Personal Injury Lawyers in New York

The central nervous system, once damaged, does not regenerate. Such an injury is a medical emergency and needs treatment as quickly as possible to minimize the long-term effects.

On no account should you ever move a person who has sustained a back injury, as that could severely worsen their plight.

Keep the person still and call 911 on the assumption that the spinal cord is injured. The Mayo Clinic website gives good pointers for how to deal with this situation until medical help arrives.

Initial Treatment

Paramedics will make sure the person can breathe, prevent the onset of shock, and immobilize the neck. They will apply a rigid neck collar and use a rigid board to transport the person to a hospital.

Emergency room personnel will focus on maintaining good blood pressure and preventing the many possible complications, such as retention of stool or urine and formation of blood clots in the extremities. They will usually sedate the person and proceed with diagnostic tests to pinpoint the injury. Most often the person is transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, or perhaps to a local spine injury center which has staff highly specialized in every aspect of spinal cord injury treatment.

Emergency surgery may be performed to treat broken vertebrae which are putting pressure on the spinal cord, or to remove bone fragments or foreign objects. There are cartilage pads between the vertebrae which allow us to move flexibly without bones rubbing against each other, which would painful. Some of these may have been knocked out of position or damaged, and may need treatment.

Further Treatment

Once the injury is stabilized, the next group of issues arises from the person’s immobilization. Preventive measures must be taken for:

• Bedsores
• Blood clots
• Urinary infection
• Muscle contracture

Nurses will help with body functions and skin lotion and will reguarly change the person’s position. Special mattresses will be used. A therapist will do range-of-motion exercises for paralyzed limbs.

This topic is an enormous one, so the writer in this space will continue with Part 3 next week, on the subject of Rehabilitation.

If you have sustained a spinal cord injury, or if you have a loved one in that situation, please feel free to contact us about your legal situation. If medical negligence was involved, or if the injury was caused by somebody’s carelessness, you may have a valid legal claim.