Examples include paraplegia and tetraplegia.
- Incomplete spinal cord injury means you might have some mobility and feeling in the affected areas, depending on where on the spine the injury occurred and its severity.
You could experience an SCI in the three main sections of the spinal cord:
- Cervical: The neck area
- Thoracic: The chest and upper back
- Lumbar: The lower back and sacral (pelvis) regions
Contact the Dolman Law Group for Legal Counsel
Are you living with a spinal cord injury? Dolman Law Group can investigate your case and determine the liable parties who caused the accident that led to your SCI. In addition, we help clients in your situation seek restitution to get much-needed treatment and avoid financial ruin.
When you hire us, you’ll get your attorney’s contact information, and they’ll be available to answer your questions. In addition, you’ll receive frequent case updates and responsive legal advice to help you get the highest settlement possible. Contact our Houston spinal cord injury lawyer today for a free case review and more information.
Houston Office
6330 Gulf Fwy Suite 110
Houston, TX 77023
Phone: (281) 524-4370