Illinois Catastrophic Injury Lawyers

What is a Catastrophic Injury?

Serious or catastrophic injuries are injuries from which patients may never fully recover. These injuries can affect every aspect of your life, leave you without the ability to support yourself or your family, and cause you to lose your personal independence, emotional stability, and the joy of participating fully in life.

Catastrophic injuries affect not only the injured individual but his or her family as well, as they are often required to provide caregiving support. At Sam C. Mitchell & Associates, we understand the far-reaching effects of catastrophic injuries.

For over 50 years, our firm has been helping people throughout Southern and Central Illinois, and we have seen firsthand the devastation catastrophic injuries can cause. Our firm is committed to providing the best possible legal representation—we will fight fiercely and tenaciously to help you get the compensation you need and deserve in the wake of a catastrophic accident.

Contact Sam C. Mitchell & Associates at (618) 505-1660 for a free consultation with one of our Illinois catastrophic injury lawyers.

Common Causes of Catastrophic Injuries

Catastrophic injuries can occur as a result any type of fault-based accident or incident, including but not limited to:

• Auto accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Trucking accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Slip and fall accidents
• Workplace accidents
• Medical malpractice
• Defective and/or dangerous products
• Negligent security resulting in criminal attacks
• Birth injuries
• Swimming pool accidents

In all of these cases, if another party or entity engaged in negligence or wrongdoing, you may be entitled to compensation for all of your damages and losses. These can include all of your medical expenses related to the injury both past and future, such as for future surgeries and other future long-term medical care, rehabilitative treatment, physical therapy, medical equipment, prescriptions, and more.

You may also get compensation for home and vehicle renovations required to accommodate you, as well as for personal assistance in accomplishing daily tasks. Additional compensation can also be sought for pain and suffering, any property damage you may have suffered in the accident, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional anguish.

Common Types of Catastrophic Injuries

Catastrophic injuries can range from traumatic brain injury to spinal cord injuries, loss of limbs, blindness, permanent disfigurement, severe burns, organ damage, and more. Partial recovery may be possible in some cases while in others permanent disability will leave the individual’s life completely altered.

Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries are among the most serious of all injuries. These occur when a blow to or severing of the spine occurs. They result in the loss of sensation below the affected area. How severe that loss may be will be a result of how deeply the spinal cord was injured. In cases where the spinal cord is severed, the individual will likely be paralyzed from that point down the body.

This can result in either paraplegia, which is paralysis of the trunk and/or legs, or quadriplegia, which is paralysis from the neck down. These types of paralysis will result in loss of bodily functions, such as kidney, bowel, and sexual function. In most cases, the victim will require personal assistance for accomplishing daily tasks and may also suffer from PTSD, depression, and other emotional problems.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

A traumatic brain injury occurs when a serious blow to the head occurs. This usually results in swelling and/or bleeding in the brain, a condition which needs immediate medical care so as to prevent death or further deterioration of brain function. These types of injuries have a broad range of severity depending on the circumstances of the impact to the brain.

Those who sustain the most serious blows may spend months in a coma. The effects of a traumatic brain injury can include physical, emotional, and cognitive disabilities, ranging from loss of motor skills to personality changes, memory loss, irritation, inability to concentrate, persistent headaches, and more.

An Experienced Legal Team You Can Trust

When faced with the effects of a catastrophic personal injury, you need a legal team that you can trust in your corner as soon as possible. Securing all of the compensation you will need throughout the coming months or years of your life is critical. Our Illinois catastrophic injury attorneys have demonstrated their competence, integrity, and persistence; we have recovered more than $200 million for our clients.

Reach out to us at (618) 505-1660 or contact us online for a free consultation.