In the moments right after you notice what you suspect is a spinal cord injury, you won’t know the severity yet. You may notice a loss of sensation or motor function, but those symptoms could be temporary if you have an incomplete spinal cord injury.
With medical intervention, you could potentially regain both function and sensation in the affected body parts if the injury didn’t fully sever the spinal cord. It is only after careful medical evaluation that you will know the extent of your injury and your prognosis.
Unfortunately, the professionals caring for you when you first arrive at a medical facility or transporting you to one could potentially worsen your spinal cord injury. If you noticed worse symptoms after your transportation or early care, medical malpractice could have played a role in worsening your injury.
Medical workers know they should stabilize you immediately
Moving or transporting someone with a spinal cord injury can be quite dangerous. They don’t have control over their body, so the medical workers must protect them against involuntary movements. Typically, people with spinal cord injuries require stabilization so that their body, especially their spine, will not move when workers lift them, carry them and treat them.
Improper stabilization or failing to stabilize someone reporting symptoms of a spinal cord injury could directly lead to permanent or worse injury. With the exception of scenarios where the immediate removal of someone from an environment is more important than mitigating future injuries, such as someone trapped in a vehicle leaking gasoline after a crash, stabilizing a patient before treating or transporting them is a crucial step.
Spinal cord injuries will affect you for life
Even an incomplete spinal cord injury will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care and potentially affect your income, but complete spinal cord injuries will have a more serious financial impact.
If your symptoms worsen after improper transportation or unprofessional treatment by paramedics or other health care professionals, their actions may have directly contributed to your injury and lasting symptoms. Filing a medical malpractice claim over a poorly-handled spinal cord injury could result in more training for those workers and compensation for you because of your losses.