New York City

Published on: October 8, 2011

Football scrimmage line leaves player with spinal cord injury, said a New York Spinal Injury Lawyer

by Stephen Bilkis

Football can be a whole lot of fun for those playing and those watching. However, it’s a highly physical game and there are bound to be injuries – serious injuries, such as spinal cord injuries. That is what happened in this case when a high school senior was involved in a scrimmage in 2008. He was told there was a bunch of things he would never be able to do again and would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, explained the New York Spinal Injury Lawyer. This is not tetraplegia but it is close to that terrible affliction.

The boy had no intentions of living up to that prognosis and has been chasing a variety of different therapies, including human embryonic stem cell injections around his C-5 spinal cord injury and bio feedback to help his brain reconnect with damaged neuropathways. He hopes to also increase his overall motor functions.

The young man’s injury is just behind the windpipe and the stem cell injections are intended to stimulate damaged tissue in that area, said the New York Spinal Injury Lawyer. Unfortunately, this kind of therapy is not available in the US and so the young man goes out of country to get it. Despite many people’s skepticism, he has seen some great improvement in his condition and actually has feeling in parts of his body that doctors said would never happen.

Published on: September 27, 2011

Quick Stop on Bus Lands Man With Spinal Injury

by Stephen Bilkis

Something as simple as a bus ride changed a 49-year-old man’s life forever and New York Spinal Injury Lawyers were there to help him.

The plaintiff boarded the bus and while looking for a seat, the vehicle came to a sudden stop, throwing him 20 feet across the bus. He landed on the floor on his right hip, shoulder, and back. Though he was released from the hospital on the same day, the effects of his injuries still linger. He was moved from his job as a cardio-pulmonary technician to a desk job. It took months of physical therapy to discover he had a herniated cervical disc. Two more years of physical therapy did not relieve the pain in his neck, and eventually a ruptured disc had to be surgically removed from his neck. Hospitals in New York City and Queen have similar treatments for this kind of injury.

The defendants in the trial, four years after the accident, had a number of counterarguments, but New York City Spinal Injury Lawyers were there to counter them all. In the end, he was awarded $450,000 for past pain and suffering and $300,000 for future pain and suffering. The Transit Authority appealed, but if it comes to another trial, Lawyers will stay in the fight to the very end.

Published on: September 8, 2011

As with many injuries, spinal injuries can come with complications

by Stephen Bilkis

As with many injuries, spinal injuries can come with complications, according to New York Spinal Injury Lawyers. Specific ones include neurological dysfunction, hunchback, herniated discs, and bones that heal out of alignment. When high-impact force was involved, such as in a car accident, there can also be cuts or bruises on the heart or lungs. Spinal cord injuries come with even more possible complications, like sores caused due to prolonged inability to move. Even chronic constipation or inability to void the bladder may become an issue, requiring treatment in order to avoid potentially dangerous consequences. Hospitals in New York City and Queens are always on the lookout for these complications in car accidents.

Certain spinal cord injuries can cause such severe dysfunction to the nervous system that hypertension and other cardiovascular conditions result, New York Spinal Injury Lawyers have discovered. Such injuries occur in 48% to 90% of all individuals injured in specific portions of the spine, or by any painful or irritating stimulus below that portion of the spine.

Complications after surgery may include difficulties breathing, or cardiac complications, like heart attack, NYC Spinal Injury Lawyers have learned. Anemia from severe blood loss, problems with blood coagulation and difficulties stemming from fluid imbalances are all known to occur sometimes after spinal surgery. Urinary tract infections can also result from spinal surgery, and these infections can even spread to the spin and any hardware implanted there to support the area. There are a great many things that physicians need to keep an eye out for when attending to a victim of spine or spinal cord injury, and all of them can have a large impact on a patient’s life for a long time to come.

Published on: September 3, 2011

Severity of a Spinal Injury Determines Type of Treatment Conducted

by Stephen Bilkis

In order to improve the condition or prevent the damage caused by a fractured vertebra from trauma to the head, neck, or back. The type of treatment a person with injury to vertebrate in the individual’s thoracic spine needs depends on the severity of the injury. There are two treatment methods to address thoracic spine fractures. They are either a nonsurgical treatment or a surgical treatment, a New York Spinal Injury Lawyer conferred. Slip and Fall accidents can cause injuries which require surgical treatment as well as non surgical treatment. In Long Island and New York City, hospitals use both forms of treatment.

A doctor may choice a nonsurgical treatment method for someone with a compression fracture and some burst fractures. Nonsurgical treatments are used to treat fractures that are stable. They also take into account if there are any neurological deficits. If so, the doctor would do surgery.

The nonsurgical treatment involves the individual with the fracture to wear a hyperextension orthotic, cast, or brace. They would wear the brace for four to six weeks. Each person is different resulting in the brace to be worn for a shorter or longer period than others. Along with this treatment, the person will stay bedridden for one to three weeks.

Published on: August 27, 2011

Spinal surgery is an open procedure, using general anesthesia

by Stephen Bilkis

In the instances where there are broken bones in the spine, but no sign of neurologic difficulty, nonsurgical treatment can be appropriate. Compression fractures, in which the front or the side of the vertebrae is cracked, or some burst fractures, where a whole vertebra is cracked, are candidates for nonsurgical treatment, New York Spinal Injury Lawyers have learned. cervical spine injuries are not the same and doctors in New York City and Long Island treat this condition much differently. Nonsurgical treatment involves wearing a cast or a brace for 4 to 6 weeks. This period may be longer for individuals who have more severe injuries, or patients who have osteoporosis. It is not uncommon for physicians to recommend 1 to 3 weeks of bed rest.

Patients who have unstable fractures of the spine, where bones have been shattered, and the spinal cold stretched or pierced, often undergo surgical treatment. These procedures generally are used to realign the spine, stabilize the spine, and prevent (or even improve) any neurologic dysfunction. The actual treatment varies depending upon the severity of the injury on the spine and the spinal cord, as well as the general health of the patient, the patient’s age, and the personal discretion of the surgeon.

Spinal surgery is an open procedure, using general anesthesia, according to NY Spinal Injury Lawyers. These all require fusion of vertebrae to each other through metal plates, rods, wires, and/or screws to stabilize the spin. After the surgery is finished, a brace of some kind is used, as per nonsurgical treatment. There may also be the need for painkilling drugs after the surgery, which the doctor will prescribe.

Published on: August 15, 2011

Helmets Can Prevent Spinal Injuries

by Stephen Bilkis

New York Spinal Injury Lawyers have discovered that bicycle riders who wear helmets are 22% less likely to sustain an injury to their cervical spins than riders who did not wear helmets, after crashing their bicycles or motorcycles. This contradicts the supposition of some who say the weight of the helmet causes enough torque on the neck in a motorcycle crash to contribute to spinal injuries.

“We are debunking a popular myth that wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle can be detrimental during a motorcycle crash,” a professor of surgery told a New York Spinal Injury Lawyer. “Using this new evidence, legislators should revisit the need for mandatory helmet laws. There is no doubt that helmets save lives and reduce head injury. And now we know they are associated with a decreased risk of cervical spine injury.”

The professor and his colleagues sifted through data of more than 40,000 motorcycle collisions that occurred between 2002 and 2006. Not only did the riders who wore helmets suffer fewer cervical spine injuries, but they also showed lower risks for traumatic brain injury and death.

Published on: August 7, 2011

There are around 12,000 new cases of spinal cord injury every year in the United States,

by Stephen Bilkis

There are around 12,000 new cases of spinal cord injury every year in the United States. There are about 300,000 patients who are still living with the neurological aftereffects of spinal injury.

Post-injury treatments for such injuries generally focus upon the treatment of complications like pain and urinary tract infections. There are promising new approaches, however, that focus upon regeneration and cell therapy. Early clinical reports using various types of cells have shown some improvement in spinal injury victims. Many of these injuries are caused by construction accidents in New York City and Queens.

New York Spinal Injury Lawyers have been looking into the implications of these procedures, studying selected preclinical and clinical interventions. There have already been attempts at a combination approach, using a number of different cells, as well as a case study which showed promising results. These types of therapy may very well be the wave of the future.

Published on: July 18, 2011

Motorcycle helmets do reduce brain injuries

by Stephen Bilkis

The latest studies into whether or not helmets make any difference in a motorcycle crash have shown that indeed, they “do” make a difference. They reduce brain injuries and deaths from brain injuries. Interestingly, they also cut down on the incidents of spinal cord injuries, said the New York Spinal Injury Lawyer.

This latest information is of interest, because there is an old myth that says wearing a helmet can hurt the spine during a bike crash. With proof it helps reduce spinal cord injuries, legislators across the country might want to revisit some of their helmet laws. For those states that already have mandatory helmet laws, this validates having their legislation in place.

For those states that either don’t have a helmet law or leave it up to the biker to choose, this new information – that they save lives, reduce head injuries and reduce the risks of cervical spine injury – should help proponents re-consider their lack of a helmet law. Hospitals in New York City and Westchester County say that helmets can save lives and horrible injury.

Published on: June 17, 2011

Accidental Bombing on U.S. Soil Leaves Family Devastated, 36 Years Ago

by Stephen Bilkis

“We heard the plane coming,” the plaintiff recalled. “You know when the bomb bays doors open, the bombs start to whistle. And when you hear the whistling, you know something’s going to be a bustin’.”

It took 36 years, but that man was finally compensated for the injury he received during the accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down in 1944 when the man’s spinal cord was severed by shrapnel. An errant bomber dropped 36 fragmentation bombs on his family’s home and land, missing his target by 10 miles. Paraplegia cases are common in severe accidents which happen in Nassau County and New York City.

He clearly remembers what the incoming bombs sounded like. He also remembers running. He ran almost to the front porch of his uncle’s farmhouse. Those steps proved to be his last steps – ever, taken at 12 years of age.