Fort Lauderdale Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
Spinal cord injuries are one of the most severe injuries someone can sustain, almost always causing life-altering impacts and secondary complications that can reduce life expectancy as well as the quality of one’s life.
And they are all too common. There are approximately 305,000 people in the United States currently living with a spinal cord injury, and about 18,000 people suffer spinal cord injuries each year, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC). Most of the sufferers of this type of injury are male, and the average age to suffer a spinal cord injury is 43. However, anyone of any age can suffer spinal cord damage.
If you’ve suffered a spinal cord injury in Fort Lauderdale that was caused by the negligent or reckless actions of someone else, you undoubtedly have questions as to how to pay the expenses associated with treating your injury and how to move forward with your life. An experienced Fort Lauderdale spinal cord injury lawyer at Meldon Law can provide you with the legal answers you need. Call us today for a free consultation.
What Meldon Law Can Do for You
If someone else caused your spinal cord damage, you deserve fair compensation. However, you shouldn’t handle your catastrophic injury case on your own. There are too many tasks to manage when you’re already focused on attempting to adjust to a new way of life or caring for a loved one with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Our Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorneys are here to handle every aspect of your case. We will:
- Gather evidence to establish the other party’s fault. What this process looks like differs from case to case. For example, if you were injured in a truck accident, we may draft a spoliation letter to demand the trucking company preserve and hand over any evidence it has in its possession. If you suffered an SCI in a slip and fall, we might look into complaints against the property owner and the maintenance records for the property. Once we have the necessary evidence, we’ll use our knowledge, experience, and skill to build a robust case.
- Handle communication with the insurance company to ensure you aren’t manipulated into accepting less than you deserve or saying something that jeopardizes your case.
- Negotiate for what you deserve. Our reputation precedes us. Insurers know that we’re a force to be reckoned with that won’t back down from a fight, whether that’s in court or in negotiations. We use our reputation to get what you need for your spinal cord injury.
- Take your case to trial if that’s best for you and your claim. Our team isn’t afraid to stand toe-to-toe with any defendants in court. We’ll use our 50+ years of experience to build a robust case for what you deserve.
- Make sure you understand the legal process. A spinal cord injury and its aftermath can make you feel like you’re in the dark. We don’t want you to feel that way when navigating the legal system. We ensure you understand the process and know what to expect every step of the way. While we will handle every task on your behalf, we’ll also make sure that you feel informed.
In addition to getting an advocate, you get a team who truly CARES. You aren’t a number or a case file to us. You’re part of the Meldon Law family.
Damages Our Fort Lauderdale SCI Team Can Recover for You
Spinal injuries can cost you millions and affect every aspect of your life, as we’ll detail below. You deserve compensation for all these losses. Our personal injury lawyers can help you fight for:
- Medical expenses, both current and future
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- Miscellaneous expenses
- Pain and suffering
- Inconvenience
- Disfigurement and physical impairment
- Mental anguish
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Our team will determine a fair value for your spinal cord injury case and fight for every last dollar.
If you lost a loved one due to a spinal cord injury, our team offers our most sincere condolences. Our team can seek justice for you and your family via a wrongful death claim.
A Spinal Cord Injury Can Affect Every Aspect of Your Life
The spinal cord carries messages to and from the brain to other parts of the body. A spinal cord injury (SCI) damages this ability to send messages, which affects the sensation and function in various parts of the body below the injury site. The higher up the injury site is, the more body parts are affected. Spinal cord injuries are described in one of two ways:
- Complete injuries: Result in loss of all function and sensation below the injury site.
- Incomplete injuries: There is some function and sensation below the injury site.
There are four sections of the spinal cord that can suffer damage:
- Cervical spine: Injury to this area of the cord could result in tetraplegia (i.e., loss of sensation and function in the shoulders, arms, hands, torso, pelvis, legs, and feet).
- Thoracic spine: Injuries to the thoracic spine may result in paraplegia (i.e., loss of sensation and function in the pelvis, legs, and feet).
- Lumbar spine: Injuries to the lumbar spine may result in some loss of sensation and function in the hips and legs.
- Sacral region: Injuries to this area may result in some lost function in the hips and spine.
What Are the Secondary Complications of Spinal Cord Injuries?
In addition to paralysis, spinal cord injuries present a host of potential secondary complications, some of which can be life-threatening; these include:
- Autonomic dysreflexia: A life-threatening condition caused by the body’s inability to regulate its blood pressure after a spinal cord injury. The condition is usually triggered by an irritant below the site of the injury, including issues involving the urinary system or the bowel, including a urinary tract infection or an impacted bowel.
- Bladder and bowel issues: SCI survivors may be unable to control their bladder or bowels.
- Deep vein thrombosis: A blood clot occurring within the deep veins of the leg. This condition is potentially life-threatening, as it can lead to the blood clot breaking free and traveling to the lungs. This is known as a pulmonary embolism.
- Respiratory issues: Some spinal cord injury patients are at high risk of developing respiratory issues, such as pneumonia, due to the inability to cough or clear mucus from the lungs. Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death among spinal cord injury patients who survive the initial hours and days following the injury.
- Pressure ulcers: Also known as bedsores, this condition presents as irritated, broken, or infected skin caused by the body remaining in one position too long.
- Spasticity: Spasticity is very tight or stiff muscles. This condition also includes involuntary muscle spasms, which can lead to poor sleep and chronic pain for spinal injury survivors.
How Expensive Are Spinal Cord Injuries?
Treatment for a spinal cord injury and secondary complications can result in astronomical expenses. According to the NSCISC, patients can expect the following average costs, dependent on the severity of the injury:
- Patients with high tetraplegia can expect first-year medical costs of more than $1.3 million, and annual costs each year after that of $237,862. The estimated lifetime costs of a 25-year-old suffering this injury severity is more than $6 million. For a 50-year-old with high tetraplegia, lifetime medical costs will be in the range of $3.3 million.
- Patients with a spinal cord injury resulting in low tetraplegia face first-year costs of around $989,000, and annual costs for the following years of $145,918. Estimated lifetime costs for a 25-year-old are around $4.4 million; and for a 50-year-old, costs are around $2.7 million.
- Patients with paraplegia can expect to pay around $667,000 for first-year medical expenses, and around $88,000 per year after that. They can expect to pay about $2.9 million throughout their lives if they are 25 at the time of the injury and $1.9 million if they are 50 at the time of the injury.
- Those who experience a loss of motor function at any level may pay around $447,000 in the first year. For subsequent years, medical costs will be around $54,000. Throughout the lifetime of a 25-year-old suffering loss of motor function, medical expenses will be approximately $2 million. The lifetime expenses of a 50-year-old with motor function loss will be approximately $1.4 million.
In addition to medical costs, spinal cord injury patients can expect other expenses, including the cost of home modifications to accommodate the injury, assistive devices such as wheelchairs and accessible vehicles, and the cost of hiring an in-home personal care aide.
Are You Dealing With a Spinal Cord Injury? Our Fort Lauderdale Spinal Cord Injury Attorneys Law Can Help
If another person’s negligence paralyzed you, and now you’re drowning in bills, call Meldon Law. Doing so can empower you to fight for the compensation you need to pay for the treatments and mobility devices you need to regain independence and resume your life.
Call us or write to us using our online contact form. If you have trouble coming to our offices, we can come to you and listen to your story. See what we can do for your personal injury claim today.
