Kenton Koszdin Law Office

Spinal Cord Injury

If you’ve suffered an on-the-job spinal cord injury, you can rely on the Kenton Koszdin Law Office to fight for compensation. Call today for a free consultation and case review with a Los Angeles spinal cord injury lawyer. You deserve to know whether a workers’ comp settlement for spinal cord injury is available to you.

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A Professional Attorney Will Help You Fight for Compensation for a Work-Related Spinal Cord Injury

In an ideal world, every injury victim would get the payout they deserve without much hassle. Unfortunately, workers with spinal cord injuries are routinely given paltry compensation when they clearly deserve more. There is one primary reason for these low payouts: For-profit insurance companies that are reluctant to write compensation checks. An insurance adjuster will use any excuse they can find to reduce or deny victims of car accidents, someone with an injured spinal cord, or any other claim. Workers with spinal cord injuries who are interested in receiving maximum compensation for their injuries should hire a Los Angeles spinal cord injury attorney to fight for what they are entitled to. An experienced work-related spinal cord injury lawyer in Los Angeles knows how much their clients should be paid and proceeds accordingly. Through fierce negotiations with insurance companies, they fight hard to get financial recovery that does their clients’ injuries justice. Spinal injuries threaten the financial well-being of victims, especially victims of gunshot wounds or truck accidents. Let a Los Angeles spinal cord injury attorney (who knows what your case is worth) fight to get you the funds you need.

A Professional Attorney Will Help You Fight for Compensation for a Work-Related Spinal Cord Injury

What Is a Spinal Cord Injury?

Spinal cord injuries are injuries to the nerve fibers and cells that run through the spinal column. Because it’s instrumental in carrying signals between the body and the brain, an injury can lead to significant loss of the use of one’s body, either partially or completely. As you might imagine, severe spinal cord injuries and complete spinal cord injuries have life-changing consequences. However, mild injuries can also have a major impact.

Some of the unfortunate consequences of many spinal cord injuries include:

  • Loss of motor skills
  • Tingling sensations
  • Numbness
  • Respiratory problems

The costs associated with treating spine injuries are astronomical. Insurance can help, but high-dollar deductibles are frequently a problem.
If you were injured on the job, workers’ comp should take care of your medical bills. But without a personal injury attorney representing you, you may get far less medical coverage than you deserve.

Common Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injury statistics tell us that besides repetitive motion injuries, these job-related activities include more risk of experiencing an injury:

  • Commercial vehicle crashes
  • Construction accidents
  • Professional sports-related injuries
  • Working at high elevations (such as scaffolding)

Big rigs and similar commercial vehicles generate significant forces during motor vehicle accidents — enough to cause severe traumatic and twisting injuries to the spinal cord.
Due to heavy equipment, large vehicles, and hazardous tasks, construction sites have their fair share of workplace accidents that lead to spinal cord injuries. These workplace injuries are typically due to blunt force trauma or crushing accidents. Many of the same types of spinal cord injuries are experienced by professional athletes as well, such as football and rugby players.

Additionally, falls from high places are common in industries like construction, window cleaning, and roofing. These falls cause a notable percentage of spinal cord injuries.
While you may not risk a complete spinal cord injury, you should take great care to avoid the significant spinal cord injury cost that comes from medical treatment and long-term care of even a mild spinal injury.

Common Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves encased by the spine, with 33 vertebrae from the neck to the pelvis. There are seven cervical (neck) vertebrae, 12 thoracics (upper back), five lumbar (lower back), five sacral (pelvic area), and four coccygeal vertebrae (tailbone or coccyx).
There are two categories of spinal cord injuries:

  • Complete: Resulting in total deprivation of sensation and movement below the area of injury — unfortunately common in motorcycle accidents or sports injuries
  • Incomplete: Resulting in only partial loss of function below the area of injury — sometimes, one side of the body will be affected more than another in incomplete spinal cord injuries

The kind of effects that an injury will have on your body will also be determined by its location:

  • Cervical: Resulting in weakness or partial/full paralysis in the arms and legs — the most common location for a spinal cord injury
  • Thoracic: Resulting in weakness or partial/full paralysis in just the legs — the second most common location (thanks to the protection of the ribcage)
  • Lumbar: Resulting in weakness or partial/full paralysis in just the legs
  • Sacral: Resulting in possible bowel and bladder problems, sexual dysfunction, and weakness/paralysis in the legs and hips

Spinal cord victims usually face long recovery periods and chronic pain. They also face the likelihood that they may never be able to work again. That’s what workers’ compensation and Social Security disability benefits are there for, to help victims when they find themselves facing a spine injury.

However, to maximize benefits and ensure a consistent quality of life, they should rely on the professional help of reputable spinal cord injury lawyers. They can help you pursue personal injury claims, and if necessary, a spinal cord injury lawsuit or a personal injury lawsuit.

Our Workers' Comp Attorneys Can Help

Speak with a workers’ comp attorney who will fight for maximum spinal cord injury compensation.
Call today for a free consultation and get a free review of your case.

Symptoms of Spinal Cord Injuries

When a spinal cord injury occurs, you may experience the following symptoms:

  • Extreme pain or intense pressure throughout the back, head, or neck
  • Loss of coordination, weakness, or paralysis of the limbs
  • Sensations of numbness or tingling, which can be signs of disrupted nerve signals
  • Inability to control your bladder or bowels
  • Difficulty with coordination, balance, and motor function
  • Trouble breathing
  • Unnatural positioning of the neck or back

Throughout recovery, symptoms from serious accidents may persist, even leading to long-term problems such as:

  • Partial or complete paralysis
  • Struggling to breathe or having to use a respirator
  • Recurrent pain
  • Headaches
  • Sudden changes in mood or personality
  • Sexual dysfunction, infertility, and loss of sexual desire

If an injury ultimately leads to paralysis, a victim may suffer from:

  • Tetraplegia or quadriplegia, which refers to complete paralysis of the arms, legs, and organs within the pelvis
  • Paraplegia, which includes paralysis within some or all of the torso, the legs, and organs within the pelvis

Especially if there’s damage to the central nervous system or other body tissues like the brain stem, patients may need significant medical treatment and therapy, both of which can be expensive. Thankfully, personal injury lawsuits can help recover these costs.

Treatments for Spinal Cord Traumas

The severity of your injury will determine the complexity of your treatment, which can include:

Emergency Treatment

Immediately following an injury, you may require immobilization, surgery (potentially multiple), and significant medication. In some cases, you may even need to be transferred to a center dedicated solely to spinal injuries after your initial care.

Ongoing Care

After you’re stable, you may need additional treatment to prevent other problems from arising after a spinal injury, including deconditioning, muscle contractures, pressure ulcers, bowel and bladder issues, respiratory infections, and blood clots. Then, you may need to begin ongoing treatment in the form of therapy or maybe even rehabilitation.

First Responders

First responders can experience head injuries while responding to emergencies. Police officers especially may also experience violence after arriving on the scene of an emergency.

Rehabilitation

For spinal cord injuries ranging from mild to severe cases, you may need rehabilitation. Over the course of your treatment, you may also receive education about your injury and how to maintain or improve your quality of life (including instruction on compensating for lost bodily functions).

Unfortunately, all this means that even if your injury is mild to moderate, you could still spend a significant amount of time and money just to restore your life and well-being to normal.
Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to return to work, but you’ll certainly incur a good deal of medical bills along the way — especially if you’re unlucky enough to sustain permanent disabilities. For this reason, it’s important to learn about your options to recover medical costs through workers’ compensation benefits as soon as possible following your injury.

We Get Results that Matter

Fair compensation for your work-related injuries can save your health and finances.
In one case, our client developed carpal tunnel syndrome and fibromyalgia over many years at a mail processing facility. Multiple insurers denied her workers’ compensation claim. We took her case to trial to obtain compensation of $267,000 plus medical care for the rest of her life.
In another case, our client was unable to work due to multiple hand, neck, and back injuries. The workers’ comp insurers for the hotel where she worked denied her claim of total permanent disability. We tried the case and obtained lifetime medical care and a 100% total permanent disability award worth $246,000.

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