Every year, thousands of car accidents in Missouri, Illinois, and throughout the United States leave drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians with extremely serious injuries. These injuries may require long hospitalizations, extensive rehabilitative care, or lifelong treatment. They could leave a person unable to work and support his or her family.
When You’ve Been in a MO Car Accident
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a car accident, you need a strong advocate to fight for your right to compensation. These types of injuries can cost you and your family immensely in the long run, and insurance companies will do everything they can to keep your compensation to a minimum.
Contact The Bruning Law Firm: St. Louis Car Accident Lawyer
At The Bruning Law Firm, our St. Louis auto accident attorneys have a track record of success in representing people who have been seriously injured in car accidents. As members of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers organization and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, our attorneys have fought fiercely to recover millions of dollars for accident victims who were seriously harmed by another person’s negligence.
Contact us today to discuss how we will pursue maximum compensation for your serious car accident injuries.
TYPES OF CAR ACCIDENT INJURIES
Although nearly any type of injury might occur during a car accident, some are more common than others. Here are some of the most common types of serious car accident injuries our attorneys see:
Head and Brain Injuries from Car Accidents
The bones of the skull are tough, but they are not indestructible. And although the brain can re-learn a vast amount of information after an injury, it can also be irreparably damaged.
During an auto accident, the head or brain might be injured when they strike or are struck by any object – the frame of the car, part of the seat, flying glass or metal, or something else. In some cases, the brain can be injured if the forces slamming the head back and forth are incredibly strong, even if the head never comes into contact with another object.
Even a mild traumatic brain injury, such as a concussion, can take weeks to heal and cause lingering problems with attention, mood, memory, and movement. More severe brain injuries can result in permanent trauma or even death.
Back Injuries from Car Accidents
Injuries to the back are among the most difficult and expensive to treat after a car accident. The spinal cord is the bundle of nerve fibers inside the spine that connects the brain to every other part of the body. When the spinal cord is cut, torn, compressed, or severed, symptoms can range from severe pain and difficulty moving to total paralysis.
Damage to the bones and the joints of the spine can also cause ongoing problems with pain and mobility. Although some of these problems can be corrected with surgery or physical therapy, others could be permanent. Your ability to participate in activities you once did regularly ─such as work, household chores, or playing with kids ─ may be diminished.
Whiplash Injuries
Whiplash is one of the most common types of car accident injuries. Whiplash occurs when the head and neck jerk sharply forward and backward, stressing and damaging the soft tissues in the neck. The kind of movement that causes whiplash is very common in car accidents in which one vehicle directly collides with another.
Whiplash injuries are “tricky” because they aren’t immediately apparent for some people. Instead, it takes a few hours or days for the pain, swelling, and other symptoms to become noticeable. This increases the risk of injuring the neck further, and it reduces the chances that the person will get the prompt medical care needed. Seeing a doctor after any kind of car accident is extremely important to identify injuries such as whiplash that may not be obvious right away.
Broken Bones from Car Accidents
The forces involved in a car accident may cause a fracture in nearly any bone of the body. Because children have more bones than adults and many of these bones are not fully developed, children are at a high risk of suffering serious fractures in car accidents.
Broken bones may require surgery to repair, take weeks or even months to heal, and cause significant pain and trouble with mobility. Even after the bone is healed, physical therapy and rehabilitation services are often required to help the person build muscle and regain the use of the affected area of the body.
Burn Injuries from Car Accidents
Although many people do not think of burn injuries as common “car accident injuries,” in fact, burn injuries can and often do occur during serious auto accidents. Thermal injuries from fire or flame, electrical burns from exposed wiring during a crash, or even chemical burns from certain accidents or from hidden defects in the vehicle may occur.
Burn injury treatments have advanced greatly in recent decades, but these injuries still cause extreme pain, require extensive healing times, and greatly increase the risk of certain complications, such as infections. Injured people may spend time in a burn unit and require long-term care for the wounded areas of the body and any long-term impairments caused by the injury.
Studies show that burn injuries suffered in a car accident can be particularly difficult and expensive to treat, as the injured person frequently has other serious injuries that become more difficult to address due to the burns.
Although these are the more common serious car accident injuries we see, this is by no means a full list of the injuries our clients have suffered. If you have been injured in a car accident and need a knowledgeable car accident injury lawyer to talk through your legal options for pursuing compensation, contact us today.
Contact our St. Louis Car Accident Lawyer Now
When you choose a St. Louis auto accident attorney, it is important find someone you feel comfortable with and can trust to fight for your best interests. At The Bruning Law Firm, we make sure our clients know that we are doing everything possible to pursue maximum compensation for their serious injuries. We stay in close contact with you during every step of your case, so you don’t have to wonder what’s going on.
To learn how we can help you after a serious auto accident, contact our office today. Your initial consultation is free and confidential.
