Catastrophic injury

Some injuries don’t resolve with time and treatment. They reshape what a person can do, what care they will need, and what their family can afford. The firm has represented clients with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and paralysis, amputation, and severe burns, arising from car wrecks, tractor-trailer collisions, medical malpractice, workplace accidents, and other causes.

A settlement can’t undo a catastrophic injury. It can fund the medical care, rehabilitation, and long-term support a life-changing injury requires, and hold the responsible party to account.

Initial consultation is free. Personal injury matters are handled on a contingency basis: you owe no attorney fee unless we recover for you.

Head and neck injuries are among the most serious a person can sustain. Both can result from a sudden, violent impact, and both frequently require a lifetime of medical care and rehabilitation.

Traumatic brain injury

A traumatic brain injury affects one or more areas of the brain, often impairing memory, vision, communication, or mobility. According to the CDC, roughly 1.4 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year, and more than 5 million people in the U.S. currently live with long-term disability from one. Even an injury that seems minor at first can produce lasting problems.

Common causes include:

• Car, truck, and motorcycle accidents
• Slip-and-fall accidents
• Medical malpractice, including birth injury and surgical error
• Workplace accidents
• Sports injuries
• Violent encounters

Spinal cord injury and paralysis

The spinal cord carries the brain’s signals to the rest of the body. According to the Mayo Clinic, about 11,000 Americans suffer a traumatic spinal cord injury each year. The spinal cord does not need to be severed for function to be lost; bruising, compression, or tearing can be enough.

Paralysis, the loss of muscle function below the site of injury, may affect all four limbs (quadriplegia) or the lower body only (paraplegia). The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistics Center estimates the average medical cost of a spinal cord injury at more than $200,000, and as high as $600,000 for full quadriplegia, with ongoing treatment and rehabilitation running $14,000 to $120,000 a year depending on severity.

Some injuries are severe enough that reconstruction isn’t possible, or an amputation is required to prevent further harm or save a life. Beyond the loss of function, an amputation carries significant psychological effects and often ends a person’s ability to return to their prior work. A claim may recover:

• Medical, surgical, and ambulance expenses
• Rehabilitation and prosthetic costs
• Lost income and diminished future earning capacity
• Pain and suffering

The U.S. Fire Administration estimates roughly 1.25 million burn injuries occur each year. Serious burns can require extended hospital stays, skin grafts, reconstructive surgery, and years of physical therapy. Full-thickness (third-degree) burns affect every layer of skin and often the tissue beneath it, and frequently leave permanent scarring.

Electrocution

Electrical accidents arising from dangerous products, unsafe premises, or workplace conditions can cause severe burns and irreversible heart damage, in addition to the risk of wrongful death. As with any catastrophic injury claim, recovery depends on showing the injury resulted from another party’s negligence.

Children are injured in the same range of accidents adults are (car and pedestrian accidents, premises liability, and defective products among them) and by hazards particular to childhood, including toys that are dangerous even when used as intended. A child injury claim follows the same standard as any other: the injury must be traceable to another party’s negligence.

A wrongful death claim arises when a person is killed by another party’s negligence or recklessness: any of the causes above taken to their most severe conclusion. The firm handles those claims separately: see wrongful death.

Some catastrophic injuries are caused by a product that was defective before it ever reached the person it harmed. A product liability claim can rest on a design defect (a design that is inherently hazardous even when the product is made and used exactly as intended), a manufacturing defect (a product that departed from its own specification), or a failure to warn (a known risk carried without an adequate warning). Georgia law often allows these claims to proceed on strict liability, which requires showing the product was defective and caused the injury, not that the manufacturer was careless.

The firm has represented people injured by defective vehicles and vehicle components, industrial and woodworking machinery, and other products, and pursues the manufacturers, component makers, distributors, and retailers responsible for putting a dangerous product into use.

Because these injuries carry long-term costs, we work with treating physicians, life-care planners, and economists to document the full value of a claim, not just the bills that have already arrived. Depending on the facts, that can include medical and rehabilitation costs, lost income and diminished future earning capacity, and pain and suffering.

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