Peoria Nursing Home Back and Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers
Experienced Back and Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers in Peoria, IL
Falls are a serious concern for nursing home residents. Not only can they cause physical injury, but they can often lead to psychological trauma as well. Some of the most common and serious types of injuries resulting from nursing home falls are back and spinal cord injuries. These injuries can have long-term consequences such as chronic pain, paralysis, and even death in some cases. If your loved one has suffered a back or spinal cord injury due to a nursing home fall, it is important to understand your rights and options.
Families of nursing home residents are often left wondering how to respond to injuries that occurred in falls or other types of accidents. Nursing homes are required to provide residents with the proper care and supervision. When injuries occur, families may be concerned that staff members have failed to meet these obligations. At Nursing Home Injury Center, we work with people whose loved ones have been injured due to nursing home negligence, ensuring that they can take steps to meet a person’s needs and address the causes of their injuries. We strive to provide our clients with compassionate, dedicated support, ensuring that the issues that led to an injury will be addressed correctly.
How Nursing Home Residents May Be Affected by Back and Spine Injuries
Injuries to the back can be painful and debilitating for anyone, regardless of their age, health, or circumstances. However, these injuries can affect elderly or disabled nursing home residents even more seriously. If a person had health or mobility issues prior to being injured, these issues are likely to become worse, and they may even result in permanent disabilities that limit a person’s ability to perform daily functions, interact with others, and meet their own needs.
Nursing home patients may experience multiple types of back and spine injuries in a fall, including:
- Strained muscles – Damage to back muscles can cause a great deal of difficulty for nursing home residents, as they may lead to intense pain and limit a person’s range of motion. This may prevent them from being able to move around properly or take part in activities they once enjoyed. Muscle injuries can also lead to fatigue and other long-term health complications.
- Slipped or herniated discs – The spine contains multiple vertebrae, and discs between the vertebrae act as cushions and shock absorbers, while also helping hold the bones together. These discs can degrade over a person’s lifetime, leading to pain as the vertebrae come in contact with each other. A fall injury can cause further damage to one or more discs, potentially leading to severe pain and mobility issues. In some cases, a disc may rupture and press against the spinal cord, which can cause nerve damage, pain, tingling, numbness, or loss of use of different parts of the body. In some cases, surgery may be needed to correct these issues.
- Fractured vertebrae – A fall may cause a serious blow to a person’s body, resulting in broken bones in the spine. These fractures can be very painful, and surgery may be required to repair the vertebrae, or pins, screws, or rods may be implanted to hold the bones in the spine in place. In serious cases, the spinal cord may be damaged or severed. This can lead to partial or complete paralysis in the parts of the body below where the spine injury occurred. In some cases, damage to the spinal cord may result in paraplegia or quadriplegia.
We Can Help With Spinal Cord Injuries Affecting Nursing Home Patients
Following an injury to the back or spine, a nursing home resident may struggle to return to normalcy, and they may even be permanently affected. At Nursing Home Injury Center, we work with families to help ensure that a person receives the care they need following this type of injury. We can provide guidance on the options that are available, while also helping families determine who was responsible for a fall accident and back injury that affected their loved one. With our help, a family can address the causes of an injury, make sure a negligent facility is held responsible for causing their loved one to suffer harm, and provide for the person’s ongoing needs. To arrange a complimentary consultation and learn more about how we can assist in these situations, contact us at 309-524-6900.