A catastrophic injury is one that changes an accident victim’s life forever. It changes their ability to function, to think, to communicate, and to socialize. It impacts their ability to perform daily physical activities. Catastrophic injuries include traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, paralysis, severe burns, loss of a limb, and permanent injuries. These severe injuries can be caused by vehicle accidents, accidents in the workplace, product defects, explosions, construction accidents, and other incidents.
Pain and suffering
In every type of accident, the victim has to endure substantial emotional issues as they attempt to heal. Common emotional trauma includes:
- Shock at realizing their stable life has now become unstable
- Anger at the people who caused the accident
- Anxiety about the status of their health
- Fear that they could experience another injury, or that a love one could be injured
- Distress at the toll their injuries are taking on family members
- Frustration at the inability to enjoy and teach children, spend time with parents, and live a daily mature life with their spouse
Many victims endure this suffering on their own. Some are able to get help from psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors
Why catastrophic Injuries are uniquely traumatic
For patients who are able to fully heal or resume most of their life’s activities, the suffering does come to an end. For people with life-altering physical damages, the suffering will last for every day of the rest of their lives. Patients with catastrophic injuries sometimes need professional help to cope with the following issues and more, depending on their situation:
- All of the problems other patients have – but for a lifetime. This includes depression, confusion, and generally withdrawing from the world.
- Thoughts of suicide. Victims who will never walk, talk, have physical relations, or who have body disfigurement sometimes think that life is not worth living.
- Alcoholism and addiction. Many accident victims cope the wrong way – by resorting to methods that they think provide relief but only worsen the harm, such as drugs and alcohol.
Patients who lose a limb may suffer phantom pain – pain in the missing limb that is real in their mind. Some accident victims suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
Verifying these extreme emotional difficulties requires that Kentucky catastrophic injury lawyers do more than work with the appropriate mental health professionals. Legal representatives must work with the victim by helping him/her explain what their daily life is like, with family members who can detail the victim’s struggles, and with the physicians and doctors who can detail the physical cause of their pain.
At Crandall & Pera Law, our attorneys do all of this and more. If someone you love was severely injured or you are living with a catastrophic injury, we have decades of trial experience. For compassionate help, please call our Kentucky lawyers at 877-686-8879 or use our contact form to make an appointment. We see patients away from the office when necessary.