It’s estimated that more than 17,000 Americans sustain a spinal cord injury every year. This number is frightening when considering the huge impact that a spinal cord injury has on an individual’s life and livelihood.
Spinal cord injuries are among the most serious kinds of injuries you can suffer from. They can leave you with permanent or long term effects that require expensive medical treatments or inhibit you from returning to the workforce for weeks or months.
Whether it’s you, a friend, or a loved one who has recently suffered a spinal cord injury, it’s important to know what to do following an accident so that your chances for physical as well as financial recovery are maximized.
If you are a victim of a spinal cord injury in San Jose, this page will help you know what legal steps to take in order to protect your future financial health while still receiving care for your spinal cord injury.
What is a Spinal Cord Injury?
Your spinal cord stretches from your brain all the way to your waist and is essentially the power cable connecting your brain to the rest of your body. These nerves inside your spinal cord are an essential part of sensory and motor skills, so if your spinal cord is injured, this can result in your motor skills being affected.
There are two types of spinal cord injuries that a San Jose resident could suffer from.
- Incomplete spinal cord injuries. These account for the majority of all spinal cord injuries (about 60% of spinal cord injuries are incomplete spinal cord injuries). Incomplete spinal cord injuries usually leave victims with an impaired ability to move and a loss of sensation below the point of injury. San Jose victims who have sustained an incomplete spinal cord injury may recover if they undergo therapy and rehabilitation.
- Complete spinal cord injuries. While less common than incomplete injuries, complete spinal cord injuries are more severe. A complete spinal cord injury occurs when a victim has lost the ability to move or feel below the point of their injury, which leads to paralysis below the injury site.
Whether you’ve sustained a complete or incomplete spinal cord injury, it’s essential that you make an appointment to see a medical professional immediately. Spinal cord injuries, if left untreated could result in permanent and painful long term effects.
What Causes Spinal Cord Injuries?
A spinal cord injury may be sustained for any number of reasons. San Jose residents from all walks of life and in any occupation may suffer a spinal cord injury and find themselves in need of immediate legal and financial crisis.
Some of the most common causes of spinal cord injuries include:
- Falls
- Car or motorcycle collisions
- Polio
- Spina bifida
- Trauma due to assault
- Workplace accidents
- Athletic injuries
Other factors that could lead to spinal cord injuries are if an individual already has a weakened spine due to preexisting conditions, such as arthritis.
Long Term Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries
There are numerous, painful, long term effects of spinal cord injuries. These effects could leave San Jose residents permanently disabled and in need of assistance to perform daily tasks. Some potential long term effects of spinal cord injuries include:
- Paralysis (often from the point of injury and below)
- A loss of motor skills and sensation
- Limited mobility
- Inability to return to the workplace
- Continence issues
- Or even the ability to breath without the help of a device
As you can see from the above list, a spinal cord injury could have lasting repercussions on your life and livelihood. It could leave you anxious, disabled, and in a tight financial circumstance.
Due to the severity of spinal cord injuries, it’s paramount for the sake of your health that you seek out help, both physically and legally, immediately following an accident that has resulted in a spinal cord injury. Find a dependable spinal cord injury attorney in San Jose who can guide you towards financial recovery, enabling you to afford better medical care.
What to Do if You Have Suffered a Spinal Cord Injury
First of all, seek out medical help. While this is difficult for many to do due to the high cost of medical care in San Jose, it’s an essential part of the recovery process.
Failing to get adequate medical care can result in a worsening of your condition and also presents problems if you hope to get financially compensated for your injury.
All too often, victims forego medical treatments as long as possible in order to save money only to realize that by doing so, they’ve crippled any legal case that they hope to make against the company responsible for their injury.
Medical records are one of the truest forms of evidence of an injury, they prove that you are not simply faking an injury for monetary gain as well as when you sustained your injury. These medical records are pivotal in building a strong case against the responsible party.
After you have sought out qualified medical care, the next thing you should do is contact a spinal cord injury lawyer in San Jose. Representing yourself in court, while it might seem the easiest route, is the least likely to succeed if you want to receive adequate financial compensation for your injury.
Contact a San Jose Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer Today
If you or a loved one has recently suffered a spinal cord injury, we want to extend our sympathy and legal help to you. Fighting this legal battle shouldn’t be something that you have to do on your own, contact a reliable San Jose spinal cord injury lawyer to get help today.
Here at Shea & Shea, we help victims of spinal cord injuries overcome financial and legal hurdles so that they don’t have to suffer anxiety and stress over their injury. We want you to focus on rest and recovery.
Our spinal cord injury lawyers and legal firm in San Jose has been defending victims of spinal cord injuries since the 1960s. We are trusted in our field and want to use our legal knowledge to help you overcome your injury and secure your financial future and physical health.
Contact Shea & Shea to schedule a consultation with our spinal cord injury lawyers in San Jose today.
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