Last Updated on July 16, 2024 by Asfa Rasheed
If you’ve been in a life-changing, catastrophic accident, you’re probably curious about what the medical treatment plan will be. Here we have put together a general list to familiarize yourself with common medical treatments for catastrophic injuries. There are three main treatment options: medication, physical therapy, and surgery.
Once your injuries are stabilized and under treatment, discuss your legal rights with a serious injuries lawyer in New York right away.
Table of Contents
Emergency Care
Immediately after a catastrophic accident, emergency care is paramount. This could include blood transfusions, stitches, casts on fractured bones, or CPR. Without first getting this basic life-saving treatment, the other treatments might not be needed.
Medications
Medications can assist in managing pain, reducing symptoms, and promoting healing. People suffering from traumatic brain injuries, for instance, can benefit from taking anti-seizure medication after a catastrophic injury. On the other hand, people suffering from spinal cord injuries can benefit from pain medication and/or anti-inflammatories.
Physical Therapy
Regular, ongoing, top-notch physical therapy can drastically improve an accident victim’s outlook and progress. Coordination, balance, and movement are often impacted after a life-changing accident. Very few catastrophic injury survivors will not benefit from physical therapy. People who have suffered from catastrophic injuries typically find it necessary to re-learn common activities, such as walking, bathing, eating, talking, writing, and so on. Survivors who require prosthetics also require physical therapy to learn to properly, comfortably, and safely use their prosthetics.
For some, physical therapy will be a one-time occurrence immediately after their injury, lasting from 2 months to a year. For others, though, physical therapy will be a lifelong chore. For example, neck and spinal cord injury survivors often experience a progression or worsening of their symptoms as they age, and this requires ongoing and consistent work to manage.
Another element of physical therapy can be occupational therapy. Occupational therapy teaches catastrophic injury survivors how to do their vocational duties in a new way if needed, so they can return to their pre-existing careers rather than starting over from the bottom with new ones. Occupational therapy may include, for example, learning to type with nerve damage in your arm, learning to drive with a neck injury, or learning to swim with one arm.
Surgery
Those who have suffered catastrophic injuries like burns and amputations will see great benefits from surgery. Burn injury victims, for instance, often undergo numerous reconstructive surgeries and burn grafts for both cosmetic, pain relief, and recovery purposes.
Specialty Medical Equipment
While medical equipment isn’t necessarily a treatment modality, it is one of the ingredients in the recovery journey for many catastrophic accident survivors. That may include walkers, mechanical beds, railings or ramps installed in the home, or tall toilets and bathtubs.
Ongoing Care
Every so often, after surviving a catastrophic injury, the survivor’s needs or situation may change, perhaps with age, after a pregnancy, or because of another health problem developing (diabetes, heart disease). As things and bodies change throughout life, the survivor may require a new medical procedure, additional physical therapy, a new prosthesis, or additional surgery. To others, ongoing care may involve round-the-clock nursing care, living in a nursing home, constant check-ups with specialists, and so on.
Call a New York City Serious Injury Lawyer
At Varcadipane & Pinnisi, we are New York City personal injury lawyers with the experience, passion, and knowledge to get you the maximum possible settlement quickly after a catastrophic injury. Please contact us today for a no-cost consultation.
Author
Dawn M. Pinnisi is a Managing Partner of the Firm. She was born and raised in Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Law School. Ms. Pinnisi predominantly handles professional Malpractice in New Jersey on behalf of victims of product liability, professional malpractice, and negligence. She has twenty years of litigation experience advocating for injured clients and has recovered millions of dollars in jury verdicts, settlements, arbitrations, and mediations on behalf of injury victims.
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