What Kind of Spinal Cord Injury Is the Most Common?

We all experience the occasional bad back. It can come from overexertion or sleeping on a lumpy mattress. Usually, the remedy is rest, massage, or time with a heating pad.

However, there are more serious injuries to the back that aren’t so easy to remedy.

Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) occur from blunt force trauma to the spine. The result can be a range of injuries from fractured vertebrae to severed tendons. Damage to the spinal cord disrupts the brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of the body. That’s because the spinal cord acts as the “superhighway” of nerves that transmit signals to move and feel pain.

Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries

One of the most common ways to experience a spinal cord injury is in a car accident. If that accident occurs due to another driver’s negligence, you are entitled to compensation for your injuries. With SCI, you could be facing surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, and lost time from work.

All of that can be compensated with help from an experienced attorney like the ones you’ll find at the Law Officers of Matthew L. Sharp. We’ve helped many clients achieve the maximum compensation for their spinal cord injuries.

The amount of compensation you are entitled to will depend on the severity of your injury.

Incomplete and Complete Spinal Cord Injury Types

Doctors begin assessing a spinal cord injury by determining the type of injury.

Spinal cord injuries are commonly broken down into two main categories: incomplete and complete SCIs.

Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), there were approximately 18,421 new SCI cases each year. Of that number, the most common types of spinal cord injuries are incomplete tetraplegia and paraplegia.

An incomplete spinal cord injury manifests as a partial disruption of the spinal cord because of the following injuries:

• Bruising
• Partial severance of the spinal cord
• Stretching
• Having bone fragments or foreign bodies embedded against the spinal cord

With an incomplete spinal cord injury, you could experience lessened sensory or motor functions. Victims of this level of SCI can recover some of their lost functions over time.

Tetraplegia, or quadriplegia, is a spinal cord injury that impacts both your arms and legs. Paraplegia or partial paralysis only affects your legs.

Complete Spinal Cord Injuries

A complete spinal cord injury results in permanent damage that manifests as a total lack of mobility and sensory functions below the injury site on the spinal cord. Think of this as a roadblock preventing transmissions from the brain.

Regardless of which category of SCI, doctors will assign a letter grade from A to E. Grade A is considered a complete SCI with no sensory or motor function, and E is considered a complete SCI with normal motor functions and sensory scores.

Spinal Cord Injury Facts

Data collected by NSCISC breaks down the causes of SCI since 2015:

• Car accident – 37.3%
• Falls – 32%
• Violence – 15.5%
• Sports – 7.7%
• Medical or Surgical error – 3.7%
• Other – 3.8%

As for the most common SCI category, 47.6% of the reported injuries were classified as incomplete tetraplegia, and 20.3% were incomplete paraplegia. Complete paraplegia injuries were 19.6%, and complete tetraplegia injuries were 12.1%.

Get Support for Your SCI Recovery

You could be facing a long and painful recovery, depending on your injury. That is something that will also take an emotional toll, as well. The Law Office of Matthew L. Sharp can provide the support and guidance you need to decide the best course of action to pursue a financial remedy for your injury.

We understand that the stress of mounting medical bills and lost wages can impact your recovery.

Our goal is to remove as many burdens from our clients as possible. You can get your questions answered at our first consultation. Call to set up the talk today.

You don’t have to go through this alone.