Although it is normally protected by the vertebrae of the spine, the spinal cord—which serves as the main nervous system pathway connecting the brain to the rest of the body—is still very sensitive to suffering severe and irreversible harm in traumatic accidents. If the spinal cord is severely damaged or completely severed somewhere below its midpoint on the back, it may result in the total loss of sensory and motor function in the feet, legs, and lower torso, also known as “paraplegia.”
Becoming paraplegic due to someone else’s negligence is an incomparably devastating experience, and it is the type of injury that can be virtually impossible to effectively file suit over without a seasoned catastrophic injury attorney’s support. With a Shelton paraplegia injury lawyer on your side, though, you will be able to demand compensation more proactively for your injury-related losses. Discuss your options with the compassionate team at Berkowitz Hanna today.
The most common cause of paraplegia injuries in Shelton is motor vehicle collisions, particularly T-bone wrecks involving the front of one car hitting the side of another or wrecks involving a car striking an unprotected pedestrian. Accidental slips or trips and falls can also cause this sort of trauma, as can impacts from falling objects and collisions during athletic competitions.
In rarer situations, paraplegia injuries may stem from misconduct by a healthcare provider—for example, a surgeon who makes a mistake during an operation on or near the spinal cord or a primary care physician who does not diagnose and properly treat a degenerative disease or tumor. Whatever the specific source of an injury is, a dedicated Shelton paraplegia injury attorney can help demand comprehensive compensation from every person who played a role in causing it.
Civil liability for an injury resulting in paraplegia typically revolves around “negligence”—in other words, proving that a specific reckless or careless act in breach of a “duty of care” directly caused or contributed to causing the injury. Depending on the circumstances, negligence could be anything from a violation of traffic law to a failure to keep property in reasonably safe condition for visitors, to even a failure to act promptly in response to a possible spinal cord or brain injury.
Anyone found liable for an injury of this nature based on negligence can be made to pay for both past and future losses the injury will directly result in. This includes things like medical bills, lost working capacity, disability-related expenses for things like wheelchairs and in-home care, and various forms of physical and psychological suffering. A seasoned lawyer can go into further detail about what losses may be compensable through a particular paraplegia injury case in Shelton during a free initial consultation.
No one should ever lose any amount of bodily function due to a traumatic accident, and certainly not because of an accident that they themselves played no role in causing. Unfortunately, that latter scenario is how hundreds of paralyzing injuries happen in Connecticut each year. Proactively demanding civil compensation in the wake of such an accident can be far from simple, but our lawyers at Berkowitz Hanna are here to help.
Assistance from a Shelton paraplegia injury lawyer can make all the difference in getting the payments you need and deserve. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for you.
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