Every injury should be taken seriously, but spinal cord injuries can be catastrophic. Almost any type of trauma to the spine can have long-lasting and often permanent effects on your life. But unless you’re a medical professional or a personal injury attorney, there’s a good chance you don’t know much about the spinal cord, and why even a slight injury can have such devastating effects.
Your spinal cord is made up of five main areas:
- Cervical vertebrae are the ones in your neck
- Thoracic vertebrae are the ones in your upper back
- Lumbar vertebrae are the ones in your lower back
- Sacral vertebrae are the ones fused together at the base of your spine
- Coccyx are the fused vertebrae that make up your tailbone
Injuries to any part of the cord can affect your movement and your feeling. Serious damage to the sacral vertebrae, caused by an accident or osteoporosis, can make it painful and difficult to walk or sit down. Serious damage to the lumbar or thoracic vertebra can lead to paraplegia, which paralyzes the lower part of your body. Quadriplegia occurs when a cervical vertebrae is damaged; this is a form of paralysis that affects your entire body (think Christopher Reeve) from the fracture down.
In some cases, people with serious injuries may maintain some feeling in or control over their extremities; a quadriplegic may be able to move one finger, for example. Most of the time, however, the paralysis is complete, and sadly it is also permanent.
Causes of a spinal cord injury
Most of the time, serious spinal cord injuries are caused by traumatic accidents. The more common involve:
- Car accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Falls
- Being crushed by another object
- Contact sports
- Violence
According to the Mayo Clinic, alcohol is also a contributing factor in about 25% of all spinal cord injuries. A patient whose cancer is misdiagnosed may also be at risk of developing a spinal cord injury, if the tumors metastasize on the spine, or if the surgeon makes an error during a necessary procedure.
If you believe your spinal cord injury may have been caused by another person’s negligence, please contact my office.
