Appeal Over Damages for Catastrophic Injuries
What Are Catastrophic Injuries?
Catastrophic injuries are referred to the severe injuries to the spinal cord, spin, or brain. Apart from this, the injuries to the skull, spinal fractures, loss of limb, can also be termed as catastrophic injuries.
Such injuries are caused by life-altering events that can result in long-term psychological disorders and physical disfigurements.
Therefore, the catastrophic injuries are severe and cause medical conditions in which the recovery is often prolonged or impossible. Individuals who suffer from these types of injuries often experience limited immobility and cognitive limitations that can continue for several months or years. Now, let’s learn more about the different types and causes of these injuries and how you can file catastrophic injury cases.
What Are the Different Types of Catastrophic Injuries?
A few of the most common types of catastrophic injuries, including traumatic brain injury, catastrophic spinal injury, amputation, and burn injuries. Furthermore, let’s discuss about such injuries in detail: –
1. Traumatic brain injury
A brain injury is assessed using the Glasgow Coma Scale to be considered as catastrophic. This scale helps determine the level of consciousness of the patients with an acute brain injury. The test is conducted to measure the consciousness of the victim.
The injury is rated on a scale of one to fifteen. Any assessment below nine indicates impairment and is classified as catastrophic.
2. Spinal Injury
Most of the catastrophic spinal injuries occur from incidents such as car accidents, falls, or construction incidents. Injuries to the spinal cord disrupt the nervous system of the person that can lead to paralysis or paraplegia.
In such cases, the victim requires extremely invasive surgeries and intense rehabilitation. Apart from this, they also need specialized equipment and services to manage and fulfill basic day-to-day activities. Therefore, in such cases, the victim needs to fight for compensation which covers additional costs to the expenses.
3. Burn Injuries
Catastrophic burn injuries are often caused by explosions, open flames, electrical burns, chemical spills, or other factory operations. Moreover, the severity of the burn depends on how far the damage has extended into the layers of the skin. Severe burns can also result in nerve damage and disfigurement.
Usually, functional recovery is impossible in these cases, leaving the victim physically and emotionally impacted for life. In some cases, the victim must experience complications that require reconstructive surgeries even years after the accident. Hence, the victim can file a claim to get compensation after hiring an experienced catastrophic injury attorney.
4. Traumatic Limb Amputation
Usually, traumatic limb amputation occurs as the necessary treatment for damaged limbs that resulted from an accident. Because amputations are permanent, the victim is physically and psychologically limited for the entire life.
5. Birth Injury
If you have a child who has suffered an injury at birth because of the negligence of healthcare providers or medical products, you are entitled to compensation for the child’s injuries. For this, you need to hire a reliable and experienced catastrophic injury lawyer.
What Are the Common Causes of Catastrophic Injuries?
Accidents can cause catastrophic injuries. However, car accidents are one of the largest causes of catastrophic injuries. Let’s go through some other common causes: –
1. Construction Accidents
Construction accidents occur due to lack of proper equipment, supervision, defects in equipment and machinery on worksites, failure to secure or install the scaffolding properly, etc.
2. Medical malpractice
If you are hurt because the medical professionals have violated their duties, you can hire an experienced catastrophic injuries lawyer to file a claim against medical malpractice.
3. Other common causes of catastrophic injuries
Other most common causes of catastrophic injuries include assaults, cycling accidents, negligent security, subway accidents, workplace injuries, truck accidents, etc. Therefore, you may have grounds to file a complaint or claim for a catastrophic injury if it is caused due to someone else’s negligence.
Filing a Catastrophic Injury Case
It is important to understand who can be held legally responsible for the compensation. For instance, if you have suffered a catastrophic injury due to a motor vehicle accident, the driver can also be held responsible for the accident. On the other hand, if you suffer a catastrophic injury due to a defective product, you can be entitled to file a legal claim against the manufacturer.
However, it is not easy to calculate the damages caused by the injury. Therefore, you need to consult an experienced catastrophic injury attorney or a reputed law firm to know in detail about the case and claims.
Conclusion
We hope that after going through the information given in this blog, you can have an in-depth understanding of catastrophic injury cases. Here, we have discussed the most common catastrophic injuries and their causes. In addition to this, we have also discussed the important tips that you should keep in mind while filing a claim for catastrophic injury.
