What is a Catastrophic Injury?
A single act of negligence, like someone taking their eyes off the road for a few seconds, can change someone’s life forever. Unfortunately, these types of accidents occur everyday. Catastrophic injuries are the most severe of injuries, often occurring after extreme incidents, like an accident involving a normal car and a semi-truck.
These injuries are considered catastrophic not only because of the severity of the injuries, but because of the treatment and medical attention that is required. Catastrophic injuries are often debilitating, resulting in permanent or long-term disability or paralysis. These injuries also often call for major surgeries or long-term rehabilitation, which dramatically increase the cost of recovery.
Common Causes of Catastrophic Injury Accidents
These injuries can occur after many different types of accidents, including motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, slip and falls, or nursing home abuse.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
In the United States each year there are about six million car accidents. About three million of those accidents result in injuries, while two million experience permanent injuries every year. Out of those accidents, about 27% result in non-fatal injuries. While a majority of car accidents don’t result in death or severe injury, they are still one of the main causes of catastrophic injuries. For instance, car accidents often result in neck and back injuries, which can range from mild to catastrophic.
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice can result in catastrophic injuries because this type of malpractice often occurs when someone is already in the care of a doctor’s office or hospital. These patients often have persisting conditions that are further complicated by medical malpractice, resulting in potentially catastrophic injuries. A recent Johns Hopkins study found that medical malpractice was the third-leading cause of death in the United States in 2018, claiming that over 250,000 people die every year from malpractice.
Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect
Nursing home neglect falls into the same category as medical malpractice. When someone fails to perform their job without error, such as taking care of a patient or senior, negligence can occur and the senior can get hurt. Nursing home abuse occurs when a senior’s needs are ignored, either by accident or on purpose. These accidents can become catastrophic as many seniors often have preexisting conditions that can lead to complications if not treated.
Slip and Fall
Slip and fall accidents can occur anywhere, in the parking lot of a small business or inside a supermarket. These cases can differ depending on the location of the fall and the time of year. For example, an accident that occurs because of icy roads may be more severe (and potentially catastrophic) than a slip that occurs during the summer months.
Different Types of Catastrophic Injuries
Catastrophic injuries are often known to have lifelong repercussions and aren’t the type of injuries to disappear on their own. Furthermore, these types of injuries nearly always drastically change a victim’s life and can leave them with huge medical bills. Unfortunately, they lower people’s quality of life and can impact a person’s future in a huge unpredictable way.
Some common types of catastrophic injuries include:
- traumatic brain injuries
- spinal cord injuries
- back and neck injuries
- accidental amputation
- multiple bone fractures
- eye injuries or blindness
- organ damage
Of course, these are just a few of the ways that someone can be catastrophically injured. These injuries often result in paralysis, scarring, disfigurement, and/or paraplegia or quadriplegia.
Recovering Damages From Your Catastrophic Injury
After your accident, you may be left with a mountain of medical bills and the inability to generate your own income. Thus, an experienced attorney can help you recover damages to cover many of your expenses. You can receive compensation for medical bills (past and future), lost wages (past and future), loss of earning potential, pain and suffering, emotional anguish, scarring and disfigurement, and loss of consortium.
The amount you receive will depend on your specific case and your accident. Hiring an experienced attorney can help insure that you receive the compensation that you deserve following your accident. Your compensation will depend on who was at-fault for your accident as well as the severity of your injury.
Reclaiming Quality of Life
Reclaiming quality of life after a catastrophic injury can seem impossible. These times can be really hard, but getting the compensation you deserve may put you on the path to gaining your life back. These types of accidents affect the life of the victim in such a huge way that it can be hard to bounce back, even after receiving compensation. Therefore, catastrophic injuries often require lifelong medical care and lots of doctors appointments. This decrease in quality of life is part of the reason why compensation for catastrophic injuries is often so high.
Hiring an Experienced North Dakota Catastrophic Injury Attorney
If you or someone you love has been involved in an accident resulting in a catastrophic injury, Sand Law is here to help you. We want to help you get the most compensation you can so you can return to working on reclaiming your quality of life. Our experienced lawyers are ready to take on your case. For more information, please call 701-609-1510 or contact us online.