Personal injury law is a broad field of law that includes different types of injuries. Under these laws, the injured person can be compensated when another person's wrongful conduct or negligent action causes harm. There are a variety of situations that can give rise to a personal injury claim. However, not all injuries automatically result in legal liability. It is the victims' and their attorneys' mandate to prove that the other person is liable for the injuries to be compensated.

Hiring a personal injury attorney increases the possibility of being compensated as you focus on your recovery and treatment. It also eliminates the risk of settling for less than your injury's worth. At the Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Law Firm, we understand the frustration that anyone feels after incurring injuries from different situations. That's why we are committed to ensuring that all our clients are fully compensated for all their sustained injuries. Schedule an appointment with us and let us help you through your compensation claim.

Car Accident Personal Injuries

Once a person is involved in a car accident, there are possibilities of suffering from personal injuries. Personal injury is a legal term for the injuries sustained on a car accident victim's body, mind, or emotions. Car accident victims can suffer from both minor and severe injuries.

The most severe types of personal injuries are referred to as catastrophic injuries. Catastrophic injuries are injuries with direct and proximate consequences that permanently prevent victims from performing any gainful work. Generally, these are injuries that are serious enough to leave a victim with permanent damage. Here is a detailed look at the different types of personal injuries incurred in a vehicle accident.

Neck Whiplash

In a car accident, the forces at work can cause your body to move in a way that is not meant to or at speeds that it should not move at. In that case, if you experience discomfort in your neck and back after a collision, there are chances that you have whiplash. Whiplash is a strain on your muscles and ligaments. These strains are painful and usually take a few weeks to ease down.

Contusion or Bruising

 Minor car accidents can cause bruises. Slamming to your seatbelt once you are involved in an accident is enough to leave you with a bruise that lasts for a few days. Bruises are rare serious injuries that do not necessarily need medical attention. They will likely heal within a week or two.

Knee Injuries

Knees can also be injured after a car accident. They are usually injured after smashing into any part of your vehicle. Knee injuries can range from bruises to multiple fractures. The most severe injuries include tearing of the meniscus or cartilage if the knee turns or twists in a crash. 

Shoulder Injuries

Shoulder injuries can result from force absorption after bracing your hands on the dashboard or steering wheel in a motor vehicle accident. If you lock your hands against the steering wheel or dashboard, your shoulders will be injured from the excessive force of a collision.

Hand and Wrist Injuries

Broken wrists or distal radius fractures are also common in car accidents. Minor hands or wrist injuries can recover within a few weeks, but severe ones may require surgery.

Soft Tissues Injuries

Soft tissues comprise the tendons, ligaments, and muscles. Injuries on these soft tissues are common in automobile accidents. They can be painful and long-lasting hence the need to seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Concussion and Comma

You can easily hit your head on parts of your car after a collision. This might lead to a concussion or a comma. Concussions can lead to problems with your memories, like failure to remember what you were doing before the collision. In a comma, the victim is left unconscious for a short or long period depending on the accident's severity. Most victims who remain in a coma for an extended period are treated in an intensive care unit.

Chest Injuries

It is common for car accident victims to experience chest injuries. These injuries take the form of bruises or contusion in minor cases. For severe cases, victims might experience internal injuries or broken ribs. Drivers often experience chest injuries due to their position in the steering wheel, which does not allow a lot of movement once a vehicle is involved in an accident.  For passengers sitting at the front seat, they can experience chest injuries if they are thrown forward and hit the dashboard or restrained by their seatbelt.

Head Injuries

You can also experience minor or severe head injuries from a car accident. Minor head injuries include scrapes or bruising on the head. It is necessary to seek medical attention even when the minor head injury you experience would likely not lead to a severe medical situation.

Traumatic Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury is the most severe type of head injury experienced in a vehicle accident. This injury has potentially life-altering effects that can affect your brain function, process emotions, and handle information. Victims can recover from a traumatic brain injury to some degree, but it is a lifelong process.

Broken Bones

Broken bones cover a wide range of injuries. For instance, your arm can be pinned between your car door, leading to a fracture. In severe cases, you can experience a broken bone if you were involved in a severe accident. Most broken bones are rarely permanent or life-threatening, although some fractures require surgery and hardware placement to help your bone heal.

Spinal Cord Injury and Paralysis

The impact of a car accident can cause spinal injury. Spinal injuries usually result in paralysis. There are different forms of paralysis that include paraplegia or tetraplegia. Paraplegia refers to paralysis that affects the lower half of the body. People with paraplegia usually have mobility problems and might require to use a wheelchair. Tetraplegia is paralysis that leads to the loss of the limbs and legs. People with tetraplegia may still need to use a wheelchair but might also need assistance in performing most of their stuff. 

Internal Injuries

In most car accidents, there is a likelihood of having flying debris. Once the debris hits your body, it may cause internal injuries. This kind of injury is fatal and requires emergency medical treatment.

Disfigured Facial Injuries and Scars

Facial injuries in a car accident can result from broken glass or the impact on the car seat's hard surface, side window, airbag, steering wheel, windshield, and dashboard. You might require a surgical correction procedure if your face is disfigured.

Limb Loss and Amputation

Your arm, finger, toe, or other appendages can be severely damaged in a car accident to the point of requiring surgical amputation. This type of injury has a permanent disabling effect on the victim. 

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Not all car accident injuries are physical. You might suffer from mental and emotional injuries due to a car accident. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common type of mental injury caused by motor vehicle accidents. Anyone with PTSD might experience symptoms like being scared of driving even after recovering from injuries, aversion to sound and images related to the collision, and trouble sleeping due to anxiety. The treatment option for PTSD is through psychologists and therapy.

Personal Injuries from Motorcycle Accidents

Most personal injuries from motorcycle accidents are more or less similar to car accidents. However, these accidents usually lead to catastrophic injuries since motorcyclists have less cover between themselves and the point of impact. Therefore, most victims experience personal injuries like post-traumatic stress disorder, spinal cord injuries, internal bleeding, and traumatic brain injury.

When it comes to common minor injuries associated with motorcycle accidents, victims would likely suffer from road rash. Road rash usually occurs when a rider is thrown from the motorcycle and contacts the pavement or road. Road rash varies depending on the type of the rider's clothing and the point of impact. Their injuries range from cuts, bruises, severe gashes, muscle damage, and nerve damage.

Medical Malpractice Personal Injuries

Doctors are expected to be careful while treating patients. They should take time to read the patient's medical issue, diagnosis, charges, adopt the best course of treatment, and proper medication. Unfortunately, most doctors are not so careful, leading to mistakes that can lead to personal injuries.

Not every medical mistake turns out as a personal injury. Therefore, whenever you are seeking compensation after medical malpractice, you must have suffered measured harm. There are several types of injuries associated with medical malpractice. Let's have a closer look at them.

Birth Injuries

Birth injuries are injuries sustained by babies during birth due to medical practitioner errors. Birth injuries are different from defects since they result from negligence and are entirely preventable. On the other hand, congenital injuries are mostly caused by genetic conditions.

When associating a birth injury to a personal injury case, there must be some form of negligence from the doctors or other medical experts involved in childbirth. Some of the types of negligence that lead to birth injuries include failure to:

  • Recognize congenital disabilities during prenatal testing and examination
  • Diagnose and treat conditions related to pregnancy
  • Warn mothers against specific medication and habits like drinking alcohol and smoking
  • Monitor mothers with conditions like gestational diabetes that can lead to congenital disabilities congenital disabilities
  • Take necessary delivery room precaution

The above-stated instances of negligence can lead to a variety of birth injuries and conditions. These conditions include:

  • Motor disorders
  • Erb's palsy
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Developmental delays and learning disabilities
  • Spastic cerebral palsy
  • Speech delays and language disorders

Infertility Caused by Medical Malpractice

Fertility clinics have become more prevalent with the increased need for people to have children at an older age. Although this is a relatively safe medical practice, there are some risks associated with it. Some of the errors that can lead to infertility include:

  • Improper implantation, especially when the doctor implants the embryo into the ovaries instead of the fallopian tube
  • Prescribing the wrong drugs during the IVF procedure
  • Mishandling of the sperms, eggs, or embryo

Allergic Reactions and Overdose

Hospitals are expected to be sure of the medication that they are prescribing to patients. Failure to do so can cause harmful reactions to specific medications. Victims of allergic reactions or overdose might experience signs like abnormal breathing, fast, slowed, or irregular pulse, passing out, skin color change, and deviated body temperature.

These side effects might not last long, but they are life-threatening if they are not controlled or untreated.

Workplace Injuries

All kinds of injuries can occur in workplaces. These injuries usually cost employers and employees valuable time and money. Below are the common types of workplace injuries.

Trips, Slips, and Falls

Slips, trips, and falls account for more than a third of all personal injuries experienced in workplaces. They usually lead to injuries like neck injuries, broken bones, sprains, pulled muscles, and back injuries. The most common reason behind slips and falls in workplaces include occasional spills, low lighting, loose rugs, clutter, and uneven walking surfaces.

Being Caught or Struck by Moving Machinery

Anyone working with heavy machines in places like factories, working with farm equipment, and construction has a high possibility of incurring injuries. When your body is caught in or struck by an exposed moving part with protective guards, this might result in injuries like severed fingers, blindness, and crushed hands and arms.

Fire and Explosions

Fires and explosions occur in workplaces due to faulty gas lines and improperly kept combustible materials. This might cause injuries to your respiratory system, scarring, and varying degree of burns.

Repetitive Stress and Overexertion Injuries

Musculoskeletal disorders are common workplace injuries. These injuries result from improper lifting, repetitive working, intensive keying, among other situations. Injuries acquired from these situations can end up crippling or putting the victim in debilitating pain. 

Premises Liability Injuries

Like all the personal injuries discussed above, premises liability injuries stem from instances where negligent parties cause injuries to another person. Victim of premises liability injuries can incur injuries like back injuries, head injuries, severe disfigurement, scarring from dog bites, and respiratory problems.

These injuries result from different types of accidents. This includes:

  • Elevator accidents
  • Spills and falls
  • Negligent security
  • Defective stairways
  • Inadequate lighting
  • Fire safety and building violation
  • Dog or animal attack

Injuries from Bicycle Accidents

Bicycle accidents and injuries are more common than people think. Most people who suffer from bicycle accidents incur minor injuries, while others suffer from severe injuries depending on the accident's nature. Common injuries associated with bicycle accident are as follows:

  • Abrasion
  • Contusion
  • Strains
  • Fracture
  • Facial fracture
  • Hernia
  • Bowel contusion
  • Rib fracture

Pedestrian Personal Injuries

Pedestrians are vulnerable to accidents similar to other road users. However, their injuries are usually fatal, depending on the nature of the accident. This means that most of the injuries sustained in pedestrian accidents are catastrophic. This includes spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, traumatic orthopedic injuries, and amputation of limbs and extremities. 

Injuries from Airplane Accidents

Simple mistakes made while a plane is in flight, coming for a landing, or taxiing on a runway can lead to severe injuries that can last the rest of the traveler's life.  Although in-flight injuries can be less severe than crash injuries, either accident can cause significant trauma that leads to the following injuries. 

Brain Injuries

Brain injuries arise from contact with windows, falling luggage, and overhead compartments. These injuries can lead to traumatic brain injury. Some of the passengers end up with lasting effects that prevent them from living and working independently.

Broken Bones

Even in minor airplane accidents, victims can end up with extremely painful fractures in their arms, legs, ribs, and legs.

Back Injuries

An aviation accident can damage or compress the passenger's spinal cord, leading to total or partial paralysis.

Burns Injuries

Most airplane accident fires result from friction of the brakes and the highly combustible airline fuel. Burn injuries that require skin grafting, extensive cosmetic surgery and may still end up disfiguring the victim's hands, neck, and face.

Emotional Trauma

Anyone involved in an airline accident can have post-traumatic stress disorder. This leads to tendencies like fear of flying and withdrawal from crowds.

Wrongful Death

Wrongful death is the death of a person due to the wrongful actions or neglect of another. A wrongful death claim is a suit that is filed by the relatives and other close members of the person who dies due to another person's wrongful action or negligence. Wrongful death can result from different types of accidents like motorcycle accidents, car accidents, truck accidents, and pedestrian accidents.

Under Nevada laws, those eligible to file a wrongful death claim include the surviving spouse, children, deceased person, and children. Parents can also file a wrongful death suit if there is no surviving spouse or child.

Find Legal Help from a Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Near Me

Personal injuries can leave you in a state where you cannot work or live independently. This puts your family at risk of suffering if you cannot cater to their needs. That's why you should seek the help of a personal injury attorney who can help you get compensated by the at-fault party. No money awarded is worth the pain, suffering, and loss you go through, but it would help you get your life to where it was. If you are involved in an accident and suffered a personal injury, the Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Law Firm can help you go through your compensation claim smoothly. Contact us at 702-996-1224 and schedule an appointment with us today.