Sandusky Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

Life can dramatically change in an instant. Due to another person’s carelessness or recklessness, you may experience physical trauma so grave that it can lead to long-term or lifelong problems that impact your ability to perform daily life functions, as well as pose serious risks to your mental health.

If you or a loved one suffers from a serious injury that impacts your life, livelihood, or well-being, a skilled Sandusky catastrophic injury lawyer may be able to help you navigate the legal process and potentially recover monetary damages.

When an injury caused by someone else has permanent effects, speaking to a seasoned personal injury lawyer about recovering appropriate compensation may be critical to your well-being in the future.

Defining Catastrophic Injuries

While no specific legal definition of catastrophic injury exists, the term typically relates to injuries that require extensive or lifelong medical care and/or cause permanent disability or death. In addition to physical pain and suffering, these injuries can also result in a mountain of medical bills, lost wages, loss of companionship, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues—all of which a Sandusky catastrophic injury attorney could help a victim pursue compensation for.

Amputation

Workplace accidents, motor vehicle collisions, burns, and even the failure to properly diagnose an infection can lead to the loss of a limb. Losing a leg or arm can severely impact a person’s mobility and ability to work, not to mention result in significant emotional trauma.

Spinal Cord

Commonly caused by accidents involving motor vehicles, and to which pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists are especially susceptible, spinal cord injuries can cause paralysis, result in bladder or bowel dysfunction, and require the use of a ventilator. Accordingly, these injuries can profoundly alter many facets of a person’s life, including the ability to work, travel, and remain self-sufficient.

Internal Injuries

Externally invisible injuries can still be devastating on the inside. Trauma to organs—including the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, and spleen—and internal bleeding can cause infections, shock, and permanent organ disease or failure.

Brain Injuries

Head trauma can wreak havoc on a person’s life. Serious injuries to the brain—including those suffered by newborns during and immediately following labor and delivery—can impact cognitive and intellectual function, memory, behavior, emotions, sensory perception, and communication. They can also cause chronic headaches and seizures, and in the most severe cases place victims in comas, as well as permanently vegetative or brain-dead states.

Potential Damages for Sandusky Catastrophic Injury Cases

Most catastrophic injuries caused by someone other than the victim are due to either negligence or recklessness. Legally speaking, negligence is the failure to exercise the sort of care that a reasonable and prudent person would ordinarily exercise under the same circumstances, whereas recklessness involves knowing disregard of the risk of harm to another.

In both cases, a catastrophic injury lawyer in Sandusky may be able to help a plaintiff recover economic and non-economic damages. The former might include medical bills, nursing care, rehabilitation costs, physical and mental therapy, and lost wages in the past, present, and future. The latter might include pain and suffering, loss of consortium/companionship, and mental anguish.

Where recklessness can be proven, plaintiffs may also be able to recover punitive damages, which are designed to punish a wrongdoer and deter similar future conduct.

While punitive damages are typically capped at $350,000, Ohio Revised Code §2315.18(B)(3) eliminates any damages ceiling for catastrophic injury victims suffering from permanent physical deformities, or from functional injuries that leave them unable to independently care for themselves.

Speak with a Sandusky Catastrophic Injury Attorney Today

By nature, catastrophic injuries are life-altering and expensive. Bills from hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, nursing care companies, and medical device manufacturers can pile up while work income vanishes, and for permanently injured victims there may be no end in sight.

If your life or that of a loved one has been interrupted in this way, a compassionate Sandusky catastrophic injury lawyer could research your case and potentially lay out an effective course of civil action. Depending on the circumstances, this might include making a pre-litigation demand for damages or filing a lawsuit. Either way, most personal injury lawsuits in Ohio must be filed within two years, so reach out today and take the first step towards potentially securing a beneficial outcome in your case.