Spinal Cord Injury Claims
This kind of catastrophic injury leads to injury clams resulting from a very wide range of accidents from violent car accidents to personal injury at work and the most serious cases of slipping and tripping accidents and others. Unfortunately, the initial physical trauma is usually severe and, obviously, the symptoms both wide ranging and long lasting. Sometimes serious injury to the back does not cause spinal cord injury. Accidents do take place where there may be a broken back and next to no damage to the spinal cord. That is because although the bones around the spinal cord, the vertebrae, may be broken, the spinal cord may remain intact. Although there may be initial loss of function, full function may return after the vertebrae are stabilised. Compensation awards for personal injury following accidents causing damage to the spinal cord are amongst the highest. Spinal cord injury may also be the result of diseases such as polio and spina bifida.
What is Spinal Cord Injury?
Spinal Cord Injury is damage to the spinal cord affecting mobility and feeling. The spinal cord is actually a set of nerves which carries messages from the brain to the rest of the body. Sometimes, following major accidents, although the spinal cord is not broken, it may be damaged and there may be a consequent loss of function amounting to partial paralysis.
The Effects of Spinal Cord Injury
The effects of spinal cord injury depend on the type and level of injury. It can be divided into two types of injury. These are 'complete' and 'incomplete'. In a complete injury there is no sensation and no movement below the level of the injury and both sides of the body are equally affected. Where there is incomplete injury it may be possible to move limbs on one side of the body but not the other and there may be some sensation in parts of the body. Injuries to the spinal cord at the level of the vertebrae in the neck often results in quadriplegia. Injuries at the level of the chest may cause paraplegia and, of course, there is a whole range of ways, short of either of those two conditions, in which mobility and function may be affected. Quite apart from a loss of sensation or function, spinal cord injury could cause other changes also. For example, there may be dysfunction of the bowel and bladder. Sexual functioning may be affected and men with spinal cord injury may have their fertility affected. High-level spinal cord injury may affect the ability to breathe, requiring ventilators and pacemakers to be used.
Treatment for Spinal Cord Injury
Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for spinal cord injuries. There are certain experimental drugs undergoing tests presently but, at this stage, they appear to be able to achieve nothing more than a reduction in swelling and a limited reduction in loss of function.
Compensation Claims following accidents resulting in spinal cord injury attract a very wide range of settlement awards depending, of course, on the level of injury sustained and it's effects on the individual. Greater loss of sensation and loss of movement following an accident will result in a higher compensation award. Compensation claims for injuries resulting in quadriplegia may range from about £165000 right up to £205,000. Similarly, claims involving paraplegia may attract compensation awards of between £115,000 and £145,000. It should always be remembered that these figures are guidelines only and the level of award in each individual case will depend upon the circumstance of the accident, the injuries sustained and the expected period of resolution of the injuries and the effect on the particular individual.
If you claim through Accident Aid, your claim will be handled by an experienced accidents / personal injury solicitor member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. Accident Aid who will ensure that your compensation claim is dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible and you receive your compensation award in full. You will not have to pay anything for your accident claim whether you win or lose your claim for compensation and there will be no deductions from any compensation award in your favour.
To claim compensation for spinal cord injury, call Accident Aid on 0800 180 4780 or forward your query without any obligation to Accident Aid by email and you will be contacted by an accident injury solicitor who will advise as to whether you may be entitled to claim compensation for your injury and any other losses you may have sustained.
  
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