Catastrophic Paralysis
A catastrophic injury is one that occurs typically with no warning. Also, for an injury to be considered catastrophic, it must disrupt your lifestyle or some area of your livelihood, or the ability for you to hold a normal job and bring in an income. To manage a catastrophic injury, it may require expert and a team of health care professionals as the injured moves from the hospital to a rehabilitation center and finally back home.
Because of the financial burden of a catastrophic injury, it is nearly always required that the injured have an experienced injury attorney to investigate the claim. These attorneys work with several other specialists and with rehabilitation medication.
The goal of an attorney handling these matters is simple: to secure for the client the Best Possible Future.
One type of catastrophic injury is paralysis.
Defined as the “complete loss of strength to the affected muscle group or limb.”
For an unharmed muscle to function correctly, it requires no broken nerve connection from the brain to any area of the muscle group. Any damage that reduces the brain’s ability to move that muscle group will cause muscle weakness. Complete loss of movement results in paralysis.
Sometimes, an initial weak limb and move towards paralysis and other times a completely paralyzed limb can be restored to complete strength.
It is possble for a single muscle to become paralyzed but it is much more common for an entire body region to become paralyzed.
Quadriplegia occurs once the arms, legs, and chest have all become paralyzed.
Paraplegia occurs when both legs but not the arms are paralyzed, sometime affecting the chest also.
Hemiplegia is the paralysis of only half the body. Right or Left.
Spinal cord or brain damage and the leading cause of most paralysis cases.
Brain damage can be caused by a number of things. Such causes could be a stroke or a disease or a tumor. Spinal cord damage is a little different and is usually caused by some sort or trauma like a car accident. Damage to the lower portion of the spinal cord can lead to paraplegia while damage to the upper portion can eventually lead to quadriplegia.
Some paralysis is treatable but not all. The only way known to treat paralysis is repairing the underlying nerves. This is done through the rehabilitation process which includes, physical therapy for rebuilding muscles, occupational therapy to help develop the skills again to perform everyday tasks such as bathing or getting clothed. Also included is respiratory therapy to help with breathing.
Consequences legally: Lawsuits from a paralysis injury require an injury attorney that may consult many specialists and experts and doctors to understand what the cause of paralysis is. Again their job is to indemnify, or make whole, the client.
Medicare or medicaid comes into play when the paralyzed person is unable to earn a living due to the injury. This often goes hand in hand with Worker’s Comp if the injury was job related, in which case, the injured with not have to find their own injury attorney, but can find one through insurance which will then subrogate for the client and sue the responsible party.
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