Dallas Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

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Have you suffered from a spinal cord injury? You may be entitled to compensation from the at-fault party. The Dallas spinal cord injury lawyers at Jay Murray Personal Injury Lawyers can help you explore your rights and options. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation at (214) 855-1420.

Spinal cord injuries are some of the worse injuries imaginable. They can happen in many types of accidents, including car accidents, workplace accidents, slip and falls, and other personal injuries.

Contact our Dallas spinal cord injury attorney to discuss your case. We offer contingency fees for all personal injury clients.

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How Can Jay Murray Personal Injury Lawyers Help After a Spinal Cord Injury?

Jay Murray Personal Injury Lawyers has been helping Dallas, Texas accident victims for decades. We have extensive experience handling cases involving spinal cord injuries.

We’ve been widely recognized for our successful representation of injury clients, including by The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and Super Lawyers.

When you hire our Dallas personal injury attorneys, you can expect us to:

Explain your rights under Texas personal injury laws
Investigate your accident to gather evidence of the at-fault party’s liability
Calculate your damages
Work with leading experts in medicine, finance, and other specialties (when necessary)
Handle all communications and negotiations with the other side
Represent you in court in pursuit of fair compensation

You don’t have to go through the aftermath of your accident alone. Let us take the burden off your shoulders and put it onto ours. Contact us today to schedule a free case review with a Dallas personal injury lawyer.

Spinal Cord Overview

A spinal cord injury happens when the nerves connecting your brain to your body get damaged. The damaged nerves no longer carry nerve signals correctly. As a result, you will suffer from symptoms ranging from numbness to total paralysis.

Spinal cord injuries do not heal. And doctors cannot repair damaged spinal nerves. Any symptoms you experience will remain with you for the rest of your life. This means your paralysis, loss of sensation, and other symptoms will permanently affect your ability to perform your job and care for yourself.

What Does the Central Nervous System Do?

Your nervous system controls your body. It also gathers sense impressions. Your brain uses the sensory signals to decide which control signals to send to your muscles and organs. For example, when your skin feels hot from the sun, your brain triggers your sweat glands to start perspiring so you can cool off.

Two sub-systems make up your nervous system. The central nervous system (CNS) includes your spinal cord and brain. The CNS consists of the control center and main communication line carrying signals between your brain and body.

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) includes everything that branches from the CNS. The PNS includes cranial nerves that connect your brain to your head and heart. It also includes nerve roots and peripheral nerves branching from your spinal cord to your body.

The spinal cord includes 62 spinal nerves grouped into 31 pairs. The spinal nerves extend from the base of your brain to the top of your spine. There, they enter the spinal canal, an opening in your vertebrae that travels the length of your spine.

A pair of spinal nerves branches from the spinal cord at each vertebra into a pair of nerve roots. One spinal nerve of each pair controls your right side, while the other nerve controls your left side.

You have eight cervical spinal nerve pairs numbered C1 through C8. Below these, you have 12 thoracic nerve pairs numbered T1 through T12. In your lower back, you have five lumbar nerve pairs numbered L1 through L5. You have five sacral nerve pairs and one coccygeal nerve pair exiting your tailbone.

The location where the pair exits the spine determines what it controls. Cervical spinal nerves control your upper body, while those branching from your lumbar spine control your lower limbs.

What Can Lead To a Spinal Cord Injury?

Many types of trauma can sever your spinal cord. Two of the most common causes of spinal cord injuries include:

Foreign Object

If a foreign object pierces your back, it can cut the nerves of your spinal cord. This can happen during an assault with a gun or knife. A bullet or knife blade can enter the spinal canal and slice through the nerves inside.

This kind of injury can also happen in industrial accidents. If you fall from a height onto an object like a piece of metal, the object can penetrate your spine and cut your spinal cord.

Broken Spine

Each vertebra of your spine has a solid body with several protrusions called “processes.” When you fracture your spine, you can break either the body or the spinous process.

When the body fractures, bone fragments can get pushed into the spinal canal, severing the spinal nerves. When a process fractures, the ligaments attached to the vertebra can no longer hold it in place. The vertebra can dislocate into the spinal canal and cut through the spinal cord.

A broken spine can happen in a fall, car accident, or other high-force collision.

What Are the Symptoms of a Spinal Cord Injury?

The symptoms of a spinal cord injury depend on two factors:

Injury Severity

The severity of a spinal cord injury depends on whether all or only some of the spinal nerves suffer damage. If the spinal cord is completely severed, you will lose all feeling and movement below the injury.

If only some of the nerves in your spinal cord are severed, the incomplete injury will cause only partial symptoms. You might only suffer from weakness instead of paralysis. Or you might have paralysis on your right side but not your left.

Injury Level

The injury level determines which body parts the spinal cord injury will affect. The number of nerves decreases at lower levels of the spine since spinal nerves exit the spinal cord at each vertebra. When you suffer an injury in your neck, 46 or more spinal nerves could get cut.

These nerves control all four limbs as well as your chest and abdominal muscles. As a result, you will lose at least some function in your arms and legs. You may also lose control of your chest muscles, interfering with your ability to breathe. Quadriplegia or tetraplegia happens when all the spinal nerves get severed in a neck injury.

An injury in your lower back might only affect between 12 and 22 spinal nerves. Symptoms of an injury in your back will primarily affect your hips, legs, and feet. Paraplegia results when all the spinal nerves get severed in your back.

How Can You Get Compensation for a Spinal Cord Injury?

Spinal cord injuries cause permanent paralysis and loss of sensation. As a result, you may suffer significant damages from these injuries. If your spinal cord injury happened due to someone else’s actions, often you can pursue a compensation claim against the at-fault party.

For example, suppose your spinal cord injury happened when a safety harness broke on a job site. You will likely be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits since you were injured at work. But you may also have a product liability claim against the manufacturer of your safety equipment.

If you prove liability for a spinal cord injury, you can seek compensation for economic and non-economic losses. Economic damages include the financial losses you’ve incurred after your injury, including medical treatment, lost income, and physical therapy/rehabilitation.

Non-economic damages include compensation for non-financial losses, including your pain/suffering, emotional distress, he diminishment in your quality of life, and loss of consortium.

Contact Our Dallas Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers for Help With Your Case

A spinal cord injury is catastrophic and can leave you with permanent disabilities. It’s vital that you get the compensation you need for medical treatment and other losses.

Contact us online or call us at (214) 855-1420 for a free consultation to discuss the compensation you can pursue after your spinal cord injury. Our Dallas spinal cord injury lawyers will do everything in our power to maximize the value of your claim.

Our Dallas, TX personal injury law office also provides:

Visit Our Personal Injury Law Office in Dallas, TX

Jay Murray Personal Injury Lawyers
2512 State St
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 855-1420