How a Spinal Cord Injury Can Affect Your Life

When it comes to personal injury, some injuries are more severe than others. For example, the victims of a minor car accident may emerge merely with whiplash and minor cuts and scrapes. However, the victims of more severe accidents often face more serious and catastrophic injuries that can significantly affect their quality of life. Along with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries generally are considered to be among the most severe injuries one can suffer in an accident. Our Tifton car accident attorneys can help the sufferers of spinal cord injuries recover for their injuries. 

What the Spinal Cord Does

The spinal cord is a long, cylindrical organ that runs from the base of the brainstem down the lower back. It is composed of a collection of nerves that are protected by the bones of the spine. Its primary purpose is to relay information from the brain to the rest of the body and vice-versa. It is responsible for the following bodily functions: 

• Controlling body movements: Signals from the brain travel along the spinal cord to control movements in other areas of the body, such as hand and leg movements 
• Reporting senses to the brain: The spinal cord is the messenger organ that allows the brain to feel physical stimuli (e.g., pain, heat, cold, etc.) 
• Managing reflexes: The spinal cord also acts on its own to control involuntary movements (e.g., the involuntary movement of the leg when a particular tendon is struck)

The spinal cord has three parts: cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), and lumbar (lower back) 

Symptoms of Spinal Cord Injuries 

While certain chronic conditions can cause injury to the spinal cord, sudden trauma (such as that from a fall or a car accident) can cause acute injuries to the spinal cord. Some symptoms of these types of spinal cord injuries include: 

• Extreme pain in the neck, head, or back 
• Weakness or loss of control of a part of the body 
• Numbness, tingling, or loss of feeling in the extremities 
• Trouble balancing and walking
• Difficulty breathing 
• Exaggerated reflexes and muscle spasms 
• Changes in the ability to feel heat, cold, and touch 

These symptoms typically require emergency treatment after a car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, bicycle accident, or any other type of accident. 

Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries 

Severe spinal cord injuries can significantly affect the sufferer’s quality of life for years after an accident. The most serious of these is paralysis, including tetraplegia (affecting the hands, legs, trunk, and pelvic organs) and paraplegia (affecting the trunk, legs, and pelvic organs, but not the arms). Other common long-term effects of spinal cord injuries include osteoporosis, uncontrollable muscle movements, numbness or weakness in the extremities, chronic pain, and increased susceptibility to infections. 

Get Help Recovering From a Spinal Cord Injury From a Tifton Car Accident Attorney 

If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal cord injury that was due to someone else’s negligence, you may be able to seek legal recovery. For more information, please contact a Tifton car accident attorney at the Hudson Injury Firm by calling 229-396-5848 or using our online form.