What Are Catastrophic Injuries?

When you’ve been seriously injured in an accident, you need compensation that covers the full costs of your injuries and damages. But when you’ve suffered catastrophic injuries, it can be difficult to understand the scope of your damages, let alone what compensation you’re due for your injuries. 

For example, you may not be sure your injuries count as catastrophic, and you may not have the tools to calculate what that means for you. At the Law Offices of Gary S. Greenberg, our personal injury lawyers know it can be tough to understand the full impact of your accident. Read on to learn more about some common types of catastrophic injuries. 

Head Injuries 

A blow to the head can mean damage to the control center of your body. When you’ve suffered a head injury, your cognitive function can be impacted, from memory loss to a loss of your senses. That damage can be catastrophic, impacting your ability to return to your life as it was. 

Head injuries can vary, depending on the type of injury. For example, a concussion can happen during a blow to the head and can cause loss of focus, memory loss, and other cognitive effects. Similarly, a diffuse axonal injury can happen when you’ve suffered blunt trauma to the head. 

If the injury is serious enough, it can cause a skull fracture. Because the skull is hard but thin, with little cushion between the brain and bone, the fracture can also damage the brain tissue. That can cause hemorrhaging, or bleeding in the brain, or an edema, or swelling of the brain. That can be life-threatening if not treated quickly. 

Spine Injuries

Your spine is another vital part of the control center of your body, one that passes messages from the brain to the body. If your spine is damaged, it can cut off those signals to the rest of the body. That can lead to permanent, life-changing damage. 

Spine injuries can be of two types: complete or incomplete. A complete spinal injury means the spinal cord is completely cut. That can be permanent and impossible to repair. An incomplete spinal injury means that while the spine is damaged, it’s not completely severed. You may be able to repair some of the damage through therapy and rehabilitation. 

The location of your injury can make a difference, too. Spinal injuries are classified as cervical, thoracic, lumbar, or sacral, based on the area of the body they affect. For example, a thoracic spinal cord injury can impact the upper chest and abdominal muscles. If your mobility is permanently damaged, you may be qualified for compensation for your catastrophic injury. 

Loss of Use of a Limb

When you’ve suffered a catastrophic injury, it may impact your life permanently, but it’s not always a full-body injury. Unlike a head or spine injury, an injury to a limb only impacts a part of your body. But that injury can impact your ability to do certain things, depending on the limb you lost. That can lead to life-long changes that can make certain things impossible. 

If you’re not sure whether your injury meets the criteria of a catastrophic injury, check out some of the ways a loss of use of a limb can happen: 

  • Amputation – In some cases of a traumatic injury, you may have completely lost one of your limbs. This loss may make your job, your favorite activities, and even daily tasks difficult to complete. You may also need mobility aids like wheelchairs or crutches. 
  • Loss of Muscle Function – You may not have lost a limb, but nerve damage caused by your injury may have caused a loss of muscle function. That may mean a permanent weakness or loss of control over the fine motor skills you once had. 

Get Compensated for Your Catastrophic Injuries with a Lawyer

When you’ve suffered a catastrophic injury, it can be difficult to understand what that means for your legal claim. You may feel lost in technical terms that don’t mean anything to you, when what you want to hear is how you can get compensated for what you suffered. 

Luckily, the lawyers at the Law Offices of Gary S. Greenberg are here to help you understand what your claim is worth, what you can do to recover, and how we can help your claim succeed. If you’re not sure where to begin, reach out to a lawyer for a free consultation. Your lawyer is ready to speak with you when you call 414-271-7007 or fill out the online contact form below.