If you are injured in an accident, the extent of your injuries determines many things.
These not only include the length and cost of your medical treatment, but also the amount of compensation you can ask for and expect if your injuries were caused by another party.
This is why the team of personal injury lawyers you work with needs to know whether your injuries were minor or catastrophic.
Here are the differences between them.
Minor Injuries
A minor injury is an injury that will eventually heal.
The healing time can range from a few days to a few months.
They may or may not require the attention of a medical professional.
The worst of the minor injuries can disrupt your daily activities for a while, and you may need help to do them.
You may also need some physical therapy as part of your recovery.
Still, after a minor injury heals, you’ll be able to return to daily tasks without any loss of function.
Here are some examples of minor injuries.
Cuts and Bruises
A cut is simply an open wound.
It can have smooth edges or jagged edges.
Cuts with smooth edges are known as incisions, while those with jagged edges are lacerations.
Bruises, contusions, are closed wounds.
They happen when the blood from an injury can’t escape the injury site.
Bruises most often result when you slam into a blunt object, such as the wall or the floor.
Because the blood from a bruise can’t escape, there’s swelling at the injury site.
Your body also forms a clot called a hematoma, and it can present as a black and blue mark.
Mild Whiplash
Whiplash happens when your head is jolted back and forth.
This usually happens when you’ve impacted something unexpectedly, as in a car collision.
It can also happen during contact sports.
Whiplash strains the tendons, ligaments, and muscles in the neck.
Strains and Sprains
The difference between a strain and a sprain is that a strain is an injury of the muscle when the muscle has been overexerted.
A sprain happens when the ligaments, which connect the bones, are torn.
Fractures That Don’t Require Surgery
You may be surprised to know that some fractures don’t need surgical repair.
These are fractures where the bones break, but they’re stable and can heal if they’re supported by a splint, cast, or sling.
Other types of fractures that don’t need surgery are:
Greenstick fractures.
This is a fracture common among children.
It gets its name because it looks like a green stick that’s been bent but not broken.
This is because the bones in young children are still soft.
Hairline and stress fractures.
These are basically thin cracks in a bone.
These fractures are more often caused by overuse and stress than by an accident.
First- and Some Second-Degree Burns
There are three categories of burns, with a first-degree burn being the mildest.
A first-degree burn is superficial and only involves the top layer of your skin, or your epidermis.
Your skin turns red, painful, and sometimes swells.
However, it heals on its own.
A second-degree burn goes through the top layers of skin but doesn’t reach the tissues your skin protects.
It’s quite painful, with redness and blistering caused by plasma and fluids being released into your skin.
However, this burn can also heal on its own with minimal scarring.
The one thing to know is that though these injuries are considered minor, they still need to be seen to and might worsen if they’re ignored.
Catastrophic Injuries
A catastrophic injury is a severe injury that changes your life, sometimes permanently.
It requires medical intervention that may involve surgery and long-term rehabilitation.
You may even need a caregiver for the rest of your life.
Here are some instances of catastrophic injury.
Paralyzing Spinal Injuries
There are many types of spinal cord injury.
Some are actually mild, such as whiplash, which can damage the ligaments in your neck.
Fractures, dislocations, and compressed discs in the spinal column cause other problems.
There are many signs and symptoms of spinal cord injury, and they range from tenderness in the injured area, pain when you move, pain when you don’t move, incontinence, and numbness, tingling, or weakness in your extremities.
The worst is paralysis, which is the loss of the ability to move a body part.
Depending on where the spinal injury occurred, it can be partial or total.
Third Degree Burns
Third-degree burns are full-thickness burns.
The burn damages all the layers of your skin and impacts the underlying tissue.
The area is charred or chalky and severely painful.
However, in some cases, there is such nerve damage that the patient feels pain only around the edges of the burn.
A person with a third-degree burn may require skin grafts and may have dense, noticeable scarring.
Traumatic Brain Injuries, or TBIs
Like cuts and bruises, a traumatic brain injury can be open or closed.
It can also be caused by many things, from banging your head against a dashboard to being penetrated by an object such as a bullet.
Whatever the cause of the TBI, you’ll need prompt medical attention.
A concussion, caused when a person bangs their head during a collision, can seem harmless at first.
However, if left untreated, this TBI can lead to coma or even death.
Severe, Multiple Fractures
An accident that causes many serious fractures requires surgery and a long recovery period.
You may find that the injuries never heal well enough for you to resume your old activities.
Amputations
Traumatic amputations happen when you lose anything from a finger to both legs during an accident.
Surgical amputation is performed when a part of your body is so damaged, diseased, or infected that it threatens your life.
Whatever the reason for the amputation, the loss of an appendage or part of an appendage invariably alters your life.
Blindness or Deafness
Blindness or deafness caused by an accident is so life-altering that it must also be considered a catastrophic injury, especially if the disabilities are permanent.
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