If you are involved in a serious accident, there is a danger that you will suffer dismemberment. This means having one of your limbs cut or torn off during the accident. This type of injury is particularly common in motorcycle accidents and truck crashes.
However, this isn’t the only way you can lose a limb due to an accident. You might also lose a limb if it is damaged significantly during an accident or if an injury becomes infected. In this situation, a doctor will choose to amputate your limb to save your life.
This decision may seem inhumane, but it is generally considered more important to save the life of the patient than to save a limb. Fortunately, amputation injuries are relatively uncommon. If you or a loved one is unlucky enough to suffer one, the following information will help you.
What Are Common Causes of an Amputation Injury?
A doctor will only take the extreme action of amputating a limb when they believe there is no other option to save your life. The following are common situations that can force a doctor to act.
A Crushed Limb
When a limb is crushed, its blood vessels become irreparably damaged. This means that blood can’t flow to or from the limb. It will start to rot away, causing an infection that will spread to the rest of your body. Doctors will remove the limb to prevent that infection. This type of injury commonly occurs in serious auto accidents or construction accidents.
An Untreated Infection
This type of injury is most likely in cases of medical malpractice. If your doctor fails to identify that you have an infection or doesn’t treat an infection aggressively enough, it can take root in a limb and start to spread.
Once an infection has taken hold strongly enough, it can’t be treated. The only way to prevent it from spreading throughout the body and killing the patient is by removing the limb. This can be particularly frustrating when you seek medical attention to prevent this occurrence and still end up needing an amputation.
Shattered Bones
Your bones can be shattered due to an accident that crushes your limb, but there are also other ways this can happen. Getting hit by a car in a pedestrian accident is a common cause of shattered bones, for example.
When your bone shatters, bone chips break off, getting stuck in soft tissue and your bloodstream. These chips degrade when not connected to the bone, causing infection and internal bleeding. Even surgery may not allow doctors to find all the chips and remove them, resulting in the need for amputation.
What Are the Potential Consequences of an Amputation Injury?
Sadly, an amputation injury is the kind of injury that leaves you disabled for the rest of your life.
After having a limb removed, you are likely to experience:
- Constant pain
- Loss of mobility or agility
- Extreme fatigue
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Social isolation
- Risk of future infections
- Loss of independence
- Inability to work at most jobs
Even with support, these consequences are common and often worsen as time passes. Unfortunately, amputation is a major shock to the system. Typically, your health will continue to deteriorate after losing a limb, even with significant medical care.
Equally frustrating is the fact that most victims of amputation injuries don’t get much warning that their lives are about to change permanently. Many amputations are performed almost immediately after the accident that forced them.
Even if your doctor can give you some warning about the necessity of this procedure, you are unlikely to have significant time to prepare for an amputation. This makes it a lot harder to handle these consequences.
What Are Your Legal Options After Sustaining an Amputation Injury?
Amputation injuries aren’t just physically taxing. Even in the best of circumstances, they can be financially devastating.
Medical care alone will likely cost you tens of thousands of dollars. And you will probably need hundreds of thousands in medical therapy over the rest of your life for any kind of amputation but the least severe.
Furthermore, many types of amputation injuries will prevent you from working in your chosen profession. That means you may face months to years of lost wages, even if you can find an alternate field to work in after the amputation.
This begs the question: Can you take legal action to recover compensation for an amputation injury? If another party’s negligence resulted in your injury, you can get compensation.
Automobile Accidents
If you were injured in any type of automobile accident, you can get compensation from one of the insurance companies. If you were responsible for the accident, there will be strict limits on how much compensation you can get.
However, if the other party was responsible, you should potentially be able to get as much money as you need to cover all of your medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses. When this type of money is on the line, you should contact a car accident lawyer immediately after the accident.
Medical Malpractice
If you consult a doctor soon enough after suffering an injury, illness, or infection, they can usually save your limb and your life. If it is too late by the time you contact them, they should be able to tell you as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, some doctors either don’t properly treat an injury or don’t take the dangers seriously enough. This can result in an amputation that could have been prevented. A medical malpractice lawyer can help you determine whether your amputation was preventable.
Workplace Accidents
If you are injured in the workplace, your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance is typically responsible for any consequences of that injury. A third party may also be liable for your damages. Fortunately, workers have relatively strong protections, which you can learn from a workplace accident lawyer.
Contact a Lakewood Personal Injury Lawyer To Discuss Your Amputation and Legal Options
When should you contact a personal injury lawyer about an amputation injury? Preferably as soon as possible. If you have a warning that amputation is necessary, contact the attorneys at Matos Personal Injury Lawyers before the procedure happens.
Our legal team will help you determine whether you can get compensation for the injury to pay for medical care, expenses, and your suffering. Contact us at (720) 807-1602 as soon as possible to schedule a free consultation.