Spinal Cord Injury

Toledo Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Help for Medical Malpractice Victims Suffering from a Spinal Cord Injury

The term "spinal cord injury" most often conjures up images of traumatic diving accidents, horseback riding accidents, car and truck crashes, and football injuries. People who become paralyzed through such accidents often require extensive medical treatment and therapy. Doctors, nurses, and therapists work hard to salvage as much quality of life as is possible for spinal cord injury victims.

Ironically, sometimes unwitting patients suffer spinal cord injuries leading to paralysis when receiving the medical care that they expected would help them.

If you or a loved one suffered a spinal cord injury while under the care of a doctor, surgeon, or other medical professional, you may have a valid claim for medical malpractice. Contact an Ohio medical malpractice attorney to discuss a potential medical malpractice case involving spinal cord injury.

When Negligent Medical Care Causes a Spinal Cord Injury...

Medical negligence and nursing home abuse often cause spinal cord injuries in a variety of ways:

• A patient in a hospital (or nursing home resident) may fall out of bed and suffer injury to the spine or a brain injury.
• A physician may fail to diagnose a tumor in time to prevent resulting spinal cord damage.
• A patient may become paralyzed as a result of a damage to the spinal cord during orthopedic surgery or a hematoma after back or neck surgery.
• Undetected spinal cord infections and epidural abscesses may grow between the bone and the spinal cord, compressing sensitive tissue.
• Spinal anesthetic or spinal blocks may be improperly administrated and cause permanent nerve damage and paralysis.

Your spine protects your spinal cord which is a column of nerves along the middle of your back and neck. The spinal cord sends vital motor and sensory information between the brain and nerves throughout your body. However, when the spine and the underlying spinal cord are damaged, signals of hot, cold, pain, movement, etc. can no longer travel between the brain and impacted nerves. For many spinal cord injury victims, this results in partial or total paralysis:

• Paraplegia: Paraplegia can occur when mid to lower portions of the spinal cord are damaged due to a neck or back injury. People suffering from paraplegia will likely have no movement in the lower extremities (feet, legs, lower torso, etc.) and will require the use of a wheelchair.
• Quadriplegia: Quadriplegia can result when the upper portions of the spinal cord are damaged due to a neck injury. People suffering from quadriplegia will likely have no movement in the lower extremities and limited movement to no movement in the upper extremities.

When the victim suffers irreparable, serious disabilities, medical expenses as well as life-care costs for the paralyzed person are astronomical and can overwhelm a family's finances. A newly-quadriplegic or paraplegic victim and his or her family are in dire need of just compensation when medical negligence was the cause of the spinal cord injury.

Justice for Surgical Errors or Other Mistakes Which Cause Paralysis

Whatever the circumstances behind a medically-related spinal cord injury, contact us at the Law Offices of Gary A. Osborne & Associates to schedule a free initial consultation. Our medical malpractice attorneys are armed with medical and legal knowledge that has helped them establish an impressive track record of success on behalf of injured patients.