Catastrophic car accidents, falls, workplace incidents, machinery accidents, explosions and certain health conditions may all result in lost limbs – leaving victims forever changed. When these life-altering events occur, consulting with an Orange County amputation injury lawyer can help victims understand their legal rights to compensation. Certain injuries are simply too serious or extensive to allow for the preservation of a limb, and in these scenarios, surgical amputations are used as a last-resort medical treatment.
What Is a Surgical Amputation?
Limbs can be lost in two ways: traumatic and surgical amputations. A traumatic amputation means a limb was detached from the body in the accident itself. A surgical team may or may not be able to reattach a traumatically amputated limb or digit, depending on the circumstances. Traumatic amputations can happen in car crashes, construction accidents and many other incidents.
A surgical amputation is the required removal of a limb as part of a patient’s medical treatment after a harmful incident. If the affected body part has lost too much blood, it can lead to tissue necrosis (death) that requires amputation to save the rest of the body. Severe damage, uncontrollable infections, gangrene and non-healing wounds may also require surgical amputations.
Crush Injuries
When a major force – such as getting caught in machinery or a severe fall – crushes a body part, it may lead to a medical amputation. Crush injuries that damage limbs to the point of pulverizing the bone into multiple pieces may make the limb unsalvageable and require amputation. Extreme forces against body parts can cause irreversible muscle, vascular, nerve and bone damage that requires amputation to prevent greater harm to the victim.
Compound Fractures
Extremely severe bone fractures, such as comminuted breaks that shatter the bone into multiple small pieces, may be unmendable. In these cases, amputating the limb may be the best option for improving the victim’s quality of life. Living with a badly broken bone may lead to chronic impairment and a variety of health complications. If salvage attempts fail, the limb may be amputated.
Severe Burns
Although rare, some burn injuries require surgical amputation of the affected body part. A third-degree or fourth-degree burn could cause severe, irreversible damage that requires amputation. Full-thickness burns may destroy too much of the victim’s muscles and tissues to salvage the limb or the area may suffer a severe infection such as sepsis.
Who Is Liable for an Amputation Injury?
It may be possible to hold someone liable, or legally and financially accountable, for an amputation injury if that person or party is responsible for causing it. Personal injury claims allow injured accident victims to seek financial compensation to be made whole again after suffering injuries from the negligence of others.
An amputation injury claim could arise after any type of accident where a careless, reckless or malicious party caused the harm that resulted in a surgical amputation. This party can become the defendant in a personal injury case. Potential defendants include a motor vehicle driver, property owner, product manufacturer, government agency or employer.
If there is evidence that an individual or entity failed to act with the proper degree of care, this could be enough to hold this party liable for all related damages, including amputation injuries. It is important to work with an Orange County personal injury lawyer on an amputation injury case, as this type of catastrophic injury will come with a lifetime of related costs and losses.