Losing a limb is arguably the most devastating and life-changing event in any person’s life. Amputations, whether they result from a serious injury, infection, disease, diabetes, or cancer, can permanently alter the amputee’s life.
Moreover, the loss of a limb affects the lives of the amputee’s family members and close friends, who assist the injured person with many lifestyle changes, physical limitations, emotional distress, and, of course, burdensome costs.
An amputee must undergo expensive medical procedures, rehabilitation, and extensive physical therapy sessions after an amputation. The medical expenses caused by amputation can amount to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
Obviously, not everyone has that amount of money readily available in their pockets or savings accounts. If someone else’s negligence, carelessness, or recklessness is responsible for losing your limb, you should not bear the financial burden on your own.
Let our Kansas City amputation attorney from Townsend Law, LLC, help you pursue maximum compensation for all the damages you incurred.
What is Amputation?
According to Amputee Coalition, an estimated two million people live with amputations in the U.S. Amputation can bring dramatic and permanent changes to the amputee’s day-to-day life.
Many of an amputee’s pre-amputation activities that he or she used to enjoy before the traumatic event fade into oblivion.
An amputee may require a great deal of support from his or her family members, friends, and healthcare providers to ensure emotional stability and be able to perform basic activities such as eating, walking, brushing teeth, sitting down, and others.
Types of Amputation
Generally, amputations fall into two categories: Traumatic and surgical.
- Traumatic amputations are the accidental or unintentional severing of a limb or body part due to a catastrophic accident or traumatic event.
- Surgical amputations involve removing a limb or body part when such a procedure is necessary due to a severe injury, infection, vascular disease, cancerous tumor, frostbite, neuroma, diabetes, or another reason to control pain or illness.
Unlike surgical amputations, traumatic amputations are sudden and painful and can cause shock and death. Surgical amputation is usually performed under general anesthesia in a controlled hospital setting. Traumatic amputations can be partial or complete.
- Partial amputation occurs when the amputated limb or part is still partially attached to the body by the tissue, muscle, or bone.
- Complete amputation occurs when the limb or part is completely removed from the body.
Causes of Amputations
Each year, approximately 185,000 amputations occur in our country. Of these, at least 30,000 are traumatic. Motor vehicle accidents cause nearly a third of all traumatic amputations. Other causes of amputations include:
- Traffic accidents involving cars, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, and pedestrians
- Work-related accidents
- Factory or construction site accidents
- Agricultural accidents
- Electrocution accidents
- Boat accidents
- Elevator and escalator accidents
- Door accidents
- Accidents involving firearms, explosives, and fireworks
- Dog bites
- Medical malpractice
- Malfunctioning or defective products
- Snowmobile accidents
When another person or entity is to blame for your amputation or limb loss, a Kansas City amputations attorney can assist you with the investigation, determining liability, gathering evidence, and dealing with any legal issues that may arise when recovering damages.
Contact our lawyers at Townsend Law, LLC, to evaluate how much your amputation case is worth. Your case may involve such damages and losses as medical expenses, physical therapy costs, loss of income, disability, loss of earning capacity, assisted living, prosthetics and assistive devices, home renovations, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and many more.
Let our attorneys evaluate your case right now. Call at 833-869-6529 or complete the contact form to get a free evaluation of your case.