Knee injuries aren’t often ranked among the most severe injury types. However, anyone who has suffered a knee injury knows that this type of injury can have a severe negative impact on quality of life.
A knee injury may stop you from returning to your career, participating in family life, or completing necessary household tasks. When this happens, a personal injury lawyer may be able to help you recover personal injury compensation to cover lost wages, medical bills, and other injury costs.
How the Knee Works
The knee is a complex body part. Known as a synovial joint, it’s the largest joint in the human body and plays a key role in mobility, strength, and balance. The thigh bone is called the femur, and the tibia is the front, large bone in your lower leg. The ends of these two bones meet with a kneecap, or patella, on top of them.
Together, the kneecap and these two leg bones make up the skeleton structure of the knee. However, the knee consists of much more than just bone. A complex system of muscles, nerves, cartilage, and tissue exists around and in the knee. Together, they allow you to stand upright, bend, and walk.
In addition to mobility, the knee is also central to strength and balance. When the knee is injured, it’s difficult to maintain balance, and the legs struggle to support the weight of your upper body. Often, obtaining personal injury compensation is necessary to pay for treatment costs.
Common Types of Knee Injuries
Since the knee is a complicated bodily structure with many parts, it can be injured in many different ways. Knee injuries typically mean that one or more parts of the knee have been damaged.
Depending on the type of injury and what sort of trauma the knee sustained, a knee injury can mean damage to:
- Bones
- Nerves
- Muscles
- Cartilage
- Ligaments
- Tendons
Because the knee is central to mobility, any form of knee injury can have a significant impact on the injured individual. Moreover, this type of injury is often particularly painful, especially if work or personal obligations make it necessary to continue attempting to use the knee after it is injured.
Certain types of knee injuries are so common that there are names for them.
Some of the most common knee injuries include:
- ACL Tear: Torn knee ligament
- Meniscus Tear: Torn knee cartilage
- Bursitis: Inflamed fluid sacs in the knee
- Patellar Tendonitis: Inflamed tendon responsible for straightening the knee
In addition to these common injuries to knee ligament and cartilage, it’s not uncommon to experience a broken knee or a fracture involving one of the three bones that make up the knee joint.
Treatment Options After a Knee Injury
Knee injury treatment depends on the type of injury. A knee fracture is treated similarly to other types of injuries involving broken bones. The knee may be placed in a cast or splint, and the injured person needs to refrain from moving the joint or putting weight on the knee until it has healed. Usually, only severe fractures require surgery.
Injuries to soft tissue in the knee, like cartilage, ligaments, or muscles, can require more invasive forms of treatment. Doctors may first recommend methods such as rest and ice. However, this is often insufficient for serious injuries. Knee surgery is often necessary for reconstructing torn ligaments, such as a badly torn ACL.
After initial treatment for a knee injury, doctors usually recommend physical or occupational therapy. The goal of this is to help restore the knee’s strength and mobility while reducing long-term pain, stiffness, or loss of strength.
Long-Term Outcomes After a Knee Injury
It’s hard to predict treatment outcomes for a knee injury. Once the knee has been injured, there’s a good chance of the injured person permanently experiencing chronic pain and reduced strength and mobility. Furthermore, there’s often a higher chance of further injury, such as re-tearing the same ligament down the road.
In a best-case scenario, a knee injury is a one-time event that eventually results in a full recovery. However, it’s common for a knee injury to result in lasting problems. Chronic pain is the most common of these, and the pain can often be severe.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain alone can have a serious impact on quality of life. Living with knee pain can make it challenging to participate fully in family life, like playing football with your kids or walking the dog. It can also make it difficult or impossible to complete necessary tasks around the house, like cutting the grass. Finally, it often makes it impossible to return to work.
Further Injury
Once the knee’s integrity has been compromised, there’s a heightened risk of further injury. If the knee injury doesn’t heal fully, a person often compensates for pain or loss of balance by relying overly on the other knee. For this reason, it’s not uncommon for the other knee to suffer injuries to cartilage, tendons, ligaments, or muscles.
Financial Issues
Knee injuries are often costly. Even when a full recovery is possible, lost wages and benefits, along with treatment costs, can take a serious toll on finances. When the injury doesn’t heal fully or results in chronic pain, returning to work is often impossible. This is especially true when the job is labor-intensive or requires standing or walking all day.
Obtaining Knee Injury Compensation
When a knee injury harms your finances, a personal injury lawyer may be able to help you obtain knee injury compensation through an insurance claim. The type of claim depends on how the knee was injured. Knee injuries often result in the need for workplace accident claims, slip and fall accident claims, and car accident claims.
Knee injury compensation depends on your injury costs and how your life has been impacted.
A lawyer may be able to help you recover compensation for things like:
- Past and future medical bills
- Past and future lost wages
- Surgery costs
- Physical and occupational therapy costs
- Medical device costs
- Pain and suffering
- Diminished quality of life
Every type of personal injury claim has a time limit, so it’s important to contact a lawyer as soon as possible.
Consult a Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Now
If a knee injury has left you unable to work and facing significant medical debt, Jay Murray Car Accident and Truck Accident Lawyers may be able to help. Our experienced personal injury lawyers have recovered over $100 million in injury compensation, and we may be able to help with your case.
Schedule a free consultation with a Dallas personal injury lawyer by calling Jay Murray Car Accident and Truck Accident Lawyers today.