Injuries
Amputations
An amputation is one of the most debilitating and life altering injuries an individual can sustain. The amputation of a limb is extremely physically painful. Individuals who undergo amputations often experience chronic neuropathic pain, which is pain caused by nerve damage to the site of the amputation. In addition, 80% of all amputees experience phantom limb pain (PLP), which is pain that is felt in the missing limb. PLP is caused from “inaccurate signaling among the remaining nerve limb endings and/or overactivity among neighboring limbs. The result is a distinct feeling of limb pain despite loss of the limb.”
In addition to the physical pain, many amputees suffer emotional consequences, such as grief, depression, anxiety, and poor body image. The pain from physically losing a limb, the emotional and cognitive changes, as well as learning to function without the limb, greatly affects the individual’s quality of life.
Our firm has handled a number of serious amputation cases. One of them involved a CSX railroad worker in West Palm Beach, Florida. Our client was forced to run from a train that came off the tracks towards him. Tragically, he could not outrun the train. As the train hit his torso, he fell to the ground. When he tried to crawl away from the oncoming train movement, one of the train’s wheels ran over his left leg and severed it at the hip. Our client was seen and evaluated for one of the first bionic legs ever designed. Our client received a multimillion dollar settlement on his case the morning trial was set to begin just as the Judge hit his gavel and instructed to call the first witness.
http://www.amputee-coalition.org/fact_sheets/painmgmt.html