Cuts and Lacerations From Car Accidents
Lacerations are quite common in car accidents, particularly in head-on collisions with other vehicles, rollover accidents, and when serious single-vehicle accidents result in a car colliding with tree or cement divider on the highway. If you were involved in a Houston auto wreck and suffered moderate to severe lacerations, the negligent party likely owes you a significant amount of financial compensation for your pain and suffering, possible disfigurement, and medical bills, as well as your other damages. An top auto injury attorney in Houston will help you recover these damages.
Defining a Laceration Wound
According to Orthopedic Specialists, a laceration occurs when skin, tissue, or muscle is severed. Lacerations happen during auto collisions from broken glass, when an occupant is ejected from the car and injured by hitting the road, and other instances when a person comes into contact with any type of sharp object. There are five types of lacerations, according to Injury Information:
- Cut lacerations, which happen when tissue is cut by a sharp object, are very common in car accidents because of broken glass and exposed sharp metal;
- Split laceration is a type of crushing injury, could be caused by a rollover accident or head-on collision when an occupant’s head hits the dashboard or steering wheel, or in a rollover where hands or legs get crushed;
- Grinding compression lacerations are caused by the forces in an car accident when part of the body has a direct impact with a blunt object. A grinding compression injury results in the peeling of the top layer of skin and the crushing of connective tissue under the skin;
- Over stretching lacerations happen as the name implies – an over-stretch of the tissue from a singular-directional force, resulting in severed skin or muscle; and
- Tearing lacerations happen when the tissue is pulled in two different directions, causing a tear.
Can You Recover From Laceration Injuries?
The immediate concern with severe lacerations is the loss of blood, which is one of the first things paramedics will attend to in a serious car accident. Once you get medical attention from a doctor the open wound is closed using:
- Staples;
- Stitches;
- Liquid glue stitches; and
- Tape or steri strips
In extreme cases, left untreated, the loss of blood from laceration wounds can be fatal. Permanent scarring and disfigurement is another great concern with laceration injuries. Disfigurement and scarring are the most common long-term effects of a laceration, and the more severe the laceration, the more likely and dramatic the long-term effects will be. Plastic surgery could potentially be an option, but the lasting effects will probably remain no matter the skill of the surgeon. In extreme cases, left untreated, the loss of blood from laceration wounds can be fatal.
Permanent scarring and disfigurement is another great concern with laceration injuries. Disfigurement and scarring are the most common long-term effects of a laceration, and the more severe the laceration, the more likely and dramatic the long-term effects will be. Plastic surgery could potentially be an option, but the lasting effects will probably remain no matter the skill of the surgeon.
Contact a Houston Attorney Today for Help
Multiple, and expensive, surgeries may be necessary to repair serious laceration wounds, which is why you need an experienced lawyer. You need a lawyer who can retain experts to testify and demonstrate the extent of the injury and the impacts in the future. Additionally, nerve damage can result if the laceration is very deep, which can cause loss of hand, face, or other extremity function and movement, and seriously jeopardize quality of life, not to mention loss of earning capacity. Call the Houston injury lawyers at Fleming Law today.
