By Krista Sherinian
Nerve damage is one of the most common types of preventable injuries in the United States. There are numerous factors which determine the overall value of a personal injury lawsuit for nerve damage. Below is a list of the most important factors in determining the value of an injury case. In short, the severity of your injury, the degree to which you are in pain and unable to perform work or activities of daily living unassisted all factor into the type of reward a judge or jury would likely award you.
The severity of nerve damage is a key determination factor in calculations of the cash award which may be given in a personal injury suit. There are three recognized degrees of nerve damages.
- Neurapraxia: A less severe form of nerve injury. Neuropraxia nerve damage will usually recover within a few weeks to months with proper treatment and rehabilitation. Manual dexterity is preserved with this form.
- Axonotmesis: A more serious type of nerve injury often resulting in paralysis and loss of sensory and motor functions in the part of the body sustaining trauma.
- Neurotmesis: The most severe type of nerve injury resulting in permanent deterioration and damage to the nerve. In such cases, victims will sustain permanent disabilities including loss of movement in the limbs, numbness and irrecoverable paralysis.As medicine advances, stem cells and electrostimulation clinical trials may be promising future treatments for this level of damage.
As a personal injury lawyer can tell you, Individuals with more severe types of nerve damage may require lengthy and costly medical procedures including:
(1) Extensive use of physical therapy including massage therapy and acupuncture to reduce pain and restore functionality. In some cases it may be necessary to reduce work hours or go on short-term disability to fit these treatments in.
(2) Nerve graft surgery – Consult our office if a surgeon who you suspect of injuring a nerve during a procedure offers another corrective surgery free of charge. There are important pros and cons to this crucial decision.
(3) Nerve transfer surgery in this procedure to correct spinal cord injury, nerve fiber is brought from another part of the body to try to restore hand function in cases of cervical spine injury.
(4) Neuroma- this procedure can help redirect nerve function through surgical resection if scar tissue past injury or surgery an issue.
(5) Use of expensive medication. In some cases these are not included in the drug “formulary” of medicines your insurance has agreed to cover.
Even with quality rehabilitation care and revision medical surgeries there are no guarantees Victims of permanent nerve injuries and paralysis may require life care assistance including home care, cooking, cleaning, nursing care, and transportation. The aggregate cost life care assistance may run into the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. Victims of permanent disabilities from nerve damage are entailed to receive compensation for the cost of basic living expenses.
Victims of personal injury often miss days, weeks or months of work due to the tragedy they have suffered. In such instances claim for compensation will include the monetary amount of money lost due to the inability to work.
A client’s disability from an accident may result in a reduction in their future ability to work. The calculation that is taken place in court is the estimated lifetime earnings of the plaintiff if there was no injury minus the projected lifetime earnings of the plaintiff who has is suffering from some type of disability which reduces his yearly income.
The calculation for pain and suffering compensation in a personal injury cause of action is usually based on a Per Diem analysis. Jurisdiction which use the Per Diem system for the analysis of pain and suffering present the jury with a daily calculation of the emotional and physical pain and suffering imposed by the negligent party on the victim. Such calculations involve not only the pain and suffering that has taken place but future pain and pain and suffering. Under such calculations permanent disabilities such as nerve damage, scarring, disfigurement, paralysis, will be given much greater weight and are likely to result in greater awards by juries.
Call our expert medical malpractice and accident lawyers today for expert advice at (630) 318-2606.