Spinal cord injuries can come from a variety of accidents, but they all can lead to serious problems for the victims. The effect on victims depend on the type of the injury and the location. In some cases, individuals may have injuries that seem serious at first but that eventually lead to the recovery of some function.
It is important to be realistic about what is possible with your injury. One thing that matters greatly is what type of effort you are ready to put into your recovery. Sometimes, patients have to work hard in therapy if they are going to be able to regain as much function as possible.
Higher injuries, more impacts
The spinal cord sends messages to locations below it, so you may experience a lack of feeling or movement below the area where the injury occurs. For this reason, injuries to the neck will affect a larger portion of the body than injuries to the lower back.
An injury to the cervical spine, which is in the neck, can cause you lose function in the limbs, bowel, bladder and other organs. An injury in the lumbar spine, or lower back, will likely cause problems in the lower limbs, but the arms won’t likely be impacted.
Determining level and type of injury
The level of the injury and the type of injury are determined through the use of diagnostic tools. The doctor will likely use an examination along with imaging testing to determine where the spinal cord is injured and how serious the issue is.
There are two different classifications of spinal cord injuries. One is complete and the other is incomplete. A complete injury is one in which the person has no function or feeling below the injury. An incomplete injury doesn’t have the total loss of feeling or function below the location of the injury. Typically, people who have an incomplete injury will recover more abilities than a person who has a complete one.
One thing that is universal through all spinal cord injuries is that they can be very costly. When the accident is caused by another person’s negligence, the victim may opt to seek compensation in Michigan. This could defray the out-of-pocket expenses that come with a catastrophic injury and the impacts it has on the person’s life.
