The healing powers of the human body can help us withstand substantial trauma and still recover; however, a crush injury is often catastrophic, leaving the injury victim with life-altering physical, emotional, and financial consequences. Crush injuries occur when a body part suffers severe trauma from a powerful force or pressure from an outside force.
When a crush injury occurs to a limb, the injury victim could face bone and soft-tissue structures damaged beyond repair, sometimes requiring amputation. A crush injury can also cause spinal cord damage with paralysis or internal organ injuries. Crush injuries require emergency medical care and often ongoing care and rehabilitation to reach the maximum medical improvement. In the worst cases, crush injuries can cause death.
What Causes Crush Injuries?
Crush injuries result from extreme force or pressure that compresses a body part, often by pressing it between two surfaces in what occupational therapists call a “caught-between” injury, such as a hand caught between a crate and a moving forklift, or “struck-by” injury resulting from a body part crushed by a heavy falling object. The most common causes of crush injuries include the following:
- Workplace injuries
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Structural collapses
- Explosions
- Crowd trampling accidents
Most crush injuries result from one party’s carelessness. For example, a reckless driver may hit a pedestrian or a construction contractor may fail to adhere to building codes, resulting in a building collapse. In these cases, a surviving crush injury victim may recover compensation through a St. Louis personal injury claim, often for catastrophic injury damages, including organ loss, amputation, disfigurement, chronic pain, and permanent disability.
Treating a Crush Injury
Crush injuries are among the most painful and debilitating permanent injuries, sometimes causing life-altering consequences. The recovery process after a crush injury often involves the following:
- Emergency medical treatment to address life-threatening organ damage, shock, hemorrhage, or a necessary amputation due to destroyed bone, muscles, and nerves
- Surgical procedures to address open wounds and restore structure and function as much as possible
- Ongoing medical care to prevent complications such as infection, internal bleeding, and compartment syndrome (inflammation that blocks blood and oxygen flow from a body cavity)
- A treatment plan to restore function and/or appearance whenever possible
- Physical and occupational therapy to adapt to assistive equipment, prosthetics, mobility equipment, and other medical aids and techniques
- Pain management care
- Emotional support for life-altering injury consequences on emotional well-being and mental health, such as anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and PTSD
Crush injuries often interfere with the ability to return to work in a previous capacity—or at all. Earning interference occurs at the same time that medical expenses escalate, often causing financial anxieties that may interfere with a crush injury victim’s recovery.
Demanding Financial Accountability After a Crush Injury
A serious injury, like a crush injury, impacts all aspects of the injury victim’s life, sometimes permanently. When the injury could have been prevented by reasonable care on someone else’s part, it’s even more distressing. While nothing can erase the injury, an injury victim can recover financial compensation for damages such as the following:
- Past and future medical costs
- Physical and occupational therapy expenses
- Adaptive equipment costs
- Out-of-pocket costs, such as for traveling to specialists
- Lost earnings
- Future income loss/reduced earning capacity
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Catastrophic injury damages for permanent scarring, loss of limb, loss of an organ, or diminished quality of life/loss of enjoyment of life
If a loved one died due to a fatal crush injury caused by someone else’s negligence, the family can recover compensation through a wrongful death claim.