Our Wichita Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers are experienced in traumatic accidents causing injury to the spine. Spinal cord injuries can arise from small or minor impact car accidents and falls. When serious, injuries to the spine often result in paralysis, lack of movement, headaches, nerve pain and difficulty performing normal activities of daily living (ADL).

An injury to the neck, back or spinal cord can cause pain in your spine and extremities. Most traumatic spine injuries require seeing an orthopedic surgeon quickly following the motor vehicle crash to repair the damaged spine. Chronic pain can develop. Our Wichita spinal cord injury attorneys understand medicine on injuries to the spine so we can help our clients.

When an injury to the neck or back is severe enough it can cause tetraplegia, quadriplegia, paraplegia or spinal cord syndrome. This level of severity can be permanent, causing motor vehicle accident victims into wheelchairs.

Minor to moderate pain from spine, neck and back injuries can reduce your enjoyment of life with constant pain and suffering. Spinal cord injuries often result from high-impact truck accidents, car accidents, farming accidents, construction site accident and falls at home or a workplace.

Our Wichita spine personal injury attorneys can help you get compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, surgeries, future medical care, nursing assistance and financial compensation to help you continue to live when you cannot work any longer. We never charge an attorney fee unless we win.

Government estimates find that approximately 869,000 people injured in a traffic crash with a cervical spine injury are seen in hospital emergency rooms annually. Out of this very high number 841,000 of these traffic crashes cause sprain/strain injuries to the neck.

The same study finds that 2800 spinal disc injuries are caused by these motor vehicle collisions along with 23,500 fractures to the cervical spine and 2800 spinal cord injuries. In Kansas, in 2021 alone there were 90,045 motor vehicles involved in traffic crashes with at least 17,479 injuries. Many of these injuries were back, neck and spine injuries.

Delay in seeking treatment can drastically reduce your chances of recovery so it is essential that you get the best orthopedic or neurosurgeons to immediately diagnose your condition. Our Wichita personal injury lawyers have very strong connections to the best doctors in Wichita who concentrate in treating back and neck injuries from motor vehicle accidents, falls and workplace accidents.

Our settlement results for neck, back and spine injury victims are excellent, having settled hundreds of millions of dollars for our back and neck injury clients since 1983.

Spinal cord injuries are the worst form of injuries to the neck and back from a traumatic injury accident. Most of the spinal cord injuries (SCI) occur because of motor vehicle accidents or violence and at least 17,000 new cases of SCI happen annually according to the NIH.

Common injuries caused by trauma to the spinal cord:

• Direct impact traumatic injury. This is where a primary or secondary spinal cord injury happens after a significant force like a car wreck, truck crash or fall occurs and the force and impact to the body damages the spinal cord and in the secondary type of injury the spinal cord becomes damaged after the injury occurs followed by significant inflammation of the spinal cord.
• Complete transection of the spinal cord. This severe spinal cord injury will result in loss of motor function and pain sensation and other nerve related sensations and usually occurs across the entire body on both sides known as bilaterally. Lumbar injuries will result in paralysis in the lower part of the body and loss of bowel and bladder function as well as loss of sexual function. Cervical injuries will result in additional paralysis of the upper part of the body and can cause the lungs not to function properly.
• Central cord syndrome. This will lead to extreme weakness in the upper extremities and may also involve loss of pain and temperature sensations as well as lesser paralysis where the person cannot have full body movement with arms or legs.
• Anterior cord syndrome. This will cause loss of pain and temperature sensation in the area below the injury level and paralysis below the area of injury.
• Sprain/strain injuries. Strains and sprains are significantly painful and can last for extended periods of time. They require medical treatment by radiological studies, physical therapy, medication treatment, long term rehabilitation and other forms of medical treatment. Many older people above 40 never fully recover from these injuries which are normally caused by car and motor vehicle accidents.
• Herniated discs and disc tears. These types of injuries to the discs in the spine often require treatment with medication and physical therapy but more significant disc herniations and tears will require radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or surgical relief like a discectomy done through a scope or while fully opened like a fusion surgery.
• Compression fracture injuries. These types of injuries occur from traumatic injuries to the spine which compress the bone in the vertebrae and will heal in some instances while in other instances the surgeon or anesthesiologist will operate on the spine to add in a combination of bone and cement to build the vertebrae back to its normal height.
• Fractured vertebrae injuries. These injuries may require surgery to fix the broken vertebrae and in some cases the patient must wear a brace for a lengthy period of time to stabilize the fracture so that it does not worsen and cause paralysis.
• Chronic pain following trauma. The older the patient is or the more fragile they are the worse the pain becomes. In some patients a spinal cord stimulator is surgically implanted to help control the pain. Pain medications like Percocet, Lortab and Oxycontin are often prescribed for severe pain following a traumatic injury.
• Nerve pain following trauma. With nerve injuries or compression, the pain becomes intolerable for the patient and causes pain and numbness sensations. The lower back nerve pain will go down the leg and is usually referred to as sciatica. Medication treatment is normally with Gabapentin, Lyrica and similar nerve related medications.

The main cause for spinal injuries is blunt trauma and is mainly caused by motor vehicle accidents which account for 48% of all spinal cord injuries according to the NIH. The next cause of spinal injuries is falls followed by sports injuries at 21% and 14.8% respectively. Injuries to the spinal cord are a major cause of disability.

Common causes of neck, back and spine injuries:

• Car and Motor vehicle accidents. Motor vehicle accidents are the main cause of accidents to people aged 13-25.
• Tractor-trailer accidents and large truck accidents. Large truck accidents cause a significant number of deaths in the United States.
• Delivery driver accidents. Most delivery driver accidents are from drunk driving and driver distraction and inattention.
• Uber and Lyft motor vehicle crashes. Ridesharing accidents continue to rise annually as the number of drivers become hired drivers for Uber, Lyft and other ridesharing companies.
• Falls at home or at work. These falls happen in premises liability cases where a property defect exists, and many falls occur in nursing homes that fail to properly assist patients.
• Motorcycle crashes with motor vehicles. Motorcycle accidents usually cause more injury to the driver and passenger than the motor vehicle that collides with them.
• Workplace accidents on construction sites and industrial jobsites. Most workplace accidents occur because of businesses failing to implement safety plans that follow OSHA.
• Diving injuries in swimming pools. Diving injuries into swimming pools and shallow lakes and rivers usually result in spinal cord injuries that end in paralysis. Shallow water that is not marked well leads to people diving headfirst into an area that immediately fractures and disrupts the spine.

No matter what traumatic injury caused your neck, back or spinal cord damage, Bull Attorneys can help you recover compensation when someone else was negligent and at fault. Our law team of trial lawyers, case managers and legal assistant-paralegals work in combination with you and your family to bring claims against the insurance companies for the at fault person or business and to help you can financial compensation for all of your emotional and financial losses.

When a car or motor vehicle accident or workplace accident happens, it is essential that you get seen the same day at an emergency room in a hospital by emergency room board certified doctors. Many people are scared of incurring medical bills. If you are in pain and it is related to your spine you need to take the ambulance to the hospital from the scene of the accident.

Why is it Important to Be Seen Immediately After a Traumatic Accident by an Emergency Room Doctor?

Medical treatment by an ER Physician After a Traumatic Accident is necessary for the following reasons:

• Delay in Treatment. The NIH recognizes that spinal cord injuries can cause major disabilities that are life changing threats. Because most traumatic spinal cord injuries are due to motor vehicle crashes, there is a significant worsening of the patient's condition if they delay in getting ER treatment. Delay in seeking treatment results in major medical complications and bad outcomes for the traumatized patient. A missed diagnosis coupled with failure to get rapid surgical correction can cause paralysis.
• Early Diagnosis. Early diagnosis of a spinal cord injury helps with stabilization, surgery and rehabilitation therapy and increases the chances of a positive outcome.
• Rural motor vehicle accidents. The NIH has found that many of the patients living in rural areas without a main hospital referred to as a tertiary care center end up without appropriate medical treatment during the early stages following a motor vehicle accident and only go to a primary care facility in larger urban area much later in time which adds to the incidence of paralysis and poor outcomes.

At Bull Attorneys, our spinal cord injury attorneys have helped clients from motor vehicle accidents and workplace accidents over the last four decades. When your doctor fails to recognize the severity of your injury our experienced spinal cord lawyers can help you to get immediate treatment from a neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon.