Miami Paralysis Injury Attorneys
Helping Victims of Paralysis Injuries Throughout Florida
Paralysis can occur because of neurological or neuromuscular diseases, abnormal development or defects in the circulatory or neuromuscular systems, or disorders affecting the central nervous system. However, most often it occurs because of traumatic injuries to the brain or spinal cord.
Motor vehicle accidents, falls, acts of criminal violence, and sports injuries account for most of these traumatic injuries, but medical errors can also cause paralysis if the spinal cord is injured. Spinal cord injuries due to medical malpractice far too often occur due to surgical errors resulting in nerve damage or because of a delayed diagnosis of an infection around the spine causing nerve compression. For example, a collection of pus in the form of an epidural abscess that compresses the spinal cord can result in devastating permanent injuries, including paraplegia or even quadriplegia. If you or a loved one has been paralyzed due to medical malpractice or an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, it is important to take timely action to protect and enforce your legal rights.
The experienced personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys at Boyers Law Group can help you hold the responsible parties accountable for their negligence while enabling you obtain the financial compensation to which you are legally entitled. Please call us at 800.545.9100 or submit the “Tell Us What Happened” form on our website for a free consultation, so we can preserve essential evidence and effectively investigate and prosecute your legal claim.
Causes of Paralysis
Paralysis can occur because of disease or a physical disorder but most often is related to a traumatic injury to the spinal cord from car accidents, falls, surgical and other medical errors, sports injuries, and acts of violence. Negligence often plays a large part in these injuries, especially from accidents, falls, and surgical errors or other acts of medical negligence.
Car Accident Spinal Cord Injuries
Car accidents are the leading cause of spinal cord injuries in the U.S. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), motor vehicle accidents account for close to 50 percent of all spinal cord injuries each year in the United States.
The spinal cord can be seriously injured in different ways in a motor vehicle accident. The force of a collision can, for example, cause the spine to extend beyond its normal range of motion, leading to spinal cord damage. In addition, if an accident victim’s head hits something in the vehicle or if the victim is thrown from the vehicle and suffers a head injury, the spinal cord may be compressed and serious and permanent injury can occur..
When the spinal cord is seriously injured, spinal nerve cells cannot send and receive messages from the brain to the body’s systems for sensory, motor, and autonomic functions below the site of the injury. Following the initial injury, loss of oxygen and the body’s release of toxic chemicals at the site of the injury can cause further damage.
Some people experience functional improvement after the swelling of the spinal cord diminishes. Some even continue improving a year or more after the injury, especially if they initially had some motor or sensory function below the injury level. However, many car accident victims are permanently paralyzed from their car accident injuries.
If you or a loved one has been paralyzed from a car accident, getting the best medical treatment, supportive care, and rehabilitation available is crucial. Compassionate healthcare providers, caretakers, and organizations are available for guidance and support. Knowledgeable, experienced Miami car accident attorneys are also available to help you hold the parties responsible for the accident accountable for their negligence and obtain the substantial financial resources you need.
Spinal Cord Injuries from Falls on Dangerous Premises
Fall injuries are the leading cause of spinal cord injuries in the U.S. for people 45 years of age and older and the second leading cause overall. When a fall injury occurs because of a dangerous walking surface, property owners and managers may be held legally accountable if they failed to maintain their walking surfaces in a reasonably safe condition or failed to warn of dangers about which they had or should have had knowledge.
Under Florida law, property owners and managers have a legal duty to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition for guests, customers, and other visitors who are lawfully on their premises. Unfortunately, some owners and managers do not comply with this duty, resulting in dangerous conditions, including but not limited to irregular or broken walking surfaces, spills or leaks that cause wet and slippery conditions, loose cords or wires in walkways, broken/uneven steps, obstructions on walking surfaces, and missing or damaged handrails.
When this type of negligence results in irreparable harm such as paralysis, the negligent property owner and/or manager can be held liable for their negligence and required to pay substantial sums of money to compensate injury victims for their past and future medical costs, lost wages or reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment, scarring and disfigurement, and diminished quality of life.
If you or a loved one has been paralyzed from a fall due to unsafe premises, it is essential to have the best possible legal representation available to ensure you obtain justice. The experienced Miami slip and fall attorneys of the Boyers Law Group can help you achieve justice and receive the maximum compensation allowable under the law.
Spinal Cord Injury from Crime and Negligent Security
Serious assaults, stabbings and shootings can, and sadly often do, cause spinal cord injuries resulting in nerve damage, hemi-paresis or paralysis. When these crimes occur on commercial premises, the property owners and managers can often be held legally accountable for a victim’s major, lifetime injuries.
When property owners and managers know or have reason to know that crimes are likely to occur on their premises, either because they received actual warnings of these future crimes or because there was a history of crimes in or around their premises, such as in a high crime area, the property owners and managers have a duty to provide reasonable security to protect those lawfully on the premises from harm. This duty can apply in a variety of settings, including in shopping centers, malls, at banks, in bars, athletic stadiums, apartment buildings, in residential developments, in schools, on educational campuses and in many other settings. The type of security that is demanded depends on the setting but can include gates, roving security guards, metal detectors, adequate lighting and security cameras, among man other interventions.
If a property owner or mangers fails to reasonably discharge their duty to provide adequate security and violent crimes results in serious physical injury to a person, including nerve damage, loss of a limb/amputation, a spinal cord injury, paralysis, wrongful death, or other serious injury, the injured parties may be entitled to recover very substantial damages.
For more information, about our extensive experience successfully advocating for victims of negligent security, please see our negligent security and results pages.
Spinal Cord Injuries from Surgical Mistakes
Mistakes or negligence during surgery can also cause paralysis. If a nerve is inadvertently cut or severed, it can cause permanent nerve damage, hemi-paresis (paralysis of one side of the body), paraplegia (paralysis of lower limbs), or quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs).
These injuries are especially egregious instances of medical negligence. In Florida, when doctors are negligent in that they failed to act as would a reasonably careful medical provider of the same specialty, and caused a patient to suffer serious injury or wrongful death, they can be held legally responsible for inflicting harm on their patients.
Proving that a doctor was negligent and fell below the community standard of care requires thorough investigation, total command of the medical facts of a case, high quality expert testimony, determined use of the discovery process and utilization of all the tools at a knowledgeable trial lawyer’s disposal. To achieve justice and receive the substantial compensation they deserve, clients need experienced, skilled medical malpractice attorneys dedicated to holding a negligent hospital and doctor accountable for his or her negligence.
If you or a family member has been paralyzed due to a surgical error, the Miami based medical malpractice attorneys of Boyers Law Group will put their experience, talent, hard work and resources to work for you. We will leave no stone unturned, using every lawful resource at our disposal to prove your case. We know you have suffered a tremendous loss and are deeply committed to helping you get the answers, compensation, and justice you deserve.
Spinal Cord Injuries from Delayed Diagnosis of an Infection
Many people do not realize that relatively minor infections, including urinary tract infections, can become serious systemic infections if not promptly and properly diagnosed and treated. Delays in diagnosing and treating infections can cause sepsis, which is a life-threatening bloodstream infection, and can also lead to infections in and around the spinal cord that can permanently damage the spinal cord and cause paralysis.
Sometimes systemic infections can cause collections of pus that form around a person’s spinal cord. When this collection of pus, or epidural abscess, compresses the spinal cord, this results in a major neurologic emergency. In this circumstance, it is critical that a timely diagnosis of the condition is made and emergency surgery to decompress the nerves of the spinal cord must often be done. If surgical intervention is delayed, a patient can be transformed, overnight, into a paraplegic or quadriplegic depending on the level of the spinal cord injury.
At Boyers Law Group, we have extensive experience in litigating all forms of medical malpractice cases including cases involving delayed diagnosis and treatment of infections and epidural abscesses resulting in spinal cord injuries.
Medical Treatment and Care Expenses for Paralyzed Patients
Despite huge advances in medicine and technology in the past ten years, a cure for paralysis has not yet been discovered. If a nerve is severed or damaged beyond repair, there is still no way to replace it.
Treatment for a paralysis victim is, therefore, typically focused on helping the patient live as independently as possible and on improving his or her quality of life. Mobility devices, different kinds of therapy, and practical care aimed at preventing complications are usually part of the treatment plan for these patients.
As might be expected, the cost of this ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, and adaptive equipment can be staggering. The first year after the injury, the cost can exceed $1 million, and for each subsequent year, the cost can be close to $200,000, not including indirect costs such as lost wages and lost earning capacity.
These costs and the emotional costs of a paralysis injury can be devastating for both injury victims and their families.
Boyers Law Group Attorneys Have Many Years of Experience in Representing Clients for Serious Injuries and Wrongful Death
If you or a family member has suffered a spinal cord injury and been paralyzed from an automobile accident, fall, surgical or other medical error, or other acts of negligence, get the legal help you need by calling Boyers Law Group or submitting the “Tell Us What Happened” form on our website.
Our compassionate, experienced legal team has over 20 years of experience in achieving substantial compensation for our seriously injured clients, in all of the above practice areas, and will do everything possible to help you get the justice and compensation you deserve.
Helpful Resources
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Leading causes of nonfatal injury reports, 2000 – 2017.
https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfilead.html
Christopher & Dana Reeve Organization. (2019). Causes of paralysis.
https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/health/causes-of-paralysis
National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center. (2018). Facts and figures at a glance.
https://www.nscisc.uab.edu/Public/Facts%20and%20Figures%20-%202018.pdf