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SPINAL CORD INJURY LAWYERS

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that results in a loss of function, such as mobility or feeling. Frequent causes of spinal cord damage are trauma (car accident, workplace accident, falls, gunshot, etc.) or disease (polio, spina bifida, etc.). Due to the severely debilitating nature of such injuries, accidents casuing spinal cord injury are often the subject of personal injury lawsuits and litigation. The occurrence of an SCI-causing accident usually results in immediate, dramatic upheaval of all aspects of the victim's life - family, work and social relations can be severed in this process. Indeed, as a SCI victim struggles to remain alive, the lives of his immediate (and sometimes, extended) family members undergo a similar transformation - the demands of caring for a SCI victim and his/her family can cause sudden and dramatic changes in lifestyle.

Approximately 10,000 new spinal cord injuries (SCIs) occur each year in the United States. About 250,000 people are currently affected. Spinal cord injuries can happen to anyone at any time of life. The typical patient, however, is a man between the ages of 19 and 26, injured in a motor vehicle accident (about 50% of all SCIs), a fall (20%), an act of violence (15%), or a sporting accident (14%). Most SCI patients are white, but the nonwhite fraction of SCI patients is larger than the nonwhite fraction of the general population. Alcohol or other drug abuse plays an important role in a large percentage of all spinal cord injuries. Six percent of people who receive injuries to the lower spine die within a year, and 40% of people who receive the more frequent higher injuries die within a year.

Short-term costs for hospitalization, equipment, and home modifications are approximately $140,000 for an SCI patient capable of independent living. Lifetime costs may exceed one million dollars. Costs may be 3-4 times higher for the SCI patient who needs long-term institutional care. Overall costs to the American economy in direct payments and lost productivity are more than $10 billion per year.


  
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  The following is a list of the various regions of the spinal cord, and the functions controlled by the respective region:    

The spinal cord is about as big around as the index finger. It descends from the brain down the back through hollow channels of the backbone. The spinal cord is made of nerve cells (neurons). The nerve cells carry sensory data from the areas outside the spinal cord (periphery) to the brain, and they carry motor commands from brain to periphery. Peripheral neurons are bundled together to make up the 31 pairs of peripheral nerve roots. The peripheral nerve roots enter and exit the spinal cord by passing through the spaces between the stacked vertebrae. Each pair of nerves is named for the vertebra from which it exits. These are known as:

  • C1-8. These nerves enter from the eight cervical or neck vertebrae.
  • T1-12. These nerves enter from the thoracic or chest vertebrae.
  • L1-5. These nerves enter from the lumbar vertebrae of the lower back.
  • S1-5. These nerves enter through the sacral or pelvic vertebrae.
  • Coccygeal. These nerves enter through the coccyx or tailbone.

 

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New York Personal Injury Lawyers

 

The extent to which movement and sensation are damaged depends on the level of the spinal cord injury. Nerves leaving the spinal cord at different levels control sensation and movement in different parts of the body. The distribution is roughly as follows:

  • C1-C4: head and neck.
  • C3-C5: diaphragm (chest and breathing).
  • C5-T1: shoulders, arms and hands.
  • T2-T12: chest and abdomen (excluding internal organs).
  • L1-L4: abdomen (excluding internal organs), buttocks, genitals, and upper legs.
  • L4-S1: legs.
  • S2-S4: genitals and muscles of the perineum.


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