Catastrophic injuries are serious injuries that often impact control centers of the human body, such as the brain and spinal cord. These types of injuries can result from car accidents, and Knoxville residents who sustain catastrophic injuries can face months or even years of recovery time to return to normalcy in their lives. Not all victims of catastrophic injuries fully recover from their injuries, and some are forced to live with constant support to survive.
It is important that readers understand that this post offers no legal or medical advice. Victims of motor vehicle accident-based catastrophic injuries should seek medical help and legal guidance to better understand their situations. This post generalizes the extreme costs and losses that catastrophic injury victims can face when they lose the ability to care for their own needs.
Spinal cord injuries: Loss of movement and freedom
One of the risks of a spinal cord injury is a victim’s potential paralysis. Paralysis affects the body and prevents affected areas from moving. When a spinal cord accident victim suffers paralysis, it is generally at and below the site of their spinal cord injury.
Victims of paralysis may be unable to walk, use their arms and torsos, or control regular bodily functions like respiration. They may require medical intervention, occupational support, or even residency in a care facility to survive. The costs of these and other spinal cord injury costs can exceed $1 million.
Brain injuries: A range of costs based on severity
Traumatic brain injuries can range from minor concussions to life-threatening trauma. Car accident victims can suffer these serious injuries in vehicle impacts, and when they do their lives may be forever altered. Traumatic brain injuries can affect victims’ moods, sleep habits, pain, disorientation, and memory loss. These are only some of the serious long-term problems that victims can experience.
Like spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries can require long-term treatment for victims to experience significant improvements. Some estimates put the lifetime costs of living with traumatic brain injuries close to $3 million.
Catastrophic injuries require time and treatment for victims to experience sometimes minor improvements in their conditions. Living with them is costly, and victims who suffer catastrophic injuries due to the wrongful driving practices of others may have legal rights to seek the recovery of their full damages.
