Accidents involving large trucks frequently destroy lives in ways that are permanent and affect entire families. Semi-trucks are some of the dangerous vehicles on the road. These lumbering vehicles maneuver poorly, weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, and travel at high speeds with limited ability to stop. When they crash, 18-wheelers devastating smaller vehicles and their occupants.
After a truck accident, survivors often have injuries that take months, years, or even a lifetime to heal from. Some injuries are so severe that they're classified as "catastrophic," a word the medical and legal fields use to label injuries that permanently affect a person’s ability to function. Injuries that limit a person's mobility, cognitive abilities, or physical function permanently are often considered catastrophic.
Our Louisiana trucking lawyer knows what you are going through. Learn your legal and financial options at no charge today at (225) 209-9943. Get a free consultation today; our firm has won hundreds of millions for people in the same place as you.
What Types of Injuries Are Catastrophic?
There are a wide variety of injuries that could potentially be considered "catastrophic." There's no hard-and-fast medical definition that covers all catastrophic injuries. One way to think of them is any injury that would limit your ability to live independently. If your injury requires daily care or you need assistance to do basic tasks, then it's a catastrophic injury.
Catastrophic injuries include the following:
- Burn injuries
- Blunt force trauma
- Vision loss
- Hearing loss
- Spinal cord injuries
- Neck and back injuries
- Neurological injuries
Each injury listed above is significant because they are permanent. Burn injury victims often find that scarring interferes with their daily lives. Injuries to the spinal cord, nervous system, or head can leave a person unable to walk or work. These types of injuries frequently require a lifetime of costly medical assistance. Injuries like these put intense pressure on survivors and their families, who have already gone through so much.
PTSD: The Invisible Injury
While some injuries are visible, others are not as easy for doctors to recognize. Even if a person recovers physically from a truck accident, they may still have issues healing psychologically from the damage. In recent years, post-traumatic stress disorder has emerged as one of the most studied forms of mental illness. This illness, as well as other types of emotional trauma, often affects those who have suffered through a terrifying experience.
A person can suffer for years from PTSD before a medical professional correctly identifies the problem. Even after diagnosis, a person may feel the effects of PTSD for the rest of their life. Mental illnesses don't have the advanced cures that physical ailments do, and they remain one of the most permanent of all truck accident injuries.
Over $1 Billion Recovered in Verdicts & Settlements
Medical bills, lost wages, the need for future care, and other costs associated with serious injuries are as stressful as they are painful. At Clayton, Frugé & Ward, our Louisiana truck accident lawyers want you to know one thing: there's a way forward, and we can help lead you there.
Negligent behavior on the part of a person or company frequently causes truck accidents in Louisiana. Reckless driving, poor vehicle maintenance, and unsafe industry practices put our communities at risk. While nothing can undo the physical and mental consequences of an accident, our firm has been able to win record-setting verdicts and settlements to help our clients rebuild their lives. We know that you and your family don’t deserve the financial repercussions of someone else’s actions, so we'll fight to make it right.
Call us today at (225) 209-9943 to learn your options with someone on our team for free. Our Loiuisiana truck accident attorneys want to help you get back on your feet while holding at-fault companies accountable, so call us soon!