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Paraplegiac Injury in Los Angeles

Anyway you look at it, paraplegia is a life-altering event. Considered one particular type of paralysis, a paraplegic is a person paralyzed from the waist down. Paraplegia causes the interruption of signals between the brain and other parts of the body. Paraplegics, unlike quadriplegics have no feeling in their lower bodies, including their legs, feet, bowel and bladder and are, for the most part, insensitive to pain or temperature in those areas. However, paraplegics may often experience muscle spasms, sexual dysfunction and fertility problems. This condition can jeopardize a paraplegic’s health because of the inability to feel further pain.

Causes of Paraplegia

Paraplegia is often caused by an spinal cord injury. Non-disease related paralysis can be as a result of damaged or severed nerves from high risk or dangerous activities such as motorbiking, skiing, rugby, soccer, football, or diving, to name a few. Paraplegia may also be caused by automobile accidents (even minor fender-benders with older cars that have no head rests) or catastrophic injuries. In order to cause paraplegia, the injury must be traumatic enough to damage the nerves encased in the vertebral bones, otherwise known as vertebrae. Other causes of paralysis include traumatic catastrophes such as serious auto accidents or slip and fall accidents.

Effects of Paraplegia

While many paraplegics live fulfilling lives, those lives are no doubt different than the ones they led prior to becoming paraplegic. A paraplegic cannot enjoy many of the activities he or she once did, such as hiking, biking, driving, or sometimes sexual intercourse. This is why a skilled trial lawyer will seek the maximum amount of damages in settlement or trial for cases that result in paraplegia.

Additionally, everyday tasks that a paraplegic used to perform without thinking suddenly become very challenging, if not impossible. For many of us, this kind of disability is incomprehensible, but for the person who it affects and their family, it can be utterly devastating.

Financial costs associated with Paraplegia

Along with physical side effects, the financial side effects associated with a paralyzing injury can be staggering. What’s worse, 60% of paraplegics do not return to work after suffering their injury, thereby making the payment of expenses, especially those related to the cost of the injury, practically impossible.

Costs relating to a paralyzing injury are often not initially considered by the individual or the family. The paraplegic’s house may need to be made handicap accessible, which could require restructuring and the purchase of costly equipment. Life-improving items such as adapted motor vehicles, stair lifts, wheelchairs, hoists etc., are not cheap. Some have suggested that the costs involved in helping a paraplegic victim and his or her family can total close to $300,000 in the first year alone.

Paraplegia Caused by Another’s Negligence

As we have shared, many paraplegia cases are caused by auto accidents, which are often the result of another person’s negligence or unlawful behavior. While the diagnosis of paraplegia can be devastating, it is compounded when the condition is caused by the negligent actions of others.

If your spinal cord injury was caused by the negligence of a third party, it is possible that you can file a lawsuit for several claims, including:

  • Product defect law
  • Third party liability
  • Medical malpractice
  • Personal injury
  • Premises liability

With a potential paraplegia injury lawsuit, time is of the essence. If you or a loved one were injured in an accident and have been rendered a paraplegic, reach out to the skilled doctors turned lawyers at BIKLAW. As doctors, they understand the physical extent of your injuries and as lawyers, they know how to fight aggressively to get you the compensation you deserve.

Questions? Contact us