Whether the spinal injury has resulted from an accident or medical treatment, the consequences can be devastating for both the patients and their families. Lives are turned upside down.

Our Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury team have answered some of the key questions surrounding spinal cord injuries below:

What is a spinal cord injury?

Damage to any part of the spinal cord can be classed as a spinal cord injury. This includes damage to the nerves. It is an incredibly serious injury.

What can cause a spinal cord injury?

There are a number of scenarios from which a spinal cord injury can arise, some examples include:

• Road traffic accidents, involving motor vehicles, cyclists, or motorcyclists
• Sports injuries
• Violent attacks
• Falling from a height
• Medical treatment and substandard treatment
  

When can I make a claim for a spinal cord injury?

A claim may arise from any of the above scenarios, but it will always be necessary to show fault on the part of another party. In other words, it would be necessary to prove that the injury was caused as a consequence of someone’s negligence. Claims most frequently arise out of road traffic accidents but there may be a claim in any of the scenarios described. If you are unsure whether you may have a claim, we would be very happy to discuss this with you. Get in touch with our team by submitting an enquiry form here.

There are a number of things that can go wrong during an orthopaedic procedure or even beforehand.

Unfortunately, there is a significant variation in orthopaedic practice around the country. On one hand, we have many exceptional units with highly skilled and engaged clinicians and on the other hand, there are some orthopaedic surgeons undertaking fewer and fewer procedures which has been linked to an increase in poorer outcomes. The complexity of orthopaedic surgery and the relative inexperience of staff rotating around these teams can also create problems. If the treatment has resulted in a poor result, which, with a reasonably competent doctor, wouldn’t have been the case, it might be possible to make a clinical negligence claim.

Problems arising from orthopaedic care can range from relatively minor damage to amputation or spinal cord injuries.

An orthopaedic injury claim can be made as a result of the following circumstances:

• Delay in diagnosis of a fracture
• Delay in diagnosis of a ruptured Achilles tendon
• Nerve damage during surgery
• Wrong-site surgery
• Incorrect repair of a fracture requiring further treatment or surgery
• Failure to act appropriately necessitating amputation