Fractures, the medical term for broken bones, pose unique challenges for injury victims. Most people will recover from a fracture with relatively minor medical treatment. However, while you heal, you will often be disabled for the duration of your recovery.
This means that fractures can have a significant impact on the lives of those who suffer them despite being relatively commonplace injuries. It also means that if you suffer a fracture, you should probably take it quite seriously, even if you initially think the consequences are mild.
How Do Bones Break?
While bones are strong, that doesn’t mean they are indestructible. A strong force can break, shatter, or crush a bone.
Furthermore, bones can break with relatively minor force if it is applied in specific ways. Depending on the angle of the force, even thick bones like those in the leg can potentially break easily. And smaller bones, like those near the joint, will often crack with minimal pressure.
The most common way this pressure is applied is in some sort of fall. However, you can also suffer a broken bone in a collision or attack. This occurswhen you slam into some portion of the interior of a vehicle during a car accident or due to the pressure of a dog bite.
What Should You Do After Suffering a Fracture?
Typically, you won’t immediately know that you suffered a fracture. When you suffer a serious injury, you get a rush of adrenaline that may prevent you from feeling pain. While that adrenaline rush is temporary, it can easily last long enough that you might delay a trip to the emergency room.
If you have any reason to suspect a fracture, you should get medical attention immediately.
Common signs of a fracture include:
- Intense pain at the sight of an injury that otherwise isn’t visible
- A rush of adrenaline despite no obvious pain
- Severe bruising or a bluish tinge at an injury area
- A limb appears deformed
- A bone is piercing the skin
If there is any bleeding, apply pressure to try to slow it down until medical assistance arrives. Otherwise, keep the area immobilized and iced until medics arrive.
There are countless reasons that you might break a bone. Many of them involve the negligence of another party. Even if you think no one else was at fault, you should consult with an attorney as soon as possible.
Personal injury lawyers offer free consultations. The worst that can happen is you waste a few minutes of your time learning that you can’t take legal action. But you can’t know that until you consult with a lawyer.
If another party was responsible for your injury, you may be able to get compensation to cover your medical costs and other expenses, but only if you act quickly.
What Compensation Can You Get for a Broken Bone?
The amount of compensation you can get due to a broken bone depends on how badly you were injured. Even something as simple as a broken arm could prevent you from working for weeks. There are some factors that a lawyer will consider when determining the value of your case.
Lost Wages
The most significant consequence of a broken bone is typically lost work time. Even a simple break usually has to be fully immobilized for a month or more before it can heal.
If you break one of your arms, this usually means that you can’t:
- Drive a car
- Type on a keyboard
- Lift or carry things with both arms
- Perform activities that require care, like cooking
It is hard to think of a job that doesn’t require at least one of these activities. Most office jobs require you to type, for example. And more physical jobs require you to lift things or drive. If you break an arm, hand, or wrist, you are probably out of work for a while.
Similarly, a broken leg will also prevent you from performing many jobs. And almost any other broken bone will at least make you lose a few weeks of work just due to the pain. Georgia laws allow you to seek compensation for these lost wages from another party if the injury was due to their negligence.
Medical Bills
For most broken bones, this is one of the lesser costs. The typical broken bone requires only a few visits to an orthopedist. However, some breaks are serious enough to require surgery. Even the most minor surgery can cost thousands of dollars. And if the break is severe enough, you could require multiple surgeries with years of therapy after.
Georgia law also allows compensation for medical bills when another party is responsible for your injury. You will need to maintain good medical records to get this compensation.
What Are the Worst Consequences of a Fracture?
When a child breaks a leg or arm, they will usually recover in a few months at most. But the same isn’t necessarily true when an adult suffers the same injury.
As you age, your body has more difficulty healing from all types of injuries, especially fractures. This often means that adults in their middle years or older people suffer severe consequences from fractures.
Amputation
When doctors treat a broken bone, they usually just set it and let the body do the rest of the work. Unfortunately, sometimes a bone doesn’t heal properly. When this happens, it can get infected.
Most bone infections are very difficult to treat. Often, the only way to prevent the infection from spreading is to remove the infected bone completely, usually necessitating amputation.
Permanent Disability
Even if a bone doesn’t get infected, the body might not fully recover from a break. If, for example, you break your hip, you might never get your movement back. This means you could require a wheelchair to move around. Many people who break their bones later in life have at least minimal disability.
Death
In the worst-case scenario, a broken bone can result in death. A bone infection could spread, or a bone chip could cause internal bleeding in a vital organ. If a loved one died due to a fracture, you might have a wrongful death claim.
Contact Our Lawrenceville Personal Injury Lawyer Today
If you or a loved one suffered a fracture, Lawson Personal Injury Attorneys may be able to help. We’ll determine whether you can take legal action to recover compensation during your free consultation. Contact us immediately or call (678) 446-3655 for more information about your legal options.