Personal Injury Law Firm in McAlester, Oklahoma

Types of Injuries

Injury protection is your right. An injury claim lawyer understands the difficulties you may be facing from a personal injury. The human body contains extraordinary complexity. The brain, nerves, organs, muscles, bones, and other tissues operate together seamlessly to allow us to complete any number of tasks in a day – from blinking our eyes to performing in elite sports or at professional dance venues, for example. Even during an ordinary day, your body and its parts make even the simplest tasks possible.

But when a serious injury strikes, even the simplest tasks can become monumentally difficult. The types of injuries suffered in a serious accident depend on the specific factors involved in the accident. However, those who endure such accidents are more likely to suffer injuries that fall into one of the following categories.

Brain Injuries

The human brain weighs just five pounds, but it keeps the entire body running – and more. Our brains allow us to think, imagine, remember, and dream.

Any blow to the head or object piercing the skull during a serious accident can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Even the mildest brain injuries can cause lingering problems with mood, thought, and memory, as well as intense pain, nausea, and dizziness. Severe head injuries can cause lifelong impairments in motor function or organ function, and may even result in death.

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) estimates that 2.4 million Americans suffer brain injuries each year. Falls, blows to the head, car accidents, and assaults account for most severe brain injuries.

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Spinal Cord Injuries

The spinal cord serves as the brain’s main communication pathway to the body. From its roots in the brain itself to its end at the base of the spine, the spinal cord sits inside the bones of the spine and connects to every nerve in the body, relaying messages back and forth from the limbs and organs to the brain. It makes it possible for the brain to send, receive, and interpret the signals that maintain heartbeat and breathing, allow you to feel pain and avoid danger, and control movement and coordination.

Spinal cord injuries are not only among the most severe accident injuries that occur, they are also among the most expensive to treat. Many patients face a lifetime of disability, inability to work, and need for assistive devices and in-home care.

Broken Bones, Amputations, and Crush Injuries

Any accident that involves force may break bones, crush organs and soft tissue, and require the patient to undergo extensive surgery to repair damage, to reattach a severed body part, or to remove a limb or digit that is too damaged to save. Broken bones, amputations, and crush injuries are less well-known than brain or spinal cord damage, but they can be every bit as painful and complex to treat.

According to the National Limb Loss Information Center, about 1.7 million U.S. residents are currently missing one or more limbs. About one in every 200 U.S. residents has had an amputation. Although the number of amputations for accident-related damage has dropped steadily in recent decades, these amputations are still necessary – and the loss of a limb due to the accident itself also occurs frequently. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons estimates that over 6 million people break a bone every year, and that a substantial fraction requires surgery in order to fix the problem – imposing additional costs and a risk of serious infection.

Birth Injuries

Modern birthing techniques have sharply reduced the death rate for both mothers and infants when it comes to delivery. But science cannot change the fact that infants have very delicate bodies and brains. The entire staff present at a birth must stay alert for signs that the mother or the baby are in distress and must take prompt yet careful steps to reduce the risk of brain injury, oxygen deprivation, or other serious injuries during the birthing process.

A study performed as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) found that in one year, U.S. mothers and infants suffered 157,700 birth injuries that could have been prevented. When accidents occur, it is crucial to determine what happened in order to ensure you and your baby receive the support you deserve.

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Burn Injuries

Burns may be caused by heat, electricity, or chemical exposure from a defective product, a negligent worksite, or an accident that releases hazardous materials into the immediate area, for example. Regardless of the cause of the burn, the damage may include injuries not only to skin, but also to muscles, nerves, and even the bones.

The rate of survival for severe burn injury victims has increased dramatically in the last decade due to advances in treatment of burn patients. Nevertheless, burns remain some of the most agonizingly painful accident injuries. In addition, an injured person faces a substantial risk of contracting a secondary infection, because the body’s systems are vulnerable to invasion by viruses, bacteria, and fungi until the skin is fully healed. Proper medical care is essential to minimize this risk.

People who suffer car, motorcycle, pedestrian, or bicycle accidents might also suffer “road burn” or “road rash,” in which the skin is severely damaged as the person slides along the rough road surface. Road burns pose similar problems with pain, scarring, and tissue or muscle damage, and they increase the injured person’s risk of infection as well.

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Nerve and Organ Damage

Broken bones, crush injuries, and burn injuries all pose a risk of causing severe damage to the peripheral nerves – the nerves that occupy the parts of the body outside the brain and spinal cord, and that relay messages between the brain and spinal cord and the rest of the body’s many complex parts. When these nerves are damaged, organ damage can also result as the brain and spinal cord struggle to communicate information the organs need to work properly – and fail. Organ damage can also occur if the body is deprived of oxygen or if the organs are damaged by the force of the accident itself.

Mental and Emotional Trauma

Trauma is a natural human response to a highly unnatural situation. The mind and body may respond to a severe accident in the days and weeks that follow with symptoms like insomnia, anxiety, depression, numbness, mood swings, fear, flashbacks to the accident itself, or significant “gaps” in the ability to make new memories or to access old ones.

According to the Veterans Administration (VA), car accident survivors who seek help for trauma-related mental and emotional problems do so because they are experiencing post-traumatic stress (60 percent), major depression (53 percent), severe anxiety (27 percent), or a phobia of getting behind the wheel again (15 percent). These effects can prevent you from working or carrying out your daily life activities until they are treated by a qualified medical professional.

Mental and emotional traumas are every bit as real as physical trauma and they must be treated every bit as seriously. By working with an experienced lawyer to pursue your accident claim, you gain the space you need to heal and the reassurance that you have an ally in your pursuit of compensation and justice.

Premises Liability

Unreasonably dangerous conditions on someone else’s property can set the stage for accidents that cause many different types of injuries. Many premises liability cases involve injuries that result from a fall, such as broken bones, hip fractures, back injuries, spinal cord injuries and even traumatic brain injuries.

Swimming pool accidents, another common source of premises liability claims, may result in injuries related to drowning, head injuries due to striking a hard surface, suction injuries caused by faulty drains and others. Serious injuries can also result from structure collapses, such as when an overloaded deck or porch falls due to shoddy construction or maintenance. These are just a few of the many kinds of injuries that may be involved in a personal injury lawsuit.

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Dog Bites

Most dogs are friendly members of the family, but even the friendliest dog has the potential to cause serious harm in an attack – especially when children are involved. Dog bite victims frequently suffer puncture wounds from the dog’s teeth piercing the skin. These wounds can easily become infected. Broken bones, blood loss, facial scarring, eye injuries, head and neck injuries and emotional trauma are also common in dog attacks. The worst cases result in fatalities, with young children often being the victims.

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Construction Accidents

Construction is one of the most dangerous lines of work in Oklahoma and across the country. When those in charge of a construction site fail to take proper steps to keep workers safe, many different types of injuries may result. For example, construction workers are particularly susceptible to fall injuries, crush injuries, injuries caused by falling objects, electrocution and more.