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What Are Some Common Back Injuries After a Car Accident?
Car accidents are a leading cause of back injuries. Some of the most common include spine injuries, herniated discs, soft tissue injuries like whiplash, and spondylolisthesis.
Spine Injury
Injuries to the spine can be very painful and result in ongoing suffering – there are a number of ways the spine can be hurt, many of which severely limit your range of motion.
Thoracic Spine Injury
Thoracic spine injuries tend to be serious. The thoracic spine, located in the upper back, is prone to sprains and fractures, which can lead to permanent damage to the nerves.
Lumbar Spine Injury
As the five largest vertebrae, the lumbar spine, or lower back, provides the human back with stability. Injuries to this area of the back are severely painful. Sprains to the lumbar areas can damage ligaments, while strains are stretching and can also be painful. Movement may be limited, and pain is so severe it is difficult to move or perform routine activities.
Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal cord injuries are the most serious type of back injury. When damage to any part of the spinal cord or its nerves occurs, it can lead to permanent damage to sensation and strength, along with preventing a person from doing other body functions below the location of the injury. Paralysis can occur and victims who suffer from spinal cord injuries are also prone to other secondary infections.
Herniated Disc
Discs are responsible for the cushioning between each vertebra in the back and protecting the spine. If a disc is herniated, this indicates it has been displaced and puts pressure on the spinal cord and its nerves. Often highly painful, victims suffering from herniated discs can feel sudden and intense pain in their lower back and/or legs, or numbness.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries are sprains and strains to the tendons, ligaments, and muscles in the back. In a strain situation, this means the tissue has stretched too much, damaging the tendons. A sprain is when the ligaments in the back that connect joints to bones or bones to other bones are damaged. Facet joint injuries are another type of injury similar to arthritis and can be debilitating.
Injuries to soft tissues are notorious for not appearing right away. This is why it is important for you to seek medical treatment, and then contact a personal injury attorney to protect yourself in the event a soft tissue injury emerges over time.
Spondylolisthesis
Spondylolisthesis occurs when a vertebra is displaced by a stress fracture. Pain levels can range from weakness to feeling numb, and may even make it difficult to walk due to the compression that occurs when the vertebrae move and push against the spinal canal or nerves.
Other injuries, such as spinal stenosis, bulging disc, muscle spasms, nerve damage, sciatica, compression fractures, cervical spine damage, low back injury, and other car accident injuries can leave you with chronic pain, ongoing medical care, expensive medical bills, and conditions leading to degenerative spinal issues.
What Are the Symptoms of a Back Injury?
When a back injury occurs, there are two different types of injuries individuals can experience: immediate and delayed. This is why it is important for anyone in a car accident to immediately seek medical attention after the auto accident occurs, regardless of pain level.
Immediate Symptoms
Immediate symptoms people often suffer in the aftermath of a car crash include:
- Extreme pain
- Difficulty breathing
- Inability to move
- Headache
- Numbness
These symptoms are usually indicators that there is something wrong and should be examined as soon as possible. Don’t delay calling a South Carolina personal injury attorney.
Delayed Symptoms
In car crashes, symptoms signaling a back injury are not always immediately apparent. Days after the crash, a person may begin to experience:
- Persistent headaches
- Belly pain
- Weakness in lifting heavy objects
- Numbness in their extremities
Can You Get Compensation for Your Back Injury After a Car Accident?
In most cases, as a back injury victim, you are eligible to receive compensation. To receive money to help pay for your medical bills, orthopedic care, rehabilitation, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and pain management, you will want to file either an insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit against the other driver.
In addition to compensation for your medical expenses, you can also be reimbursed to help cover any expenses related to diagnostic tests, such as MRIs, CT scans, x-rays, and any other examinations. If you are unable to work, you may also be eligible to receive money for lost wages and loss of future earnings.
What is the Difference Between a Whiplash Injury and a Spinal Injury?
Whiplash is an injury sustained when your neck bends back and forth forcefully. This type of injury often occurs in rear-end collisions and can affect the neck’s discs, nerves, muscles, and tendons. Symptoms of a whiplash injury include neck pain, stiffness, shoulder pain, numbness in the arm or hand, tinnitus, lower back pain, dizziness, blurry vision, memory problems, difficulty in concentration, irritability, fatigue, and sleeplessness.
Whiplash injuries and spinal injuries often share some of the same symptoms of acute back pain, but whiplash is different because it is categorized as a neck injury.
Why Choose HawkLaw’s South Carolina Back And Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers
The spine contains a delicate bundle of nerves, responsible for relaying messages from the brain to the body. Any level of spinal cord damage can result in significant pain and lifelong back problems. The damage is more than physical as the mental anguish and psychological impact of a serious paralyzing injury is responsible for long-term damages to one’s overall level of well–being.
HawkLaw understands that spinal cord injuries are extremely damaging to the victims. We’re here to let you know that you don’t have to face the legal fight for compensation and relief on your own. At HawkLaw, you get dedicated partners who are right by your side. We greatly value a transparent and compassionate attorney-client relationship, and as a digital-first law firm, you can get your case initiated immediately so we can start fighting for you.
Our injury attorneys serve clients with spine injuries across South Carolina, including Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Florence, and beyond. Call 888-HAWKLAW today or use our live chat to talk to a spinal cord injury attorney for a free case evaluation*, and we’ll get to work right away! For more information about your consultation, see our disclaimer below.
How Long Does Rehabilitation Take For a Spinal Cord Injury?
Spine injuries can take years to rehabilitate, and many people don’t ever completely recover. A person who suffers this sort of injury can be under medical care for decades and even for life, as medical bills and medical costs rise, and the insurance company fights you every step.
Whether you’re suffering from some minor lower back pain that results in loss of function or you face serious paraplegia, tetraplegia, or quadriplegia, you still may be entitled to fair compensation for the serious personal injury you’ve suffered. However, every case is unique, and some people make a full recovery in a few weeks. That’s why it’s important to talk to a personal injury lawyer about your case.
What Are the Symptoms of a Spinal Cord Injury?
Spinal cord injury victims can experience a wide range of symptoms as the result of a cervical (upper), thoracic (middle), or lumbar (lower) spine injury, and no two injuries necessarily produce similar results. You may experience loss of function in one or more areas of your body, sometimes resulting in paraplegia, quadriplegia, or tetraplegia. You might experience bladder control issues. You could have headaches or invisible injuries like mental health issues such as depression, mood swings, and other conditions.
Your spine is the region of your body that controls every function you have, so a spinal injury can present in any number of ways. You may lose physical strength or be off-balance. You could experience numbness or tingling sensation in your extremities or other areas of the body. You may even experience cardiovascular issues and sensory troubles.
Spinal Cord Injury Facts: Common Spinal Cord Injuries in South Carolina
According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Database, negligent drivers are among the most common causes of spinal cord injuries. Nearly 70% of all spinal cord injuries are caused by motor vehicle accidents like car accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents, or by slip-and-fall accidents. In the majority of all of those cases, negligence on the part of the driver in a car accident or property owner in a fall significantly contributes to the injury. Though not as common, medical malpractice can be another major cause of cervical and spine injuries. Workplace accidents resulting in workers’ compensation cases are also common types of spinal cord injuries in this state.
It’s believed that nearly 200,000 people are victims of spinal cord injuries in any given year. These injuries risk serious and potentially permanent disability that diminishes a victim’s quality of life. If you’ve suffered an injury to your back, it’s important to contact South Carolina spinal cord injury attorneys to review your case. You may be entitled to fair compensation for the injury.
How Are Spinal Cord Injuries Categorized?
You can split spinal cord injuries into two categories: incomplete spine injury and complete spine injury. An incomplete spinal cord injury means that you still have some functioning body parts below the injured area. If you have a complete spinal cord injury, you cannot move anything below the location of your spine that was injured.
Complete
Complete spine injuries involve paralyses like tetraplegia, triplegia, paraplegia, or quadriplegia. These injuries are less common than incomplete injuries but are far more severe. They can be temporary or permanent.
Incomplete
Incomplete spine injuries comprise more than 60% of all spine injuries. Incomplete injuries can be permanent but offer a greater chance of recovery thanks to modern medical technology.
What Damages Can I Recover in a Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit?
When a spinal cord injury impacts your quality of life, you have a right to seek fair and just compensation for the sustained injuries. You can file a claim that includes restitution for:
- Past, present, and future medical expenses, including live-in care
- Costs of medical equipment and home/vehicle modifications
- Lost income and earning capacity
- Lost quality of life
- Loss of consortium
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
HawkLaw Fights to Win the Compensation You Deserve
We are known for compassion and personalized attention, in addition to our willingness and ability to take cases to trial. If you or your family members have suffered a serious injury or even wrongful death from spinal cord damage, please call 888-HAWKLAW or contact us online for a free case review with a South Carolina personal injury attorney at our law firm.* Our injury attorneys have helped clients with legal advice in spinal cord injury cases across the state, from Columbia to Charleston, Spartanburg, Greenville, and other cities and towns. HawkLaw Fights to Win. Call us now so we can fight for you!
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John Hawkins is the Founder and CEO of HawkLaw He has been licensed to practice law in South Carolina since his graduation with honors in 1994 from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he was on the Law Review and Order of Wig and Robe.
