South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers Fighting for Fair Compensation
Our South Carolina spinal cord injury lawyers begin by reviewing the extent and severity of your spinal cord injury. While no two spinal cord injuries are ever the same, and damages in paraplegia and quadriplegia cases will naturally differ in many ways, spinal cord injury cases seek the same type of compensation:
- past, present, and future wage losses;
- past, present, and future medical expenses;
- pain and suffering;
- emotional distress;
- embarrassment and humiliation;
- physical, emotional, and psychological injuries; and
- attendant care costs coupled with special medical equipment costs.
Cases involving spinal cord injuries are major commitments requiring a significant investment of attorney time and resources. Our spinal cord injury lawyers will help you get through the experience and fight for fair compensation, including future medical treatment for your spinal cord injury.
A spinal cord injury is a catastrophic event that profoundly impacts the life of the survivor and the survivor’s family. Damages in any catastrophic case are extensive. If you speak to any seasoned trial lawyer, you will learn that problems associated with a spinal cord injury case can be severe and potentially life-threatening.
Medical advances for treating spinal cord injuries through rehabilitation have paved the way for victims to transition back to a productive lifestyle while living with various limitations.
Our challenge as your South Carolina spinal cord injury lawyer is to make sure that you receive adequate compensation for your injuries, both current and future.
Our South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Attorneys Are Ready to Take Your Case To Trial
As each spinal cord injury victim will have unique needs, “humanizing” the plaintiff’s case will dictate special attention to each need.
Life expectancy must be considered when evaluating any spinal cord injury case. In a rush to emphasize the catastrophic nature of the plaintiff’s injuries, inexperienced counsel can easily fall into a defense theory, such that the plaintiff’s spinal cord injuries result in a shortened life expectancy, and possibly less compensation.
While the defense argument tends not to consider improvements in rehabilitative medicine, working to increase mobility, it is essentially an emotionally “rational” argument for the jury. Therefore, for spinal cord injury cases, counsel must meet the argument head-on and early in the trial.
Similarly, in spinal cord injury cases, bowel and bladder control may be nonexistent, and concerns of potentially life-threatening infection arise. It is not uncommon for orifices to be tightly closed, necessitating the use of suppositories. Catheters and a “void bag” or other such depository are required for voiding.
Concern of infection also arises from the risk of developing decubitus ulcers or pressure sores, which can be potentially life-threatening but are avoidable with proper care. These sores are caused by prolonged external pressure, and a spinal cord injury victim with limited mobility is naturally at a greater risk for the development of sores.
Moreover, the continued pressure on the particular point causes impairment of blood supply, depriving tissue of nutrition, causing tissue breakdown and the development of painful sores and potential infection.
Surgery is often necessary and mandated debridements for spinal cord injury victims. The protocol of most hospitals requires constant hourly turning of most victims of quadriplegia. A wrinkled sheet or underwear not perfectly even is a potential cause for developing a pressure sore.
With limited mobility, each spinal cord injury victim is at risk for death. Medical equipment and sufficient attendant care are imperative for the victim’s quality of life, and counsel is cautioned to consider the necessity to tend to these issues to avoid a shortened life expectancy.
Spinal cord injuries are devastating. This abrupt physical change can have detrimental effects on the victim and oftentimes, without proper intervention, a victim can lose the will to live, and therefore, psychiatric intervention is imperative. Mental evaluations must be required to cater to any significant neuronal damage, and potentially issue any necessary medications.
Our spinal cord injury attorneys will work with appropriate experts and treatment teams to address each of the issues relevant to a particular case: psychiatrists, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, psychologists, neuropsychologists, speech, occupational, and physical therapists, and many others.
If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal injury through no fault of your own, you may be entitled to compensation. Call the Strom Law Firm, LLC today for a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys. 803.252.4800. While you focus on getting better, we will concentrate on your rights.
