Find A California Personal Injury Attorney For Accidents Leading to Amputations
Amputations are distinct from other types of injuries that can occur as a result of an accident. Medical malpractice victims face devastating and life-altering consequences. A victim may need to spend a significant amount of time in the hospital after the amputation, undergoing intense therapy and rehabilitation. All of this is prohibitively expensive.
Contact a California Personal Injury Attorney to help you sue for and collect damages to ease your difficulties.
How Are Amputations Different From Typical Personal Injury Cases in California?
Unlike typical injuries sustained in common accidents, amputations are considered to be Catastrophic Injuries in California.
Catastrophic Injuries are described to be particularly life-altering and permanent. They tend to have severe effects on a claimant's ability to return to the life they had before the accident.
Because the effects of the injuries are severe, the claimant naturally has grounds to sue for more damages. Get in contact with a California Personal Injury Lawyer to maximize the compensation for your claims.
Why Amputations Are Especially Difficult For Victims
Many amputees lose a great deal of their independence and are unable to do even the most basic daily duties without help. Without using a wheelchair or an artificial limb, losing an arm, hand, leg, or foot might make it impossible to dress, wash, or move.
An amputee may be unable to go back to their previous job position or even work at all in rare cases. Even individuals who have part of a limb amputated face an uphill battle in learning to cope and function with a lifelong handicap.
After losing a limb, many people choose to wear a prosthetic to assist them with daily activities. Unfortunately, the cost of these prosthetics can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. These are also ongoing costs, as prosthetics must be updated every two to six years on average.
These medical costs are substantial, and victims of medical negligence sometimes have no idea how to pay for them. In addition to these costs, victims' homes may need to be renovated or changed to accommodate their injuries. For example, when victims are in wheelchairs, ramps or lowered shelves and counters must be installed.
When people lose limbs due to an accident or medical misconduct, they should see a Personal Injury Lawyer in California who can assess their current and future medical costs and assist them in pursuing the damages they deserve.
What Are The Long-Term Effects of Amputation?
Up to 80% of persons who have had their limbs amputated experience "phantom limb pain," a very genuine ailment caused by neurons that repeat familiar circuits even after the source of pain has been removed.
For several weeks, amputees may feel severe cramping, tingling, and agony in the amputation site. Unfortunately, the prognosis for improvement is often lacking in cases when phantom limb discomfort lasts longer than six months.
As difficult as all of this is, the impact of amputation on one's emotional well-being may be much worse, with psychological ramifications lasting years after the wound has healed:
Amputees may find difficulty in adjusting to a prosthetic device or artificial limb.
Many people have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessively relive the catastrophe.
It's not rare for people to suffer from severe depression and social anxiety.
Suicidal thoughts might develop as a result of long-term mental distress and sadness.
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer in California to help alleviate the challenges you will face.
Relevant California Statistics
About 2 million people in the United States live with limb loss, with nearly 200,000 new residents every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the immediate health care expenditures of limb amputations exceed more than $8.3 billion each year.
This staggering sum excludes long-term rehabilitation costs, house adaptations, and prosthetic devices.
More than 14,000 limb amputations were reported in California hospitals in 2012, a 15% increase over the preceding five years. Amputations of the toes accounted for over half of all lower-limb amputations, with 22.3 percent occurring below the knee and 13.1 percent occurring above the knee.
Though the number of trauma-related limb amputations has decreased dramatically in the last 20 years, preventable incidents unfortunately continue to happen at an alarming rate, leaving victims with traumatic limb loss that alters their lives forever.
Claimants who have lost one or more limbs due to gross negligence, hazardous products, or unsafe conditions may be eligible for monetary damages under California law. However, the facts of each case dictate liability, which an experienced California Personal Injury Attorney best decides.
How Much Can You Sue For in Accidents Leading to Amputations?
Patients who have had an amputation due to medical malpractice can sue the surgeon, doctor, or medical facility for damages. Medical expenses often account for the majority of these losses. Patients may, however, be entitled to further damages, such as:
Wages that have been lost. The lost wages, future wages the victim will no longer be able to earn, and a loss of earning ability if the victim can no longer conduct the same type of employment are all included in these damages.
Pain And Suffering. Because these are non-economic damages, quantifying them is challenging. For example, recovery from an amputation can be excruciatingly painful, and an amputation lawyer in Los Angeles can assist you in calculating your damages.
Emotional distress. It's incredibly upsetting to have a limb amputated as a result of medical misconduct. However, this discomfort is a loss for which victims can seek compensation.
Loss of Companionship. Amputations frequently restrict people from doing things they used to be able to do. They can claim a loss of consortium if this has an impact on their intimate or familial connections.
What are listed above are merely a few examples of the most typical forms of payable damages. Again, a California Personal Injury Attorney can assist you in determining the overall damages that apply to your situation.
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