Impacts from car accidents or tumbles from slip and fall accidents can seem to be quite minor initially but there may be a much more serious spinal cord injury going mostly unnoticed. If you are feeling any sort of soreness, twinge, or discomfort in your back after being in any sort of accident, you should see your physician as soon as you can. As with all injuries, recovering from a spine injury becomes easier if it is identified and treated sooner than later. Furthermore, spine injuries often degrade and become more harmful as time goes on, even if the original symptoms are slight.
Spinal cord injury symptoms that could indicate critical or life-threatening damage include:
- Constant, unfading numbness in digits
- Difficulty breathing
- Inability to control bladder or bowel
- Noticeable twist to back or neck
- Partial or total limb paralysis
- Unbearable back or neck pressure
Symptoms of less severe but still harmful spinal cord damage include:
- Coughing up mucus
- Difficulty sitting or lying down without pain
- Diminished touch sensations, including heat and cold
- Extreme sensitivity to touches along your back
- General difficulty controlling a limb
- Muscle spasms
What to Do If Someone Has a Spine Injury
When someone has suffered a back injury, or you have reason to believe they may have, such as after a fall from a considerable height, it is important that you do not move them at all. Twisting their body or shifting their weight could exacerbate the damage and cause immediate paralysis. Call emergency responders and only allow them to move the individual. If you are qualified to do so, you may wish to administer basic first aid techniques to other areas of harm, so long as you do not move them.
After someone has received proper medical care, your next step should be to find a personal injury attorney who can help you file a claim against the party that caused the accident in the first place. At Rourke and Blumenthal LLC, we have more than 75 years of combined legal and trial experience and have won multiple cases with settlement and verdict amounts well over one million dollars. If you think that caliber of legal representation can benefit you or the one you love who has been injured, please do not hesitate to call us at 614.321.3212 and schedule a free initial consultation today.