Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

In the video below, Attorney Fred Pritzker discusses spinal cord injuries.

CONTACT FRED PRITZKER ABOUT A SPINAL CORD INJURY >>

Pritzker Olsen attorneys Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman recently obtained a hard fought $2,560,000 recovery for the victims of a semi-truck crash. The clients, a husband and wife in their sixties, were returning from a family reunion when their automobile was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler.

Both Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman were named Super Lawyers by Law & Politics magazine (Aug. 2010). Contact Fred and Eric.

Our lawyers represent people with spinal cord injuries caused by accidents involving defective products, cars, semi trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and ATVs. They have recovered millions for accident victims and their families.

Spinal Cord Injury Compensation

A spinal cord injury can be either complete or incomplete. Either way, compensation for these spinal injuries should include amounts for medical expenses, cost of care, lost income, pain and suffering, emotional distress, disability, loss of quality of life and other damages. If you would like a free consultation with one of our attorneys, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free), e-mail Attorney Fred Pritzker or submit our online consultation form.

Complete Spinal Cord Injury

A complete spinal cord injury is one in which there is a complete loss of motor and sensory function below the location of the spinal injury (spinal lesion). The result is paralysis:

Quadriplegia (tetraplegia) - involves loss of movement and sensation in all four limbs (arms and legs). Quadriplegia also affects the chest muscles and may require a mechanical breathing machine for the patient
Paraplegia - involves loss of movement and sensation in the lower half of the body (right and left legs)

Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

With an incomplete spinal cord injury, some function remains below the spinal injury (spinal lesion). Unlike a complete spinal cord injury, an incomplete spinal cord injury may affect one side of the body more than the other. For example, one arm may have more movement than the other. An incomplete spinal cord injury can often be classified as one of three syndromes:

Anterior Cord Syndrome: Anterior spinal cord syndrome results from compression of the anterior spinal artery (the artery that runs along the front of the spinal cord). Some types of crude sensation are possible via the intact pathways in the posterior part of the spinal cord, but movement and more detailed sensation are lost.
Central Cord Syndrome: Central cord syndrome usually results from trauma to the large nerve fibers that carry information directly from the cerebral cortex to the spinal cord. Symptoms may include paralysis and/or loss of fine control of movements in the arms and hands. Sensory loss below the spinal cord lesion and loss of bladder control are possible.
Brown-Sequard Syndrome: Brown-Sequard syndrome results from a neck or back injury on one side of the spinal cord. A puncture wound, such as one made from crashing through a windshield during an accident, can be the cause. Movement and some types of sensation are lost below the level of injury on the injured side. Pain and temperature sensation are lost on the side of the body opposite the injury.

Spinal Shock

Sometimes trauma to the spinal cord results in a condition known as spinal shock, which may mimic a complete cord injury—one in which there is a complete loss of motor and sensory function below the level of the spinal injury (spinal lesion).

The traumatic event causing spinal shock is usually a traffic accident, fall or sports injury.

It may take several hours after a traumatic spinal injury for spinal shock to progress.

Although, by definition, spinal shock is not permanently complete, there may be permanent incomplete spinal cord injury.

In most cases, once some degree of motor and sensory function returns (usually from several days to six weeks), patients require substantial rehabilitation.

Free Consultation with Spinal Cord Injury Attorney

If you or someone you love has had a spinal cord injury, contact us for a free consultation: 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our online consultation form.

Specific Spinal Cord Injuries

For information on specific spinal cord injuries, please see the following:

C1, C2 and C3 Broken Neck Attorney: These spinal cord injuries result in quadriplegia and 24-hour-a-day care is needed;
C4 Broken Neck Lawyer: Victims are generally permanent quadriplegics;
C5 Broken Vertebrae Lawyer: Arms have some sensory responses, but there is paralysis of the trunk and legs, and the wrists may be paralyzed;
C6 Broken Neck Injury Lawyer: Victims are often permanent paraplegics with some loss of sensory response in the arms;
C7-C8 Broken Neck and Injuries Lawyer: Chest muscles, at least some, are generally paralyzed, and there is still loss of bowel and bladder control.

The following is information from the National Institutes of Health:

What is Spinal Cord Injury?

A spinal cord injury usually begins with a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that fractures or dislocates vertebrae. The damage begins at the moment of injury when displaced bone fragments, disc material, or ligaments bruise or tear into spinal cord tissue. Most injuries to the spinal cord don't completely sever it. Instead, an injury is more likely to cause fractures and compression of the vertebrae, which then crush and destroy the axons, extensions of nerve cells that carry signals up and down the spinal cord between the brain and the rest of the body. An injury to the spinal cord can damage a few, many, or almost all of these axons. Some injuries will allow almost complete recovery. Others will result in complete paralysis.

The following is information from The Cleveland Clinic:

Thirty-three ring-shaped bones called vertebrae form the spinal column (spine) and protect the spinal cord from injury. If these bones are broken or damaged, paralysis is not necessarily the result once the bones are stabilized. Therefore, a person may break his or her back or neck without suffering paralysis. It is when the damage reaches the spinal cord that serious, long-term or permanent effects often result. The extent and region of the body affected by this damage depends upon the region of the spinal cord that is injured.

The spinal column and spinal cord consist of four regions, with each region controlling a particular part of the body. These regions can be categorized even further into 31 pairs of peripheral spinal nerves. These nerve pairs extend from the spinal cord through spaces in the vertebrae, connecting the spinal cord with other nerves throughout the peripheral nervous system. In general, the higher the spinal cord is injured, the more severe the injury. The regions of the spine are numbered in descending order from the brain.

Cervical Region (C1 to C8): Located in the neck, this region controls the back of the head, the neck, shoulders, arms, hands, and diaphragm

Thoracic Region (T1 to T12): This region is located in the upper back and controls the torso and parts of the arms

Upper Lumbar (L1 to L5): Located in the middle of the back just below the ribs. The upper lumbar region controls the hips and legs

Sacral Segments (S1 to S5): Just below the upper lumbar region in the middle of the back. This region controls movement in the groin, toes, and some parts of the legs

There are two types of spinal cord injuries: complete and partial. If a spinal cord injury is complete, there is no function below the point of injury. This means the patient will experience no sensation or voluntary movement and that both sides of the body, for example have both arms, will usually be equally affected. A complete injury can result in the paralysis of all four limbs (quadriplegia) or the lower half of the body (paraplegia).

For partial injuries, a patient may be able to move one limb more than the other or be able to feel more with one side than the other. The level of incomplete injuries may vary from patient to patient, and can affect the body in different ways. For example, a C-6 injury may result in having no hand control but having wrist control. A C-5 injury may deprive a patient of wrist and hand control, but not arm and shoulder control.

Aside from a loss of sensation and movement, patients with a spinal cord injury may also experience bladder and bowel complications. Spinal cord injuries often affect fertility in males. If the spinal cord injury is high, for example C-1 or C-2, the patient may need a respirator or diaphragmatic pacemaker to breathe properly.

Other complications that may result from a spinal cord injury are an inability to regulate blood pressure, low blood pressure, reduced control of body temperature, an inability to sweat that occurs below the level of injury, and chronic pain. Patients with spinal injuries also have an increased susceptibility to respiratory disease and autonomic dysreflexia.

Autonomic dysreflexia is primarily the result of the body being unable to control the blood pressure. This is especially a concern for patients who have a spinal cord injury at T-6 or above. The signal responsible for "telling" the blood vessels to relax cannot be processed because of the injury. With autonomic dysreflexia, these blood vessels intermittently remain constricted, thus elevating the blood pressure and possibly leading to life-threatening complications such as stroke. External methods of lowering the blood pressure to a safe level are often necessary.

There are currently over a quarter million people with spinal cord injuries living in the United States. For some of these people, the injury is the result of a disease, such as polio or spina bifida. However, for most, the spinal cord injury is the result of trauma. The leading traumatic cause of spinal cord injuries is automobile accidents, causing 44 percent of all injuries. Other causes of spinal cord injuries, in descending order of frequency, include violence (e.g., gunshot wounds), falls, and sports. While sports only account for 8 percent of all spinal cord injuries, 60 percent of those sports-related injuries are a result of diving accidents. For spinal cord injuries occurring over age 45, falls overtake automobile accidents as the number one cause.

Males account for over 80 percent of patients with spinal cord injuries. The average patient age is 33, but the most frequent age of injury is 19.

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Firm News

AV Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell

Attorneys Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman have been given the highest rating by Martindale-Hubbell for an attorney, AV Preeminent. An AV® certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.

Fred Pritzker Listed in The Best Lawyers in America

Fred Pritzker is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for his work in personal injury and wrongful death litigation.

Adjunct Teaching Position At U of M Law School

Attorney Brendan Flaherty has accepted an adjunct teaching position at the University of Minnesota Law School. For the 2011 spring semester, Flaherty will teach a course entitled "Practice and Professionalism," which will introduce students to foundational lawyering skills and professional responsibility issues.

Named Super Lawyer

In recognition of their achievements, attorneys Fred Pritzker, Elliot Olsen and Eric Hageman were named "Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics magazine. According to Super Lawyers, "The objective is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource to assist attorneys and consumers in the search for legal counsel."

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