Spinal cord injuries are catastrophic, life-changing traumatic injuries that affect the lives of the injured worker and their loved ones forever. Spinal cord injuries are not the same thing as a back/spine injury. Your spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that runs down the middle of your back. It carries signals back and forth between your body and your brain. A spinal cord injury disrupts the signals. A spinal cord injury occurs when the cells inside a person's spinal cord are damaged, disrupting the relay of signals from the brain to the rest of the body.
Spinal cord injuries can be complete or incomplete. With a complete spinal cord injury, the cord can't send signals below the level of the injury. As a result, you are paralyzed below the injury. With a partially severed spinal cord, you have some movement and sensation below the injury. Spinal cord injuries can be caused by, car accidents, truck accidents, construction site accidents, slip and fall accidents and more. The resulting effects of a spinal cord injury can range from chronic pain to complete paralysis.
These injuries often require homecare and home modifications which are increasingly harder to come by in the workers’ compensation system and require specific indications from the doctor. These injuries also require mental health care due to depression and anxiety. These injuries of have secondary consequences including problems with internal systems, cardiovascular systems and urological systems. If you have been injured on the job, it is important that you understand what legal rights you have.