Common spinal injuries from a car accident include whiplash, herniated discs, and spinal fractures involving broken vertebrae. In some cases, more serious injuries can cause spinal cord damage, which can lead to partial or complete paralysis.
Spinal injuries can impact your mobility and quality of life. They often involve extensive treatments, long periods of recovery, and tremendous medical bills. If you have endured a spinal injury in a car accident, professional help is available.
You need a Milwaukee car accident lawyer who does not back down from a challenge. Reach out to a team with the experience and resources to get you the compensation you deserve after a crash.
Types of Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injuries often lead to long–term challenges. You may experience pain and psychological impacts such as depression and anxiety. Understanding your injury can help you prepare for outcomes and gauge your expectations.
Common spinal cord injuries from a car accident include:
Whiplash
Whiplash occurs when your head snaps quickly forward and backward. This sudden movement strains or tears the muscles, ligaments, and tendons in your neck. While it often improves with rest and physical therapy, untreated whiplash can lead to chronic pain or reduced mobility.
Herniated Discs
A herniated disc happens when the inner material of your spinal disc pushes through a rip in its outer layer. Car accidents can cause this by compressing or twisting the spine during impact. Symptoms vary depending on the disc’s location.
The herniated disc may press on nearby nerves, causing pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness in your neck, back, arms, or legs.
Spinal Fractures
Spinal fractures involve breaks or cracks in the vertebrae. High-impact car crashes, like rollovers or severe collisions, can cause these fractures. Depending on the fracture’s severity and location, it can cause intense back or neck pain and limit your ability to move.
Spinal Cord Injury
Car accidents can cause partial or complete spinal cord injury, leading to loss of sensation and motor control below the injury site. Spinal cord injuries can result in paraplegia or quadriplegia. They often require long-term medical care and rehabilitation.
Recovery depends on the location and severity of the injury, but many people experience permanent impairment that affects their daily living and mobility.
Facet Joint Injuries
Facet joints connect the vertebrae and help stabilize your spine. In a car accident, an impact can sprain, dislocate, or inflame these joints. Facet joint injuries often cause localized pain in the neck or lower back. Untreated, it can limit your mobility and cause chronic discomfort.
Spinal Stenosis
Spinal stenosis occurs when the spinal canal narrows, putting pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. Trauma from a car accident can cause swelling, fractures, or a disc herniation that leads to this narrowing.
Symptoms include back pain, numbness, weakness, or tingling in your limbs, and problems with coordination or bladder control in severe cases.
For a free legal consultation, call (414) 276-6666
Common Signs of Spinal Injuries
If you believe you have experienced a common spinal injury after a car accident, it is important to get medical attention immediately. It is also worth hiring a car accident lawyer in Wisconsin to help you understand your rights.
Common signs of spinal injuries include:
- Loss of Movement: When the spinal cord is damaged, nerve signals can’t travel properly, causing partial or complete inability to move limbs or parts of the body.
- Loss of Sensation: Damage to the spinal cord disrupts sensory pathways, causing numbness or inability to feel touch, temperature, or pain below the injury site.
- Pain or Pressure in the Neck or Back: A spinal injury often causes intense pain or a persistent feeling of pressure along the spine.
- Weakness or Paralysis: Spinal injury may impair muscle strength or cause complete paralysis due to disrupted nerve signals controlling voluntary movements.
- Loss of Bladder or Bowel Control: When nerves controlling bladder and bowel function are affected, a person may experience incontinence or retention.
Recovering from a Spinal Cord Injury After a Car Accident
Complete recovery from spinal injuries after a car accident depends on the injury’s severity and individual healing. Soft tissue injuries may take weeks to months to heal. Fractures or dislocations sometimes need surgery.
Severe spinal cord injuries can take months to years to recover, depending on the extent of the injury. Factors such as age, overall health, and treatment type also impact recovery time. Rehabilitation is essential, and complications can lengthen recovery.
Click to contact our personal injury lawyers today
How Can an Attorney Help with a Spinal Injury Claim?
If you have suffered a common spinal injury from a car accident, you have the right to seek compensation. That usually means going up against an insurance company that may do whatever it can to delay, deny, or underpay your claim. Don’t try to take them on by yourself.
Make one call… that’s all to tell Gruber Law Offices about your car accident during your initial case evaluation. It’s completely free of charge and does not require you to accept our services. We offer contingency fee agreements to ensure that you never pay us anything until we win your case.
Our team has served communities throughout Wisconsin for more than 40 years. We will take on the insurance companies and recover your much-deserved compensation. Call today to get started.
Call or text (414) 276-6666 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
