Did you know that around 250,000 to 450,000 individuals in the United States live with a spinal cord injury (SCI)? Annually, around 17,000 spinal cord injuries occur throughout the country.
The leading cause of SCIs is motor vehicle accidents, especially among younger individuals. For people over 65 years old, falls prove to be the most common cause. Sports and violent acts follow as some of the main causes of spinal cord injuries.
Here’s more, these injuries are costing us $9.7 billion per year! Majority of which covers the post-treatments such as rehabilitation and physical therapy. Before we go deeper, let’s first tackle spinal cord injury symptoms and how to identify them below!
What Is A Spinal Cord Injury?
Your spinal cord is a vertebrate of bones stacked on top of each other. It contains a bundle of nerves and tissues essential in your daily function.
Specifically, the spinal cord sends and receives messages from the brain to your body. Such allows us to move our limbs and feel sensations.
If you were to get into an accident injuring your spinal cord, your nerves would not be able to pass through. This can result in loss of sensation or mobility. In addition, if the injury happens to fall closer to the neck, paralysis in larger parts of your body is likely to happen. Due to the seriousness of the injury, you should search for ‘urgent care near me‘ today just in case you need it later.
Common Detectable Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms
Spinal cord injury is one of the most common car accident injuries, often resulting in long-lasting effects. However, determining spinal cord injuries as early as possible can help prevent further complications.
The most common spinal cord injury symptoms include mobility issues. This occurs when motor signals from your brain are unable to reach your muscles due to the injury.
You might experience weakened body muscles and loss of body coordination and balance. In severe cases, total paralysis may occur if you’re involved in a major car accident.
Spinal cord injuries also lead to the partial or complete loss of sensations. You may not be able to feel perceptible simulation below your injury.
This is a result of your sensory nerves being unable to travel through the site of injury. Thus, your brain won’t be able to process them, diminishing your senses.
When your brain can’t contact your bowel muscles, you’ll likely lose control of your bladder. As a result, you might be peeing when you’re not supposed to. In like manner, individuals with spinal cord injuries might experience sexual dysfunctionalities.
Another symptom of spinal cord injury is difficulty in breathing. This occurs when your spinal cord injury is disrupting your breathing muscles.
This can be your abdomen, diaphragm, or your ribcage muscles. You might also feel pain or a tingling sensation in your neck, back, arms, or legs.
Long-Term Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms
Paralysis caused by spinal cord injury leads to a decrease in physical activity. This can cause muscle atrophy and even decrease the density of your muscles. These two changes in your body composition increase your risk of falling.
In cases of partial paralysis, pressure ulcers may occur. In addition, remaining in the same position due to mobility restrictions disrupts blood circulation. It also kills tissue and leads to skin breakdown.
Muscle spasms also occur when there’s a disruption in the communication line of your brain and body muscles. You might also experience a spike in your blood pressure, body temperature, and pulse rate.
If you spot any of these symptoms, call for medical help. This is especially so if you have just gone through an accident.
Note that spinal cord injuries are serious by nature. Thus they deserve immediate proper medical care. Failing to do so can lead to even more pressing health issues.
What to Do After Identifying a Spinal Cord Injury
If you’re experiencing or see the symptoms mentioned above in someone, call 911 right away. The sooner you get the medical team out there, the better.
If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned above, limit your movement. If you’re a witness or a responder, avoid repositioning the injured individual.
Don’t attempt to manipulate the injured person’s position, especially their neck and head, in any way. Instead, wait for help and allow professionals to perform the necessary procedures.
Why You Need a Personal Injury Attorney For a Spinal Cord Injury
Treating spinal cord injuries comes at a price as you’re not only paying for hospital bills and prescription medicines. Depending on the severity of the injury, you might also have to pay for physical therapy, rehabilitation, an aide, or assisted living facility.
In most cases, patients file for personal injury claims to help cover the costs. However, many insurance companies are unwilling to pay enough money to cover the costs.
In instances where you’re a victim, getting the compensation you deserve might be harder than you think. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a stingy defendant. In these cases, most people assume that taking the defendant to court is necessary.
However, this doesn’t have to be the case if you’re with an experienced attorney. An attorney can help you settle with the concerned party without the need to go inside a courtroom. You can get your desired outcome by contacting the defendant’s insurance company.
The process involves providing evidence of your condition. This is a tedious process of collecting police and medical record, witness statements, etc. Fortunately, with the help of personal injury attorneys, you’ll be able to get your compensation in no time.
Visit https://springslawgroup.com/personal-injury-attorney/ and get ahead of your case. Springs law group is the office to call for help on all types of personal injury claims!
Watch Out For Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms!
One way to lessen the complications of such injuries is to perform medical treatment immediately. To do so, you’ll need to be able to identify whether you or someone else have spinal cord injuries.
As such, be aware and look for the symptoms mentioned above after an impactful event. Should you experience or observe them, call 911 as soon as you can.
There’s a lot more to learn besides identifying spinal cord injury symptoms. So give our site some time and take a stroll through the rest of our blog posts. We’ve got a variety of interesting articles waiting for an explorer such as yourself!
