What symptoms can someone with an incomplete spinal cord injury expect to have?
At least 450,000 Americans suffer from spinal cord injuries (SCIs) here in the United States, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA). Symptoms these individuals experience vary widely depending on their injury’s location.
Both types of SCIs, including incomplete or complete ones, can affect an individual’s life. Those with the former kind of injury have fewer limitations than someone with the latter, though.
How common are spinal cord injuries?
Data published by the NSCIA indicates that most SCIs among Americans 65 years of age or under are attributable to auto accidents. Those same statistics show that SCIs are most common among individuals between 16 to 30 years of age.
That same NSCIA data show that at least 81.2% of the individuals who suffer SCIs are men. At least 20% of males who suffer SCIs do so due to their involvement in motorcycle crashes.
What kind of functionality will someone with an incomplete SCI have?
Someone with an incomplete SCI will generally retain limb functionality below the level where their injury occurred, but many find it challenging to maintain bilateral functionality.
Incomplete SCI patients may receive comorbid diagnoses of chronic conditions such as Brown-Sequard, Anterior Cord or Central Cord Syndromes. Patients with Brown-Sequard Syndrome may have difficulty feeling pain or experience a lack of sensitivity to temperatures below their injury level. Those incomplete SCI patients with Anterior Cord Syndrome may be unstable when moving and be unable to feel it when someone touches them on the posterior part of their spinal cord.
Meanwhile, patients with Central Cord Syndrome may find it challenging to use their legs to perform any task requiring fine motor skills. Individuals who receive this diagnosis may also experience other functional or sensory deficits, including a lack of bladder control.
In short, the consequences of an incomplete spinal cord injury can vary greatly from patient to patient.
How can you afford costly spinal cord injury treatments?
Patients who suffer SCIs don’t only require treatment immediately following their injury, but a lifetime of care. Individuals who suffer from an SCI may also face limits in terms of the work they can perform depending on the severity of their injury, as well. An attorney here in Belleville can help you recover compensation for past and future medical bills and other injury-related expenses if someone else’s negligence caused your injury.