Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries

Injuries to the brain and spinal cord are potentially catastrophic, and frequently result in life-long medical complications and astronomical costs for victims and families.

More than any other type of injuries, those dealing with brain or spinal cord injury must seek experienced legal advice from a Lafayette personal injury law firm as soon as possible. Insurance companies are well aware of the financial costs of such injuries and typically move very quickly to limit financial liability. Often, this includes making a quick offer to the family for what an insurance representative claims is the full value of policy limits.

Nothing should be signed or accepted without first speaking to an experienced personal injury attorney in Lafayette. At Brandt & Sherman, we know families are often overwhelmed and are rightly focused on the recovery of a loved one. However, failure to seek the early help of an experienced law firm can have devastating consequences, including the inability to afford medical care, homecare, or the cost of rehabilitative or residential care. Too often, a family never makes a complete emotional or financial recovery following a serious brain or spinal cord injury.

Catastrophic Injury Lawsuits

The financial burden varies widely depending on the seriousness of injury. However, estimates of the cost of life-time care for a serious traumatic brain injury range from $600,000 to nearly $2 million. For spinal cord injuries, first-year costs range from $350,000 to more than $1 million, with subsequent costs ranging from $40,000 to nearly $200,000 per year.

Common traumatic brain injuries include:

• Closed brain injury: Including concussions, result from trauma inside the skull from a non-penetrating head injury. Bruising, tearing of brain tissue and blood vessels, and intracranial pressure can result in life-threatening complications.
• Penetrating brain injuries: Result from a break in the skull bone and can be immediately fatal.
• Diffuse axonal injury: Result from a shearing or tearing of the brain’s long connecting nerve fibers resulting from the brain’s shift or rotation inside the skull.

Additional complications are common, including secondary brain injury that results over a period of hours or days. You can count on at-fault insurance companies using such medical complications to argue that a victim’s condition is not entirely the result of the initial traumatic event for which it is responsible.

Spinal cord injuries:

The most serious spinal cord injuries result in partial or complete paralysis:

• Quadriplegia is loss of function in the arms and legs.
• Paraplegia is loss of function in the legs and lower body.

The extent of the damage to the spinal cord determines whether the injury is complete or incomplete.

• A complete injury means that there is no movement or feeling below the level of the injury.
• An incomplete injury means that there is still some degree of feeling or movement below the level of the injury.

Injuries to the spine can result in many long-term medical complications in addition to paralysis, including breathing problems, chronic pneumonia, circulatory problems, spasticity and decreased muscle tone, frequent pressure sores that can become life threatening, chronic pain, bladder and bowel dysfunction, sexual dysfunction and depression and serious mental health issues.

Your chosen Lafayette personal injury law firm must have extensive experience and the resources necessary to identify all responsible parties, as well as access to the medical and financial professionals capable of building a comprehensive case for damages that includes all of the current and likely future costs of catastrophic injury.

The experienced injury lawyers and wrongful death attorneys at Brandt & Sherman represent clients and families throughout the Acadiana region, including the parishes of Lafayette, Saint Martin, Acadia, Iberia, St. Landry, St Mary and Vermilion, and the communities of Abbeville, Carencro, New Iberia, Crowley, Opelousas, Eunice, Jennings, Baton Rouge, Baker, Merrydale, Zachary, Scott, Broussard, Milton, Morgan City, Shenandoah, Denham Springs, Lake Charles, Youngsville and Thibodaux.

Contact the Lafayette brain and spinal cord injury lawyers at Brandt & Sherman today for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights. Call (337) 800-4000.