MILWAUKEE BACK INJURY CASES
Anatomy of the Back
The two main functions of the back are to support the body and to protect the spinal cord. When you appreciate how complex the spine is you will understand why back injuries are among the most common injuries following a Milwaukee car or truck accident.
The back consists of the area from the base of the skull to the tailbone and consisting of the thoracic spine, the lumbar spine, the sacrum and coccyx. The back consists of 33 vertebrae which form the spinal canal. The spinal canal protects the spinal cord. The spinal cord is made up of nerves that run through the spinal cord. These nerves carry impulses between your brain and the muscles of the body. When there is damage or severing of the spinal cord serious injury, including paralysis, can occur.
In a healthy back most of the vertebrae are flexible except for the lower vertebrae which are naturally fused together. If one or more discs in the back are injured in a car or truck accident, your doctor may perform a surgical procedure known as a discectomy and fusion. This is a procedure where the damaged discs are removed and the vertebrae are fused to provide stability to the spine. A discectomy and fusion procedure will result in some loss of motion of the spine. The more levels of the spine that are fused the greater the loss of flexibility of the spine.
The back is vulnerable to many different kinds of injuries following a car or truck accident. We have helped car and truck accident victims in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin recover millions of dollars for the back injuries. Some of the most common types of back injuries we see following a car or truck accident are listed below.
Soft Tissue Back Injury
Soft tissue injuries are the most common type of back injury caused by a car or truck accident. Soft tissue is made up of muscles, ligaments and tendons in the back. Muscles help to hold your spine in an upright position. Tendons join the muscles to the bony part of the back and help to prevent the muscles from being injuried. The ligaments join the vertebrae and help to keep the back in its proper position.
A soft tissue injury occurs when muscles, tendons or ligaments are injured in a car or truck accident. Soft tissue injuries can last for a few weeks, months or even be permanent. Insurance companies resist paying for soft tissue injuries because they do not show up on an x-ray or MRI scan. It is important that your attorney know how to properly handle a soft tissue back injury or you run the risk of not receiving the compensation you deserve.
Your doctor can detect soft tissue injuries by examining your range of motion and may be able to detect muscle spasms in the area of the soft tissue injury. Rest and applying ice to the area of the injury is often recommended as the first course of treatment. An anti-inflammatory such as Aleve, Advil or Tylenol may be recommended as well.
If the soft tissue injury remains persistent after a few weeks, physical therapy is often prescribed. Often, but not always, physical therapy is successful in resolving soft tissue back injuries caused by a car or truck accident. If your soft tissue injury remains symptomatic, your doctor may recommend injections, dry needling, acupuncture or chiropractic manipulation. In those cases where the soft tissue is permanent, your doctor may prescribe a home-exercise program to be conducted on a regular basis and impose restrictions on your level of activity.
Insurance companies aggressively fight car and truck accident cases resulting in soft tissue injuries. In soft tissue injury cases the injury typically does not show up on x-ray and scans and therefore the insurance company assumes the injury victim will have difficulty proving that he or she was injured. If you have a soft tissue injury following your truck or car accident, it is important that you hire a lawyer who knows how to prove a soft tissue injury case and obtain the compensation you deserve. We invite you to give us a call or use our Contact Form. We would love to speak with you and it would be our privilege to represent you if you suffered a back injury as a result of a car, truck or other accident occurring in Milwaukee or anywhere in Wisconsin.
Back Injury Disc Cases
Discs are spongey shock absorbers between the bony vertebrae. The discs allow for free movement of the spine. When a disc is injured, the liquid substance inside the disc can leak out. This is referred to as a herniated disc or a bulging disc or what people sometime refer to as a “slipped” disc.
A bulging disc can be caused by trauma to the back from a car or truck accident. Herniated or bulging discs can result in impingement on the nerves in the back leading to sharp pain radiating into the buttocks and sometimes down the leg. A herniated or ruptured disc from a car accident generally occurs in the low back, not the mid or upper back.
If you experience pain radiating into the buttocks or legs following a car or truck accident, your doctor may suspect that you have a herniated disc. Your doctor will then order an MRI scan which will confirm whether you have a herniated or ruptured disc. Pain from a herniated disc in your back can make it difficult to sit or stand for long periods and can interfere with your activities of daily living. In severe cases, a herniated or ruptured disc from a car or truck accident can interfere with your bladder or bowel function.
Treatment for a herniated or ruptured disc from a car or truck accident depends upon the duration and intensity of symptoms. Typical treatment begins with physical therapy and a home exercise program to help take pressure off the nerves. If physical therapy does not relieve the low back symptoms, a series of injections to the back may be ordered. The purpose of the injections is to reduce the swelling which in turn will relieve the pressure on the herniated disc.
If conservative treatment is not successful, a herniated or ruptured disc may require surgery. Surgery may consist of a discectomy or laminectomy. A discectomy will remove the herniated disc which is then replaced by a cadaver or an artificial disc. A laminectomy is less invasive and removes some of the bone around the herniated disc in order to relieve the pressure. The vertebrae in the low back may then be fused if the spine is unstable.
Many people do not know they have a herniated disc because they have no symptoms. The herniated disc may be aggravated as a result of a car or truck accident and then become symptomatic. An insurance company will review your medical records and if it appears that the herniated disc pre-dated the car accident, they may offer you little money or deny the claim altogether.
If you have a herniated disc following your car or truck accident it is important you hire a lawyer who knows how to prove a back injury case and obtain the full compensation you deserve even if you had a prior back injury. We invite you to give us a call or use our Contact Form. We would love to speak with you and it would be our privilege to represent you if you suffered a back injury of any kind as a result of a car, truck or other accident occurring in Milwaukee or anywhere in Wisconsin.
Sciatica
Many of our Milwaukee Back Injury clients suffer sciatica following a car or truck accident. If you have ever had sciatica, you know it.
Sciatica is a sharp pain radiating into the buttocks and down one or both legs. In severe cases the pain and numbness may radiate down to the feet and tows.
The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It is a group of nerves that cause radiating pain and numbness when irritated. In addition to pain and numbness, sciatica can cause weakness to the muscles in the low back and legs. The pain with sciatica may come and go depending upon the level of activity and how the body is positioned. Patients with sciatica following a car or truck accident often find it difficult to sit or stand for extended periods of time due to sciatica.
Sciatica at its worst can disrupt the brain signals that go to her bladder. This can result in urinary incontinence.
Sciatica can be a very serious condition. When caused by a car or truck accident, it is important that you seek medical attention as soon as possible. It is also important that you hire an attorney experienced in handling Milwaukee back injury cases and cases involving injury to the sciatic nerve. We have successfully handled all kinds of back injury cases, including sciatica, for more than 30 years. We get to know all of our clients on a personal basis. This allows us to present your case to the insurance company by showing how your back injury has impacted your daily life.There is never a charge to speak with us and of course you pay us absolutely nothing until we obtain a recovery for your back injury case.
If you like what you have read, please contact us by using our Contact Form or just give us a call at 414-273-7400. You will find us easy to talk to. We would love to represent you and you will pay absolutely nothing until we obtain a recovery for you.
How a Milwaukee Back Injury Lawyer Should Handle Your Back Injury Case Folling a Car, Truck or Other Accident Anywhere in Wisconsin
No two back injury cases are the same. This is because no two people are the same. In order to properly present your case to the insurance company for settlement, or to a jury if a trial is necessary, it is important that your lawyer gets to know you. Your lawyer should understand what your lifestyle was before your back injury. This includes understanding what your hobbies and interests were before your injury and how your life has changed as a result of your back injury. Your lawyer needs to have an understanding of the type of work you do, whether you suffered any wage loss in the past and whether your ability to work in the future will be affected by your back injury.
We obtain our client’s pre-accident medical records to make sure there is nothing in our client’s past medical history that could hurt his or her case. If there is, we discuss with our client how best to present that to the insurance company so that past medical history does not hurt their case. We want to know everything about our client before the insurance company does. If there is anything particularly sensitive in our client’s medical records, and unrelated to the accident, we will let the insurance company know that it is not entitled to view those records.
Back injury cases, like all injury cases, need medical support. We will work with your doctor so that your doctor understands what legal proof is necessary. This helps us obtain the full compensation each back injury client deserves. Before requesting a report from your doctor, we will outline for your doctor what questions he or she needs to respond to in order to properly present your case to the insurance company. The wording in your doctor’s report is important and the proper wording in a medical report can make a difference of 10’s of thousands of dollars or even 100’s of thousands of dollars depending upon the case.
A cookie-cutter approach to back injury cases may make the lawyer’s job easier. Lawyer’s who handle back injury cases that way run the very real risk of not obtaining the full amount of compensation each client deserves. We will never treat your back injury case, or any injury case, that way. It takes more time to handle your back injury case the right way but that is how we build relationships with each client and obtain the full amount of compensation each client deserves. Shortcuts lead to bad settlements and the client often does not even know that his or her case is worth more than what their lawyer recommended they accept.
If you like what you have read, and if you are looking for a Milwaukee back injury lawyer who can handle your car or truck accident case anywhere in Wisconsin, we invite you to give us a call. We are easy to talk to and it would be our privilege to represent you. You can reach us by using our Contact Form or by phone at 414-273-7400.
