Most people experience back pain sometime in their lives. In a study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 39% of survey respondents had experienced back pain within the three months preceding the study.
Back and spinal injuries can happen in almost any workplace accident. The Law Office of Lisa A. Wiebusch, LLC has over 30 years of experience representing clients with spine and back injuries. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss your accident and the back and spine injuries you suffered.
You can injure your back in almost any kind of workplace accident. Back and spine injuries result from the following four types of trauma:
You suffer blunt trauma when you hit your back without creating an open wound. The most common cause of this trauma is falls. Blunt trauma can also happen when something strikes your back, such as a vehicle or a falling object. Blunt trauma to the back or neck can bruise tissue and fracture bones.
Hyperextension injuries occur when your back and spine get stretched, stressed, bent, or twisted beyond their normal ranges. This might happen if you lift something too heavy. It can result from rapid changes in speed or direction. For example, your spine hyperextends as your body whips forward and backward in a work vehicle crash.
When you stress your body, you develop microscopic tears in your soft tissues and cracks in your skeleton. If you do not rest afterward, this damage will not heal. If you repeat the same stresses without adequate rest, the tears and cracks will grow into injuries. Repetitive motion injuries result from overuse.
Back and spine trauma can cause many different injuries depending on the tissues damaged. Some common back and spine injuries include:
You have large muscles in your back and tendons that connect the muscles to your spine, shoulder blades, collarbones, ribs, and skull. Strains happen when you hyperextend muscles and tendons, causing them to stretch or even tear. Back strain produces symptoms such as:
Back strain can take six weeks or longer to heal, depending on the severity. In the meantime, you will need to ice and rest your back. Your doctor may also recommend anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce the swelling.
Ligaments hold your vertebrae together. They also hold your ribs to your spine. A sprain occurs when you hyperextend these ligaments. You might also hear or feel a pop when you injure your back. Other symptoms of a sprained back can include:
A mild sprain may take four to six weeks to heal. A full-thickness tear of a ligament might take months to heal. You may also need physical therapy.
You have discs between your vertebrae to cushion your spine. Disc compression can deform the discs by causing them to herniate or bulge. In either case, the misshapen disc will destabilize the spine and cause back pain by pulling vertebrae, muscles, and tendons out of place.
The herniation or bulge can also press on nerve roots. Nerve damage from a disc injury can cause radiating pain, weakness, and numbness in your limbs.
A fractured vertebra is one of the most serious back injuries you can suffer. Bone fragments from a fractured vertebra can compress or sever the spinal cord, producing temporary or permanent paralysis.
Back and spine injuries are among the most common workplace injuries. They are also a leading cause of missed work days. Contact the Law Office of Lisa A. Wiebusch, LLC to discuss your back injury and how we can help you seek compensation for it.
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