Never Underestimate the Severity of a Neck Injury

Neck injuries may turn out to be more severe than they appear at first blush. They have the potential to develop into permanent paralysis.

Statistically speaking, spinal cord injuries seriously disable over eleven thousand people yearly in the US. Many times the initial injury progresses to permanent paralysis. “It appears from the numbers that those between the ages of 16 to 30 are in the high risk category to suffer this type of an injury, with the highest number of victims being male,” recounted Daren Monroe, Litigation Funding Corporation, Southfield, Michigan.

If the lower part of the body is paralyzed, the term used in medical diagnosis is paraplegia. There are other progressive degrees of injury that may disable the whole body, including legs and arms.

“Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, happens when a spinal cord injury is above the first thoracic vertebra. Paralysis in a case like this usually affects all four limbs. Abdominal and chest muscles are also affected resulting in weakened breathing and the inability to properly cough and clear the chest,” explained Monroe.

Paraplegia happens when the injury occurs below the first thoracic spinal nerve. The degree a person is paralyzed may range from impairment of leg movement, to complete paralysis of the legs and abdomen up to the nipple line. Paraplegics can usually use their arms and hands.

Many neck injuries sustained during a car crash, motorcycle crash, bus crash or other personal injury accidents have the potential to become life-altering injuries – in other words, permanent. “Those who play contact sports are familiar with this risk as well. The difficulty is that sometimes neck injuries don’t seem that bad, until later,” Monroe added. The most famous example of this the story of Duane Morrow, a rugby player who suffered a neck injury that caused him pain in the shoulders and neck.

“He seemed to be fine until the next day when he lost feeling in his legs and then from his chest down. He had a series of surgeries and experimented with other developing technology, and as a result of these new techniques, he may be able to live an almost normal life,” said Monroe.

The long and short of it is that neck injuries should never by downplayed or overlooked as the results could be catastrophic. If you have any questions about catastrophic injuries, have suffered such an injury or need to know what your rights are in cases like this, contact a skilled lawyer to discuss these issues. If you do file a lawsuit, depending on the nature of your injuries and how they happened, you may also want to check into the possibility of litigation funding.

Lawsuit funding would help anyone with severe injuries like this cope with their financial burdens while they are waiting for a court verdict or a settlement. It only takes one phone call to get all the information needed for a lawsuit cash advance that may come in handy, just when it is needed.

To learn more about lawsuit funding and litigation funding, visit Litigationfundingcorp.com.

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