Car Accidents and Paralysis
Catastrophic motor vehicle accidents can lead to serious injuries that have long-term effects on your life and livelihood. Nerve and spinal cord injuries can be particularly serious, resulting in partial or total paralysis. Catastrophic injury victims in Sugar Land, Katy, and Richmond, TX should contact a car accident attorney from Reed & Terry, L.L.P. for legal help.
Attorneys Jackson R. Reed, Travis B. Terry, and Allan A. Cease would like to consider how car accidents can lead to varying degrees of paralysis. Our law firm can help you hold negligent motorists accountable. We’ll then go over how a settlement or legal damages can help you when coping with such a serious injury.
Partial Paralysis Sustained in a Car Accident
If you sustain serious soft tissue and nerve damage in a car accident, you may experience partial paralysis. This means that you have limited use and sensation in part of your body. A severe injury to the arm, for instance, could result in partial paralysis of the hand. Sometimes the paralysis can affect an entire side of the body depending on the nature of the injury.
Adjusting to Life with Partial Paralysis
If you’ve experienced partial paralysis in any part of your body, it can alter the way that you perform daily tasks, such as preparing meals, typing and texting, or operating vehicles. Such injuries could also impact your job duties and alter the course of your career.
Auto Collisions and Paraplegia
Paraplegia refers to spinal cord injuries that cause the loss of use and sensation of the lower extremities. Paraplegia results in paraplegia from the waist down. The condition has no cure.
How Paraplegia Alters Your Life
Paraplegics will be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. This can have a major effect on a person’s career as well as their living situation. While many paraplegics can lead independent lives, the adjustment period after the injury can be long and difficult.
Auto Collisions and Quadriplegia
Quadriplegia refers to spinal cord injuries that occur around the neck area. In these cases, people suffer loss of sensation and use of all extremities. If the injury is high along the cervical spine, a person may need the assistance of a machine in order to breathe.
How Quadriplegia Alters Your Life
Quadriplegics will be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. They will also be dependent on others for all tasks. Medical monitoring will be required to ensure health and well-being. Such injuries completely alter the lives of the accident victim as well as their loved ones.
Legal Damages and Settlements
When seeking legal damages in paralysis lawsuits, it’s common to seek compensatory damages to cover material losses (lost wages, vehicle damage, cost of medical care) and punitive damages to punish the negligent party. It’s also possible to file a loss of consortium claim given the change to the injury victim’s ability to provide companionship.
Legal settlements may be sought in order to avoid a trial. When negotiating a settlement, our attorneys will work to ensure you receive as much as possible to address the realities you face when a car crash causes paralysis.
Contact Reed & Terry, L.L.P.
If you or someone you love was seriously injured in an auto accident, it’s important that you contact our skilled team of catastrophic injury lawyers. You can reach our law offices in Sugar Land, Katy, and Richmond by calling (281) 201-0988.