There are few aspects of your life left unaltered by a catastrophic injury. You will spend more time than you expect in emergency rooms, hospitals, and doctors’ offices. You may need to learn new skills, such as using a wheelchair, or relearn old skills, such as dressing and feeding yourself.
These life changes will have many concrete effects. Your physical abilities, quality of life, and finances will suffer. Fortunately, the law allows people victimized by catastrophic injuries caused by negligence to pursue compensation for their injury-related losses.
What Is a Catastrophic Injury?
The term “catastrophic injury” is not a legal or medical phrase. Thus, it can have several meanings. Some factors that can indicate an injury could be described as catastrophic include:
Life-Threatening Effects
An injury with life-threatening effects may be called catastrophic. For example, a brain injury may be catastrophic when it causes life-threatening brain damage, coma, or paralysis.
Permanent Effects
A catastrophic injury may permanently disable or disfigure the victim. Permanent disabilities result in a functional loss. Losing an arm to amputation could qualify as catastrophic.
Permanent disfigurement alters your appearance. Thus, third-degree burn injuries can produce permanent scars and contractures that may be catastrophic.
Functional Effects
Another definition of catastrophic injuries focuses on the loss of function that broadly affects a person’s life. Vision loss, for example, is usually not life-threatening. However, it affects every aspect of a person’s life, forcing them to adapt to a different way of working and to meet their daily needs.
High Medical or Injury-Related Costs
Catastrophic injuries may also be defined by their associated costs. High-cost injuries might be classified as catastrophic, even if the injury is survivable and has no permanent impact on the person’s life.
Suppose that a medication error causes a brief coma and a lengthy hospitalization after you regain consciousness. Medication errors cost the U.S. roughly $42 billion each year. Even if you fully recover, you could have medical bills in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. These costs could make the injury catastrophic.
Impacts of Catastrophic Injuries on Victims
Considering all of these definitions, catastrophic injuries may have the following effects on victims’ lives:
Extensive Medical Care and Therapy
Regardless of the definition used, you will need extensive medical care, potentially including outpatient treatment, diagnostic testing, surgery, and medication. You may also need ongoing physical and occupational therapy that lasts the rest of your life.
Financial Hardships
The care you need will be expensive. For example, one study found that the average medical bills for medication errors that cause adverse effects will range from $39,000 to over $65,000. Once you add income losses, out-of-pocket expenses, and other financial costs, the total financial losses could be substantial.
Physical Pain
Physical pain and suffering have no price tag. However, it erodes your quality of life. You may experience continuous or recurring pain. The discomfort may keep you awake at night and make you miserable during the day. It may limit your activities, making enjoyable hobbies painful.
Mental Anguish
Mental anguish from catastrophic injuries can affect your life almost as severely as physical anguish. You may worry about your medical bills and have anxiety about whether you will recover. You will endure stress about your future life with permanent disabilities. You could even experience embarrassment about disfiguring scars and injuries.
Disabilities
Your catastrophic injuries could cause functional losses. These losses might even necessitate assistance with activities of daily living, such as driving, bathing, or feeding yourself. In addition to impacting your ability to work, disabilities could prevent you from traveling, spending time with loved ones, and engaging in your favorite pastimes.
Contact the Atlanta Medical Malpractice Lawyers at Malone Law Medical Malpractice and Severe Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
Catastrophic injuries will have profound effects on your life. If your injury resulted from negligence, you can pursue compensation with the help of an attorney. While this compensation will not make up for these life impacts, it will help you get the care, assistance, and services you need.
For more information about how we can help you after a catastrophic injury, call the Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers at Malone Law Medical Malpractice and Severe Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.
We proudly represent injury victims across Fulton County, including Atlanta and surrounding communities in Georgia.
Malone Law Medical Malpractice and Severe Injury Lawyers
2 Ravinia Dr NE Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30346
(770) 390-7550
Social Media