A Spinal Cord Injury Claim Must Account for the Rest of Your Life
A spinal cord injury is one of the most serious injuries a worker can suffer. It may affect walking, lifting, driving, bladder control, bowel control, pain levels, independence, and the ability to earn a living. For many injured workers, the biggest financial danger is not the first medical bill. It is accepting a settlement before future care is fully calculated.
The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC) estimates about 18,482 new traumatic spinal cord injury cases each year in the United States and about 311,560 people living with traumatic spinal cord injury. It also reports first-year direct costs ranging from $472,190 to $1,446,827, depending on the severity of the injury.
Lifetime direct costs for a 25-year-old may range from $2.14 million to $6.42 million, before lost wages and productivity losses are even considered.
Spinal Cord and Severe Spine Injury Cases We Handle
Spinal cord injury claims can involve complete paralysis, partial loss of movement, nerve damage, severe pain, or permanent work restrictions.
A complete spinal cord injury may cause total loss of movement and sensation below the injury level. These cases often require long-term medical planning, mobility equipment, accessible housing, and daily personal care.
An incomplete injury may leave some movement or feeling, but the worker may still suffer weakness, numbness, pain, balance problems, bladder or bowel issues, and limitations that prevent a return to the same job.
Paraplegia usually affects the lower body. A worker may need a wheelchair, home modifications, vehicle modifications, ongoing therapy, pressure-sore care, and help with daily activities.
Quadriplegia, also called tetraplegia, may affect the arms, hands, trunk, legs, and breathing. These claims require careful calculation of future care, attendant support, equipment replacement, and lifetime income loss.
A fall, vehicle crash, falling object, machinery strike, or crush accident can fracture vertebrae or compress the spinal cord. Surgery, hardware, bracing, rehabilitation, and permanent restrictions may follow.
Not every serious spine case involves full paralysis. Herniated discs, nerve root compression, radiating pain, weakness, numbness, or foot drop may still prevent a worker from lifting, climbing, bending, driving, or standing safely.
Common Accidents That Cause Spinal Cord Injuries in Boston
A spinal cord injury can happen in one violent moment. It can also follow a fall or crush event that the insurer tries to describe as a “back injury” until the records prove something more serious.
Common accident scenarios include:
- Falls from scaffolds, ladders, staging, lifts, roofs, platforms, and unprotected edges;
- Falls through skylights, floor openings, trenches, or unfinished surfaces;
- Trench collapses, wall collapses, and cave-ins;
- Falling beams, tools, equipment, debris, masonry, or unsecured materials;
- Forklift, crane, loader, truck, and heavy equipment strikes;
- Caught-between accidents involving machines, vehicles, walls, materials, or collapsing structures;
- Work-related car, truck, van, and delivery vehicle crashes;
- Defective ladders, lifts, scaffolds, harnesses, machines, tools, or safety equipment;
- Slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accidents on wet floors, ice, debris, uneven surfaces, or poorly lit areas;
- Workplace assaults that cause neck and back trauma.
The practice-area planning documents identify spinal cord injuries as a high-priority construction accident injury type, alongside falls from heights, scaffolds, struck-by accidents, caught-in/between accidents, heavy machinery accidents, trench collapses, and falling objects.
Symptoms the Insurance Company Should Not Be Allowed to Ignore
Spinal cord injury symptoms can affect the arms, hands, legs, back, bladder, bowel, breathing, and daily independence. Report every symptom to a doctor and keep notes, especially if symptoms change after the first hospital visit.
Document:
- Weakness, numbness, tingling, or loss of sensation;
- Loss of movement or trouble walking, standing, gripping, or lifting;
- Neck pain, back pain, burning pain, or nerve pain;
- Muscle spasms or loss of balance;
- Bladder or bowel changes;
- Breathing problems;
- Sexual dysfunction;
- Sleep disruption, anxiety, or depression after the injury;
- Need for a wheelchair, cane, brace, walker, catheter, hospital bed, ramp, or home care.
Seek emergency care right away after severe neck or back trauma if there is weakness, numbness, paralysis, loss of bladder or bowel control, trouble breathing, or severe spine pain.
The First Offer May Not Include the Next 20 Years
Before signing anything, speak with our spinal cord injury lawyer in Boston, who can evaluate future care needs, wage loss, home needs, and whether a third-party case may increase your recovery.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Spinal Cord Injuries
If the spinal injury happened at work, workers’ compensation may pay medical care and wage benefits even if the employer denies fault.
Massachusetts law requires workers’ compensation insurers to furnish adequate and reasonable health care services and needed medicines for injured employees. The law also requires the insurer to pay reasonable and necessary medical costs.
Workers’ compensation may cover:
- Emergency treatment
- Hospital care
- Surgery
- Rehabilitation
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Medication
- Medical equipment
- Wheelchairs, braces, walkers, or other appliances
- Follow-up care
- Partial wage replacement
- Permanent disability benefits when appropriate
For total incapacity, Massachusetts law provides weekly compensation equal to 60% of the worker’s average weekly wage before the injury, subject to the statutory maximum, for up to 156 weeks under Section 34.
Third-Party Claims After a Workplace Spinal Cord Injury
A severe workplace spine injury may involve more than one company. On a construction site, delivery route, warehouse floor, loading dock, commercial property, or roadway, several parties may have control over safety.
A third-party claim may involve:
- General contractors who controlled jobsite safety;
- Subcontractors that created a hazard;
- Property owners who allowed unsafe premises;
- Equipment manufacturers that sold defective machinery or safety gear;
- Rental companies that supplied unsafe equipment;
- Maintenance companies that failed to repair known hazards;
- Snow and ice contractors that failed to treat walkways or lots;
- Commercial drivers who caused a crash;
- Delivery companies, trucking companies, or vehicle owners;
- Other contractors working in the same area.
This matters because workers’ comp alone may not cover pain and suffering, full wage loss, or the full cost of future life changes. A third-party case can change the financial outcome.
Deadlines for Massachusetts Spinal Cord Injury Claims
A delay can make evidence harder to preserve. Photos, videos, witness names, equipment records, OSHA documents, and jobsite conditions may disappear quickly after a serious accident.
Workers’ Comp Deadline
Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Act (M.G.L. c. 152, § 41): A workers’ compensation claim generally must be filed within four years from the date the employee first became aware of the connection between the disability and the job. In fatal workplace injury cases, the claim generally must be filed within four years after death.
Third-Party Lawsuit Deadline
Massachusetts Personal Injury Statute of Limitations (M.G.L. c. 260, § 2A): A third-party personal injury lawsuit is generally subject to a three-year deadline. This may apply when a contractor, property owner, driver, equipment company, or another outside party caused or contributed to the spinal cord injury.
These deadlines are not the only reason to act early. Our skilled Boston spinal cord injury lawyer may need to secure proof before the insurer, contractor, property owner, or equipment company controls the record. Specific facts can affect how deadlines apply, so the safest course is to seek legal advice as soon as possible.
What Compensation May Need to Cover
A spinal cord injury claim should be built around actual losses, medical evidence, and future projections. Depending on the claim type, compensation may involve:
This may include emergency treatment, surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, specialist care, imaging, medication, pain treatment, and follow-up appointments.
Paralysis and severe spinal trauma may require ongoing therapy, later surgeries, medication changes, equipment replacement, pressure sore care, infection treatment, and future hospitalization.
A worker may miss weeks, months, or years of work. Some clients can never return to the same trade.
The biggest wage loss may be future income. A spinal injury can end a career that requires lifting, climbing, driving, standing, bending, carrying, or working around dangerous equipment.
A settlement may need to accommodate ramps, widened doors, accessible bathrooms, stair solutions, lower counters, hospital beds, lifts, wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and transportation assistance.
Some clients need daily help with bathing, dressing, transfers, meal preparation, medication, cleaning, transportation, and personal care.
Workers’ compensation does not pay for pain and suffering. A third-party claim may pursue these damages when someone outside the employer caused or contributed to the injury.
Five Parts of a Strong Spinal Cord Injury Claim
1. Prove the Accident Mechanism
The first step is to show how the force was transmitted to the spine. A fall from a height, a crushing event, a vehicle impact, or a machinery strike can explain why the injury is severe.
2. Secure Jobsite and Accident Evidence
Photos, videos, witness names, incident reports, tool records, equipment logs, work orders, and safety documents can disappear. Early evidence collection helps prevent the insurer from rewriting the event.
3. Connect the Medical Proof
A severe spine claim may involve emergency physicians, surgeons, neurologists, physiatrists, pain doctors, rehabilitation providers, therapists, and primary care doctors. The records must connect the accident to the symptoms, treatment, restrictions, and future needs.
4. Calculate Long-Term Care
For paralysis, the legal demand should address the cost of living with the injury. Future medical care, replacement equipment, home care, accessible housing, transportation, and daily support can make up a large part of the claim.
5. Prove Work Loss and Career Damage
The claim must show what the client can no longer do. A construction worker who cannot climb, lift, bend, carry, balance, or work safely around machinery may lose far more than temporary wages.
Don’t Settle for Today’s Bills
Spinal injury claims must cover future medical care, lost income, and home modifications. Attorney John J. Sheehan uses his decades of experience to evaluate your eligibility for workers’ compensation and third-party claims.
