catastrophic injury

Bone fractures can vary in complexity, pain and necessary medical treatment. Fractures typically cause significant pain, swelling and require an extended period of time to fully heal. Treating a serious fracture injury is rarely as simple as setting the broken bone in a cast or a sling. Fractures often require extensive medical treatment, including surgery, physical therapy and the insertion of plates and screws. A fractured or broken bone can change your life.

Common types of fractures include:

• Stable fracture – The broken ends of the bone line up and are barely out of place.
• Open, compound fracture – The skin may be pierced by the bone or by a blow that breaks the skin at the time of fracture. The bone may or may not be visible in the wound.
• Transverse fracture – This type of fracture has a horizontal fracture line.
• Oblique fracture – This type of fracture has angled pattern.
• Comminuted fracture – In this type of fracture, the bone shatters into three or more pieces.
• Impacted fracture – Fractures in which one part of the bone is driven into another.
• Spiral fracture – A bone that is twisted and broken in a spiral direction.

Fractured bones often require emergency surgery and with hardware which includes plates, screws/nails, rods, wires/pins and external fixators. When hardware is used to stabilize a fracture, it is called internal fixation. Implants used for internal fixation are made from stainless steel and titanium. Joints are often replaced with cobalt and chrome. It is believed that these implants are compatible with the body and rarely cause allergic reaction.

While many injuries impact the internal muscles, tissues, bones and organs, scarring and disfigurement injuries are visually observable and serve as painful reminders of the traumatic event that caused the scarring and disfigurement. When dealing with scarring and disfigurement injuries, it is important that your personal injury lawyer obtain photographs, medical reports, potential expert reports and properly evaluate the value of the scarring and disfigurement based on the part of the body affected by the injury, the severity of the injury and how the injury will affect the victim’s quality of life.

A burn is a type of injury to skin or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or radiation. Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids, solids or fire.

There are several degrees of burns which are classified by the depth of injury. These degrees include:

• 1st Degree Burn – superficial, redness of skin without blisters;
• 2nd Degree Burn – partial thickness skin damage and blisters present;
• 3rd Degree Burn – full thickness skin damage where skin is white and leathery;
• and 4th Degree Burn – similar to third degree burn but with damage to deeper structures, tendons, joints and bone.

Burn injuries can arise for many different fact patterns, but burn injuries are often seen due to: apartment building fires; workplace injuries; truck accidents and tanker explosions; motor vehicle accidents; electrical fires; defective products; locked fire exits; scalding water and pipes; and recreational fires (hotels, restaurants, retail outlets, night clubs).