top of page

Types of Injuries

Skull Fractures
Overview

Injury Overview
 
If you have suffered an injury, you may be entitled to compensation. Compensation for injuries is crucial to making a proper recovery. It allows you to pay for expensive medical bills and any loss of income. It also allows you to gain closure on the accident and move on with your life. Often, you can find out if you are entitled to compensation with a free case evaluation from a qualified attorney.

Failure to seek compensation for an injury can result in any of the following:

  • Long-term health complications

  • Inability to work long-term

  • Financial and emotional strain on family and friends

  • Funeral and burial expenses (in the event of death)

What is an injury?

Injuries happen every day. Every scratch, bump, bruise, cut, broken bone, or other form of damage to the body or mind constitutes an injury. Injuries can happen purely by chance, being no one’s fault. Other injuries, however, are caused by the negligence, recklessness, or ill-intent of others.
 
What kind of injury is entitled to compensation?

Injuries that are the result of the negligence, recklessness, or ill-intent of another party may be entitled to compensation. Compensation is based on the financial burden, emotional distress, and any future difficulties caused by the injury. It can come in the form of cash or some other form of support.
 
What should I do if I have an injury?

After obtaining primary medical care, contact a legal professional. Many attorneys specialize in obtaining compensation for injury victims and will give you a free case consultation. Injury.com has a network of injury attorneys eager to talk with you about your case.

Whiplash

Whiplash is a neck injury that is caused by an abrupt jerking of the head. This is caused by the sudden acceleration of the vehicle the person is in, causing the person’s head to snap forward and backward, similar to the speed and motion of a whip.

The most common cause of whiplash is a vehicular accident that involves one stationary vehicle being hit by another vehicle from behind. This causes a person’s neck to hyperextend (forces the neck and the head to fall backward as the vehicle moves forward), followed by a hyperflexed position (head and neck fall forward in a similar motion). A whiplash injury can also result in a concussion, which is a mild form of traumatic brain injury.

Symptoms of Whiplash

The symptoms of whiplash usually manifest within 24-hours of the accident. There are times however when symptoms take a few days to become noticeable. A visit to a doctor after the incident may show some of these symptoms, which may prompt your doctor to recommend the wearing of a supporting neck brace. A doctor may want to take an X-ray of your spine and neck to ensure that there are no major injuries there.

When a person shows no sign of injuries via these X-rays, but can still feel pain in the neck and other symptoms that indicate whiplash, treatment may be needed. Some of the symptoms to watch out for a few days to a week after an accident include:

  • Stiff neck – As the muscles and bones in the neck sustain damage, it may be difficult to move the neck around without experiencing pain.

  • Headaches – These are normally associated with concussions. It is the result of injury to the brain sustained from the violent jerking motion the head has been subjected to.

  • Dizziness – The concussion that comes along with whiplash can also cause dizziness and vertigo.

  • Numbness – As the spinal column is pinched by the damage to the neck muscles, some nerves may be compressed or damaged. This can lead to either pain in the limbs connected to these nerves, or total numbness.

If you believe that your symptoms are a result of whiplash, the doctor will need to order specialized imaging tests, like a CT scan or an MRI, to properly identify and diagnose the existence of the injury.

How is Whiplash Treated?

There is no single treatment designed specifically for whiplash. Doctors usually prescribe an army of treatments that are designed to help manage the many different symptoms of whiplash.

These include:

  • Hot and cold compress – Compresses are used to alleviate the symptoms of stiff neck, and to get rid of any bruising in the area that could have been caused by the accident.

  • Pain medications – The victim could be prescribed over-the-counter medication to address the pain that comes after whiplash. These can include ibuprofen and naproxen.

  • Therapy – Therapy may be required in more serious cases. Victims will need to undergo guided motions by a physical therapist to help return normal neck movement and relieve pain.

  • Massage – Massage can also help since it works out the knots in the muscles in the neck. This also helps a person regain normal neck movement soon after the accident.

 

What to Do When You Suffered a Whiplash Injury

Whiplash is usually caused by vehicular accidents, although it can be caused by other activities that can cause trauma to a person’s neck area. These include vigorous sports activities, physical abuse, and even assault. As the case may be, another person may be at fault for what you are experiencing.

Such an injury can lead to hospitalization and may even cause you to lose wages due to time off from work. It can also cost you a lot due to the treatments and medication that you will be prescribed by your doctor. Adding all of these up, you will find that not only will you be exhausting your bank account, but those who depend on you will also be affected by such an added expense.

You might be entitled to compensation and not be aware of it. To find out if your whiplash injury entitles you to compensation, take a few minutes to answer this questionnaire. Find out as soon as you can since all compensation claims come with a statute of limitations. Once this legal deadline is up, you might not be able to claim what is rightfully owed you.

Broken Bones
 
Broken bones can go by many names. These can be called fractures, breaks, and even cracks. No matter what these are called, when bones break, a person experiences pain and can even suffer from disability.

Broken bones can happen anywhere in the body. These can happen in the leg, in the arm, and elsewhere in the body where there are bones. The most commonly fractured or broken bones in a person’s body are the arm, wrist, foot, ankle, and clavicle.
 
Causes of Broken Bones

There are many reasons why a person may suffer from a bone fracture. Here are the three most common and general causes of broken bones:

  • Trauma – when a person’s bones get hit hard enough, these can result in a break. This can happen anywhere and at any time. Some examples of situations where a bone suffers trauma and breaks include tripping and falling, motorcycle accidents, falling from a tree, rough sports, and violence.

  • Osteoporosis – when bones become brittle, these become more prone to breakage. This is a disease that makes bones become weak and causes bones to decrease in density. This is often found in older people, with bone mass slowly deteriorating after 35 years of age. Women are more susceptible to this bone disease since bone loss accelerates after menopause.

  • Repetitive Motion – doing physical activities over and over again can actually put a lot of stress on your bones. When the bones can no longer handle the stress of this repetitive motion, these can result in fractures. Some of the people who are most prone to this kind of bone breakage are athletes and people who work in jobs that require them to go through the same motions over and over again.

 
Types of Bone Fractures

There are a few common types of fractures that can happen to a person’s bones. The type of fracture that a person suffers from depends on the amount of force applied to the bone for it to break. Here are some of the more common bone fracture types that people can suffer from:

  • Transverse – this is when the bone fracture travels right across the middle of the bone in a crosswise manner.

  • Oblique – when the break crosses the bone at a diagonal angle, this is called an oblique fracture.

  • Spiral – as the name implies, this is when the break forms a spiral-shaped line, extending down the bone’s length.

  • Greenstick – this usually happens to younger individuals and is due to the softness of the bones at that age. This is when the bone bends but does not necessarily break when pressure is applied.

  • Comminuted – this type of bone break is characterized by numerous small fragments and breaks in two parts or more.

  • Linear – this is a break of crack that happens to run the length of the bone. It does not break the bone in half but does have a crack or fissure along its length.  

 

Symptoms That Come with Bone Fractures

One of the most common symptoms of a broken bone is pain. Of course, pain is not the only thing that you will notice when you have a fracture. Here are some of the symptoms you can expect to experience when you have a broken bone:

  • Swelling and bruising – the area where the bone is broken usually swells because of the internal bleeding happening in the area. The inflammation is because of the blood seeping into the tissues surrounding the broken bone.

  • Difficulty and pain in movement – sometimes a person may feel more than just pain when a bone is fractured. Moving can be difficult when this happens and not only because of the pain.

  • Deformity – if you find that part of your arm or your leg seems to be at a weird angle than it should be, there is a big chance that it is broken.

For open fractures, you will find that part of the broken bone is sticking out of a wound in the leg or arm that it is broken from.
 
Treatments You Can Use to Fix Broken Bones

Treatments for broken bones will depend on the circumstances behind the break and how badly broken the bone is. For example, if the person is suffering from a linear break, what is usually done here is the area where the bone is located is immobilized and stabilized. First aid treatment for immobilization can include the use of splints, which can then be changed into a cast to keep the bone from moving and to help promote healing.

Other treatments include the following:

  • External fixation – this is when the bones are held together with the use of pins and metal screws that are inserted into the bone, which are then held together with the use of a metal bar outside the skin. The pins and screws are inserted in the top and bottom part of the fracture, to hold the bone together while the break heals.

  • Internal fixation – this kind of treatment uses metal rods, plates, pins, and screws and puts together the bone inside the skin. The bones are first repositioned and realigned before the hardware that is going to hold it together is inserted.

 
What to Do When You Suffer from Broken Bones

If you suffered from broken bones due to an accident or through no fault of your own, you might be owed compensation. Certain accidents, like slip and fall accidents, vehicular accidents, and others that may stem from the negligence of others. When this is the case, you might be entitled to compensation. This means that you can claim financial help and even damages for what you had to go through.

Suffering from a broken bone can do more than just leave you debilitated because of it. This event can leave you financially strapped due to the medical bills, medication, and loss of wages that you will experience because of your injury. You don’t have to suffer such pain and financial difficulty. Find out if you are entitled to compensation for your injury by answering our quick questionnaire.

Take a minute out of your day to answer our form and find out once and for all if you can get help for the difficulties you are experiencing. Don’t take too long to answer since all claims come with a statute of limitations that may run out on you soon.   

Skull Fracture

The head is one part of the body that people fear getting an injury on and for a good reason. As hard as a person’s skull may be, getting an injury on the head can mean serious repercussions since it is where a person’s brain is located, and getting a skull fracture can easily mean a brain injury is not far behind.

While it is not a given that a skull fracture can result in brain injury, it is still a possibility. This is why people tend to be extra careful when it comes to protecting their head and their skulls. Sometimes however, no matter how careful you are, skull fractures occur due to the carelessness of others.

 

Causes of Skull Fracture

The usual cause of a skull fracture is blunt force trauma or something hitting the person’s head. This can occur in many different ways. Here are some of the more common causes of a fracture in the skull:

  • Slip and fall accidents – it does not matter if the fall is from a lofty height or from a short distance. If the person hits their head in the process, it is likely that a fracture will occur.

  • Vehicular accidents – those who don’t wear seatbelts when they are driving or are a passenger in a vehicle have the tendency to suffer from head injuries such as a skull fracture. This is because they stand a higher chance of hitting their head on the windows or windshield of the vehicle upon impact due to the lack of restraints that a seatbelt affords.

  • Sports and other similar activities – when you engage in an active lifestyle, tripping and falling can lead to you hitting your head and causing a skull fracture. Some examples of possible activities that may result in such an injury include running, cycling (without helmet), diving (in unknown shallow waters), and other activities where falling and exposing your head to injuries is a possibility.

  • Blunt force trauma – this can happen in many different ways and for many different reasons. A person can be hit over the head when they are being mugged or they can hurt their head from a falling object. Whatever the case may be, when a person’s head gets hit, fractures are a possibility.

 

Skull Fracture Symptoms

The usual symptom that comes with a skull fracture is a headache and some may see swelling in the area where the head was hit. Others can experience dizziness, vomiting, and may even see an indentation in the area where the trauma happened. There are a few other symptoms that can point to a skull fracture when these other symptoms are not present:

  • Hearing problems or tinnitus

  • Bleeding in the area if there is a break in the skin

  • Bleeding from the nose, eyes, and ears

  • Severe pain in the area where the fracture is

  • Drowsiness after the impact

  • Loss of balance

  • Unexplained irritability

  • Blurred vision

  • Confusion

  • Stiff neck

  • Difficulty swallowing

  • Arm and leg movement problems

 

Treatments for Skull Fractures

The treatment that a person has to undergo when it comes to a skull fracture is dependent on the severity of the injury. It also depends on the symptoms that arise from such an injury. For example, if a person’s injury results in the buildup of fluids in the brain, a lumbar drain may be required. This is done to relieve pressure from the brain due to the fracture.

Treatments will definitely depend on the kind of skull fracture a person has. These include closed fracture, open fracture, depressed fracture, basal fracture, and comminuted fracture. Some of these can be very dangerous and may require serious treatments, and these include the following:

  • Surgery – this is used for open fractures, depressed fractures, and comminuted fractures. This is often recommended when brain injuries are detected and will need to be taken care of.

  • Spinal Tap – this is similar to a lumbar drain and drains fluids from the brain to help release any pressure building up in it. This is also used to help check for infection and other complications that may arise from the injury.

  • Halo traction – this is often done when a skull fracture is unstable and may cause more problems if the patient is left to move their head around carelessly.

  • Medication – some of the choices that a patient can utilize when it comes to medication for skull fractures include antibiotics and steroids. The latter is often used to help reduce swelling but is only effective up to 8 hours after the trauma was suffered.

 

What to Do When You Suffer a Skull Fracture

If you suffered from a skull fracture due to an accident and this was caused by the negligent actions of another person or entity, you might be entitled to compensation. Suffering from any head injury often requires that a person be rushed to the hospital, and often means that they will need to be confined until it is determined that their injury is not serious. When a skull fracture results in traumatic brain injury, the problems will tend to increase along with the medical bills.

Finding yourself in this situation is not easy. Apart from needing to cover medical bills, you may also find yourself out of work and not being able to pay your bills or even support your family. This is why it is important for you to determine if you are owed money or not for your injury. To find out if you are entitled to compensation, answer our questionnaire and get the answer in under a minute.

Don’t delay in finding out if you are owed money. Answer our questionnaire and determine if you can claim compensation for your skull fracture and subsequent injuries from it. A statute of limitations hangs over each claim and your legal deadline may soon be up. Just answer our questionnaire and start your way to claiming the compensations you are rightfully owed.

Spinal Cord Injury
 
Your spinal cord is a collection of nerves and tissues found running inside your spine. Your spinal cord runs from the base of brain down to your conus medullaris, which is located a few inches away from your coccyx. The spinal cord is one of the more important parts of your body and helps communicate signals from your brain to the rest of your body.

When a person suffers a spinal cord injury, some of the effects that the person can feel include loss of feeling and even mobility. The effects of the injury will depend on the severity of the injury, wherein the spine the injury occurred, and other similar factors. A spinal cord injury can differ from a spine or vertebra injury since the former can result in paralysis while the latter may not, as long as the spinal cord is intact and the bones have been stabilized.
 
Causes of Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries can happen in many different ways with the majority of those who suffer from such an injury getting it from a vehicular accident. Here are some of the more prevalent causes for spinal cord injuries:

  • Sports – rough and full-contact sports can result in spinal cord injuries, particularly when the athlete falls hard on their back or gets hit along the spine, resulting in the damage of the spinal nerves found there. Some sports that can bring about such a problem include football, rugby, wrestling, diving, and weightlifting.

  • Violence – people who are victims of violent crimes or even domestic violence can also suffer from spinal cord injuries when the spine gets hit.

  • Slip and fall – whether a person falls from a high point or simply slips on a wet spot and lands on their back, the possibility of a spinal cord injury is there.

 
Types of Spinal Cord Injury

There are two general categories of spinal cord injury, the incomplete and complete spinal cord injuries. These two have a few different types of injuries under them, each with their inherent symptoms and possible treatments. The most common of these two categories is the incomplete spinal cord injury, which accounts for more than half of spinal cord injuries in the US.

  • Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury – this is when the spinal cord is still generally intact and not totally severed. This allows a patient to still retain some movement and function in the areas of the body that are connected to these nerves.

  • Complete Spinal Cord Injury – this is when the cord has been completely severed and leaves a patient with disabilities and paralysis in the parts of the body connected to these nerves.

 
Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms

The symptoms that indicate a spinal cord injury varies according to the category of the injury. It also varies according to the location of the injury and other factors. Some of the more common symptoms you will notice immediately after you are involved in an accident that results in a spinal cord injury include the following:

  • Varying degrees of paralysis

  • Breathing difficulties

  • Chronic muscle pain

  • Nerve pain

  • Weakness

  • Loss of muscle control and function

  • Loss of sensation

  • Loss of bowel and bladder control

 
Treatments for Spinal Cord Injuries

Treatments for spinal cord injuries vary as well according to the level of severity of the injury. Where the injury is located also plays a part in the kind of treatment used to help a person get relief from such a problem. When a person has a spinal column injury, whether complete or incomplete, the first thing a doctor does is to immobilize the person in order to prevent further damage and tearing to the cord. Sometimes steroids are introduced to the system, if these are deemed beneficial to the patient, and only within 8 hours of the accident.

Surgery is often the go-to treatment for spinal cord injuries, and this is often decided on once it is determined whether or not such a treatment will work or will simply worsen the situation. Surgery is often initiated to first remove pressure from the cord and to stabilize the person’s spine. Therapy is often what follows after a person recovers from spinal cord surgery.  
 
What to Do if You Suffered a Spinal Cord Injury

When you or a loved one suffers from a spinal cord injury, it is very likely that medical bills will skyrocket. The cost of treatments can escalate very quickly due to the need for quick action when a person suffers from such an injury. Add to this the fact that you will need to take time off from work to undergo these procedures, to heal, and to undergo therapy, when needed. This can also make you lose your earning capacity when you suffer from disabilities due to such an injury.

 

When this happens, you will need to find ways to cover the losses that are brought about by such an injury. If you suffered a spinal cord injury due to a vehicular accident or while at work, you may be entitled to compensation. There are other circumstances that also entitle you to compensation for your injuries, and all you have to do to find out if you are owed money for your injury is to answer our questionnaire.

Answer our questionnaire today and find out if you are entitled to compensation. Do not hesitate to find out since all cases come with a statute of limitations. Just one minute of your time will give you the answer you need to help you make an informed decision regarding your spinal cord injury and the compensation you might be entitled to.

Burn Injury
 
Devastating and painful, burn injuries often qualify for compensation. Burn injuries can be difficult or impossible to fully heal and are known as much for their emotional scars as their physical trauma. Moreover, they are often the result of negligence or recklessness and are, therefore, entitled to compensation.

Have you suffered a burn injury?
Burn injuries can come from a number of sources. Heat from fire, appliances, scalding liquids or gases, or work tools are common. But they can also be caused by extreme cold, harsh chemicals, electrical hazards, and harmful radiation. The symptoms are fairly uniform:

  • Redness, swelling, blistering, pain, and fever

  • Permanent disfiguration and tightness in the skin

  • Extensive nerve and skin damage

What are the results of burn injuries?

If left untreated for too long, severe burn injuries can be fatal. Long-term, they often mean a difficult change emotionally, socially, and physically for the burn victim. Treatment may include skin grafts and reconstruction. The costs for treating and healing severe burn injuries can be high.
 
What should you do if you have a burn injury?

After obtaining primary medical care, contact a legal professional. Many attorneys specialize in obtaining compensation for burn injury victims and will give you a free case consultation.

Body and Limb Injury
 
If you’ve suffered a body or limb injury, there is a good chance that you are entitled to compensation. Because body and limb injuries often impair victims’ ability to work and even care for themselves, these injuries can receive hefty sums as compensation.

Have you suffered a body and/or limb injury?
These injuries can happen in a number of ways, from auto accidents to sports accidents to job site accidents- any situation in which the body or limbs is being struck, twisted, crushed, or wrenched. The symptoms of these injuries can be easy or very difficult to spot:

  • Compound fractures or dislocations

  • Severed limbs or body parts

  • Cracked bones

  • Sprains, strains, or torn muscles

  • Internal muscle or organ damage

What are the results of body and limb injuries?
In nearly all cases, body and limb injuries mean the victim loses some use of their body or limbs, temporarily or permanently. A broken bone can often equal time lost from work and, if the injury is severe enough, a stay in the hospital and a lengthy rehabilitation. A severed limb can result in a loss of work, significant emotional trauma, and months with a physical therapist. Of course, this means massive medical bills and loss of income.
 
What should you do if you have a body and limb injury?
After first getting primary medical care, contact a legal professional. Many attorneys specialize in obtaining compensation for body and limb injury victims and will give you a free case consultation.

Traumatic Brain Injury
 
The brain is one of the two most important parts of the body. It is also the most sensitive. To protect it from serious injury, the brain is encased in a bony structure called the skull.

A traumatic brain injury can happen in many different ways. It can result from a sudden violent blow to the head, a jolt the makes the brain collide with the skull, or something going through the skull and penetrating the brain. This can be caused by a number of things such as a vehicular accident, a gunshot wound, a slip and fall accident, a sports mishap, or even something like physical violence or vigorous sports.
 
Physical and Mental Effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Every person is at risk of sustaining traumatic brain injuries. Football players, for instance, subject themselves to repeated brain trauma as they crash and push against each other at each game. Other similarly physical sports also expose their players to this type of injury.

Vehicular accidents, slip and fall accidents, and other similar incidents can also bring about traumatic injuries to the brain when the person hits their head in these instances. The effects of a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, can be very difficult to recover from. These include:

  • Long-term attention problems – long-term damage to the motor pathways in the brains of athletes, even years after the initial concussion, is possible. This is the neural damage that leads to victims having very short attention spans.

  • Nerve damage – a violent movement of the brain during a traumatic accident can damage nerves in the brain. If these nerves are linked to motor function, victims can suffer partial loss of function in certain parts of the body.

  • Loss of cognitive functions – Depending on which part of the brain was injured, victims can lose control of certain cognitive functions. Problems in memory, insight, reasoning, perception and language skills could surface.

 

What Do You Do if You Suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Being involved in an accident that results in traumatic brain injuries can be debilitating and expensive. Treatments can include rehabilitation and therapy, which can run for a long time. Some cases may even require surgery in order to repair a skull fracture, to remove a hematoma, and to relieve pressure from the skull when bleeding occurs in the brain.

A traumatic brain injury may also require medication to help manage the pain and to control some of the symptoms that come with it. Medication can be prescribed to help manage seizures brought about by the TBI while others are used to help reduce fluid retention in the tissues to help reduce swelling in the brain. There are even a few who are placed in an induced coma to help their brain injury heal faster and better.

In all these cases, the likelihood of medical bills piling up is a given. The person will also need to take time off from work to recuperate and may not have the same capacity to work as they did before because of this injury. It is, after all, an injury to one of the most sensitive yet most important parts of the body.

If you or a family member has suffered from TBI or traumatic brain injury, you might be entitled to compensation. Find out if you can get the financial help you need to cover everything that is needed to get well from an injury such as this and if you are entitled to other benefits such as workers’ compensation, loss of wages, loss of capacity to earn, and disability. To find out if you are owed money, answer our quick and easy questionnaire and get your answer in under a minute.

Don’t delay in finding out since each case comes with a statute of limitations that may run out soon on your compensation claim. Answer our simple questionnaire and get the money you or your loved one are owed for a traumatic brain injury.

Emotional Distress
 
Emotional distress is the undue emotional suffering caused by another person. This suffering could be caused by any number of actions, including kidnapping a person’s child, falsely informing a person that a loved one has died, assault, false imprisonment, defamation, etc. In some states, like California, emotional distress on its own is enough to allow the plaintiff to seek damages.
 
Emotional distress has many components, including:

  • mental anguish

  • depression

  • fright

  • anxiety

  • grief

  • humiliation

  • embarrassment

  • physical pain

 
The plaintiff must prove that these feelings were caused by the defendant’s actions alone. These actions can include:

  • assault and battery

  • medical misdiagnosis

  • defamation

  • deliberately falsely informing of someone’s death

  • kidnapping

  • false imprisonment

  • medical malpractice

 
Recent cases in which a person has sought damages relating to emotional distress include:

  • A woman who came across a car accident in which her fiancée and another woman, the driver of the car (who later became the defendant) were involved. The fiancée died. The woman sought damages for her emotional distress at having to see the death.

  • A man sought damages after a car hit his motorcycle and resulted in the death of his passenger, his girlfriend.

  • People have been filing emotional distress claims after they find out they received medical transplants and allograft implants using parts illegally taken from cadavers.

Whiplash
Broken Bones
Spinal Cord Injury
Burn Injury
Body and Limb Injury
Traumatic Brain Injury
Emotional Distress

Hurry!

Find out if you are eligible for a claim before the statute of limitations runs out.

bottom of page