Are You Suffering from a Back Injury in Charlotte?

Many people fail to appreciate the strength and health of their back and spine until something goes wrong and causes them to lose their ability to function normally. Any kind of injury that causes back pain can significantly impair your ability to live a productive and enjoyable life. Injuries to your actual spinal cord can be far more devastating, frequently resulting in permanent disability or paralysis. In many cases, back injuries require surgery, physical rehabilitation, and more.

Back injuries that happen at work should be covered by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance, as long as you are eligible for such coverage, and as long as there was a specific traumatic incident that precipitated the back injury. You may be eligible to receive wage benefits and medical benefits in these cases, though you may wish to contact a Charlotte, North Carolina, personal injury attorney to ensure that you get the maximum amount of compensation for your injuries. Back injuries that happen because of the negligence of another party can be compensated through a Charlotte, North Carolina, personal injury claim, as long as you are not partly responsible for your own injury.

Most Commonly Seen Back Injuries at Brown Moore & Associates in North Carolina

The most commonly seen back and spine injuries at Brown Moore & Associates in Charlotte, North Carolina, include a strained back, a sprained back, a herniated spinal disc, a ruptured spinal disc, and a pinched or compressed nerve in the back. When you have a strained back, it is your muscles and tendons that are damaged. When you have a sprained back, the ligaments are torn or stretched.

The injuries associated with herniated or slipped discs and ruptured discs are those that affect the vertebrae of your spine. There are 26 vertebrae in your spine, and they have discs that cushion them to protect them as you move, lift, and carry objects. These discs have two main parts. There is a softer part inside and a stronger and more solid part on the outside. If the soft part protrudes from the strong part, then this is a herniated or slipped disc. If the strong outer part is damaged so that it tears, this is a ruptured disk. Either of these disc injuries can be extremely painful and disabling.

When you have a compressed nerve or a pinched nerve in your back, this is also very painful, and it can greatly limit your movement. When these kinds of injuries lead to actual nerve damage, the situation can be much more complex and challenging to overcome.

Spinal Injuries Involve Different Forms of Paralysis in Charlotte, North Carolina, Personal Injury Claims

Spinal injuries and paralysis can completely destroy a person’s quality of life. These things occur when the spine is subjected to any kind of trauma that causes serious damage to the spinal cord. In some cases, the spinal cord is actually severed. In other cases, a dislocated disc puts pressure on the spinal cord, further damaging the vertebrae or causing serious inflammation. In the worst cases, the muscles or nerves are affected and the person becomes paralyzed.

When someone has a spinal cord injury that causes paralysis, the type of paralysis will depend on which part of the spinal cord has been damaged and what functions have been lost. The two primary categories of spinal cord injury and paralysis are quadriplegia and paraplegia.

Quadriplegia occurs when the spinal cord is damaged in the top section, and the arms, legs, and trunk of your body lose sensory function and motor function. This means that you cannot feel, move, or use the majority of your body, including your arms and legs. However, not all quadriplegia cases involve a total loss of functioning. In some cases, the injured person will still have partial functioning.

The same is true in cases of paraplegia. Paraplegia involves injury to the spinal cord in the lower section, and only the lower body suffers from paralysis. The person is typically unable to feel, use, or move the lower half of their body; but the arms, hands, and upper body are still functional.

If you are paralyzed, you may become unable to regulate your blood pressure and even your breathing. In less severe cases, paralysis can still cause issues like incontinence and sexual dysfunction. Many people who are paralyzed end up in a wheelchair and require ongoing care for the rest of their lives.

Other forms of spinal cord injuries that we’ve seen in Charlotte, North Carolina, personal injury claims include spinal contusions, posterior cord syndrome, anterior cord syndrome, central cord syndrome, cauda equina syndrome, Brown-Sequard syndrome, and conus medullaris syndrome. If you are suffering from any of these spinal cord injuries, contact Brown Moore & Associates to find out if you can recover compensation from the at-fault party in a personal injury claim.

Recovering Compensation for Your Back or Spinal Cord Injury in Charlotte, NC

The manner in which you are able to recover compensation for a back injury or spinal cord injury in Charlotte, North Carolina, depends on how the injury occurred. If the injury occurred at work, then you should be able to get compensation for your medical needs and your lost wages. You will not be able to recover compensation for your pain and suffering, however. This is because workers’ compensation is a no-fault system in which employees are covered by the insurance of their employers. This protects the employer from lawsuits and ensures that the employee is covered when injured. The trade-off in the system is that pain and suffering damages are not allowed and are not covered by workers compensation. On the other hand, workers’ compensation insurance will cover all medical expenses and disability income to an injured worker, even if the injury is caused in part or in whole by the negligence or misconduct of the employee.

If you have any difficulty getting the workers’ compensation benefits that you need, you can contact a Charlotte, North Carolina, personal injury attorney to get the full amount of compensation you deserve. Further, if your injury was caused by any third party, such as a homeowner, or another driver in an auto accident, then you can also pursue a third-party personal injury claim that is not affected by your workers’ compensation claim. In these cases, you may be able to get compensation for pain and suffering as well.

The same is true if your injury was not caused by a work-related accident, but was caused by an automobile collision, a defective product, a slip, and fall accident, etc. To find out what kind of compensation you may be entitled to after your back injury, contact Brown Moore & Associates to discuss your case with a skilled Charlotte, North Carolina, personal injury attorney in a free consultation.