Often one of the more severe results of a motor vehicle accident such as a car accident, truck accident, motocycle accident, bicycle accident, or pedestrian accident, spinal cord injuries can be enormously debilitating. Along with brain injuries, the effects to a person’s daily life as a result of a spinal cord injury can be far-reaching.
Often spinal cord injuries are a result of negligence – such as a motor vehicle accident. When there’s an at-fault person, you can arrange to get in contact with a spinal cord injury lawyer to find out your legal options.
What Is Spinal Cord Injury?
In a nutshell, spinal cord injury is damage to the spinal cord resulting in a loss of mobility or feeling. A loss of function can occur even if the spinal cord is not severed, but damaged in some way.
In general, the higher up in the spinal column that the damage to the spinal cord occurs, the more dysfunction will result. In the most severe cases, spinal cord injury can result in paraplegia, quadriplegia (tetraplegia), or full body paralysis below the site of the spinal cord injury. In cases less severe, a person may suffer hand or foot loss of function. In an incomplete spinal cord injury, partial movement and sensation can be retained in the area that is affected.
The Spinal Cord
Extending down from the brain, the spinal cord is a long and thin tube of nervous tissue and support cells. Protecting the spinal cord is the vertebral column – an enclosure of bony support structures.
The spinal cord’s primary function is to transmit neural signals between the brain and the rest of the body. Its three major functions are to serve as a pathway for motor information, for sensory information, and as a center for coordinating certain reflexes.
The Vertebral Column and How It Relates to the Spinal Cord
The bones of the vertebral column, also known as the spinal column, can be broken without the spinal cord becoming damaged. In such a case, once the bones are stabilized, paralysis may not result. However, if the vertebral bones or intervertebral disks shatter, the spinal cord can be punctured by a bone fragment.
Initial Treatment Following A Spinal Cord Injury
Following a spinal cord injury, proper treatment is paramount. To prevent further damage to the spine and spinal cord, your blood pressure is stabilized, as well as your breathing. Swelling of the spinal cord may also be treated with medication. X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds may be carried out. These tests may be repeated periodically so as to check on your progress.
Following a few days after the injury, responses to light touch over your body will be measured, along with muscle strength and movement. These tests are used to gauge how severe the injury is. The tests can also give an indication of how likely you will be to regain feeling and movement in the affected areas. Most recovery occurs in the first six months following the injury.
Rehabilitation
It is vitally important that a rehabilitation centre focused on the person’s needs is chosen. Rehabilitation centres that focus on spinal cord injuries involve caregivers and medical treatment providers from various disciplines. Regaining function and/or regaining quality of life and to prepare you for life after rehabilitation is often the primary goal. To help you to become as independent as possible, a team of healthcare providers are assigned to you.
With regard to regaining function, once the initial swelling of the spinal cord subsides, a person can regain function to the affected areas months or even years following the injury. It is rare, however, for all functioning to be recovered fully.
While you are participating in rehabilitation, you will take part in specific physical therapy and exercise programs, eat a balanced diet, learn to do things that you may not have thought of before, such as managing your bladder and bowel, and to learn how to use the right equipment or devices for your needs.
Another large component of rehabilitation is psycho-social support and learning to cope with pain and grief of loss of function for some people. A spinal cord injury can be devastating, but over time with the right support and practice, a return to a full life is possible, even if it may not seem so at the time.
Our spinal cord injury lawyers can help with your treatment if it’s related to a motor vehicle accident. We have a large network of physicians and professional treatment providers to work with you during recovery and living with you spinal cord injury.