Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers, San Antonio

Spinal cord injury can be one of the most devastating types of serious personal injury. All nerve activity in the body below the head flows through the spinal cord to the various regions of the body. When a spinal cord injury occurs, then the spinal cord can no longer transport this nerve information from the brain throughout the body. The spinal cord injury victim may suffer loss of feeling in only one part of the body. However, if the spinal cord is completely severed, then loss of use of the legs, or arms or both may occur.

Spinal cord injuries can occur due to construction accidents, falls, oil field accidents, drilling accidents, trucking accidents, car accidents and scaffolding accidents. These accidents can cause temporarily or permanent damage to the spinal cord. Spinal cord injury and other serious personal injury can be caused by defective automotive design, such as caused by poor crashworthiness.

Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms

Symptoms of spinal cord injury include some of the following.

Pain: A spinal cord injury may cause complete loss of the sensation of pain, or cause false pain to appear from an un-injured part of the body. The spinal cord can send incorrect signals, so that the pain appears to be coming from a different part of the body. For example, damage in the upper part of the spinal cord can send pain signals indicating that the pain is coming from the neck or arms, while injury in the lower spine can create pain signals indicating that the pain is coming from the leg areas. In either case, the arms, neck or legs are not injured, but the damage to the spine makes it appear so.

Numbness and Loss of Sensation: Persons with spinal cord injuries normally feel some type of numbness or loss of sensation in the limbs and extremities. Loss of sensation would include loss of the feeling of touch and pain. Spinal cord injury can also cause loss of temperature sensitivity in the skin. An important part of the skin's function is to maintain the temperature control in the body. If the skin loses its ability to sense temperature, it can also lose its ability to regulate body temperature.

Loss of Muscle Control: The spinal cord is responsible to carrying all muscle control signals from the brain to the various muscle groups throughout the body. Spinal cord injuries can cause a variety of muscle related problems. Inability to control minute muscle movement is a common problem associated with spinal cord injuries. The spinal cord injury can also cause muscle groups to stay constantly contracted or constantly relaxed. Impaired bladder or bowel control, since both of these are controlled by muscle contraction and relaxation, can also occur.

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Is there a Cure for Spinal Cord Injuries?

When part of the spinal cord tissue dies due to a spinal cord injury, then currently there is no cure for such an injury. If the spinal cord is injured due to pressure from another part of the body, then when the other body part heals, it is possible that the reduction of the pressure can allow full recovery of the spinal cord injury. For example, if the spine is broken or chipped, causing a bone to place pressure on the spinal cord, then as long as the pressure is present, paralysis or other symptoms of spinal cord injury may be present. But, once the bone has been removed and the pressure alleviated, then if spinal cord tissue has not been permanently damaged, a full recovery is possible. Considerable research is now underway to discover new techniques to repair spine tissue.

If a person has suffered a spinal cord injury due to the negligence on another party, such as might occur in an unsafe workplace or due to a reckless driver, then the spinal cord injury victim may be entitled to compensation from that third party.

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