You’re in a horrific car accident on the way home from work. In happens in just a split second. One moment you’re driving down the highway and thinking about what you’ll eat for dinner. The next moment a pickup truck is coming across the median and it slams into the front of your car.
You don’t remember much of the aftermath. You know you got stuck in the car, but your mind floats in and out of consciousness. You feel a ton of pain and pressure in your back. Once, you wake up in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, lying down and strapped in.
A spinal cord injury
It turns out that you have a serious spinal cord injury. Your airbags prevented a head injury, but there was only so much the rest of the car could do with such a violent head-on collision. Now you’re facing symptoms like:
- A loss of movement. This could be complete or partial, depending on the severity of the break.
- Reduced sensations. This could make it harder to feel if you’re touching something, for instance, or it may be more difficult to feel heat.
- Spasms that you cannot control. You may also see exaggerated reflex activities.
- Issues with sexual function, bladder control and bowel control.
- Problems with breathing, making it far harder than it used to be. Things like coughing could become very difficult and even painful. You may also have potentially dangerous issues like trouble clearing secretions in your lungs.
- An intense stinging sensation. This comes from the damage that was done to the nerves in your back.
- General back pain or numbness.
All spine injuries, like brain injuries, are a bit different. You may have all of these symptoms, a select few, or none. The key, though, is that they can be very serious and they can drastically alter the course of your life.
Healing
This becomes especially problematic when the injuries will never heal. The faster you get treatment and get into rehab, the better, but there’s no guarantee that you’re going to make a full recovery.
If you don’t, how else does that change your life? Will you need special medical equipment to help you around the house? Are you ever going to be able to go back to work? Can you still enjoy hobbies or other things you once loved, like playing with your children or going hiking? The losses that you suffer after the accident may go far beyond your medical bills.
Your rights
After the crash, it’s critical that you know exactly what rights and legal options you have. Spinal cord injuries can be devastating, and you must know how to proceed after such a traumatic event.