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Riverside Broken Bones Injury Attorneys

Since the late 1970s, the Riverside California broken bone injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have been helping people and their families when they have suffered one or many broken bones. Unfortunately, broken bones are quite common. We are ready to take your call right now to discuss your case and start the process of helping you receive the compensation you are rightfully owed. We have represented the entire scope of broken bone cases from people with workers’ compensation claim cases and work injury cases to personal injury cases.

Trust Us to Help You

In the majority of broken bone cases, the patient’s everyday living is affected. This includes having to shower carefully and having your walking or writing hindered because of a cast. We want to help you get back to your normal life as quickly as it is possible. We will represent your case and ensure you get the proper medical care you need to heal properly. Our Riverside California broken bones injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will provide you a full team to help conduct your case. We will bring in physicians, vocational experts, economists, and accident reconstructionists to help you get the maximum award you are due under the law by the judge, jury or insurance company.

Broken Bones Defined

Fracture is the medical term for a broken bone and in the US, each of us will probably have at least two of them during our life. One of those two incidences usually happens during our childhood as kids break their bones frequently because of a variety of causes (including young bones, frequent falls and rough play). Fractures happen to a bone or bones when the amount of force that is applied to the bone is stronger than the bone. The result of this excess of force is a disruption in the continuity of the bone (and probably pain). Medical professionals can abbreviate the term fractures when they write in a number of ways that include FRX, Fx, or #. Bones should heal most of the time since bones are always in a constant state of adding new bone cells.

Ways to Tell the Bone is Broken

Please consult your physician for all possible broken bones as this paragraph is only meant as general information. Broken bones are not always easy to confirm or spot, especially when it is a hairline fracture. Common signs of a broken bone are: swelling, pain, bruising, and tenderness. Your doctor will probably use X-Rays as a method to locate or confirm the break.

Broken Bones Categories

Broken bones are as varied as we have bones in our body. Though they all share the same general definition, the types of fractures and their respective injuries are very diverse. Health professionals have sorted all broken bones into these general categories. Keep in mind, though, that it is actually possible that your fracture may fit into more than one type.

Open Broken Bone Injuries: The broken bone has created a hole in the skin when one has had an open fracture. Medical professionals will still call it an open broken bone if the bone pierces the surface of the skin but then the bone pieces goes back beneath the skin. Open fractures also carry the risk of a deep bone infection that is called osteomyelitis. It could end up being acute or chronic and is usually caused by infectious germs. It is crucial that you let the health care professionals know if you have an open fracture as they will try to prevent infection. It normally affects the longer bones in the human skeleton like the leg bones and spine. Open broken bones are also called compound fractures.

Closed Broken Bone Injuries: With a closed fracture, the bone still breaks but the force does not cause a hole in the skin. Closed broken bones can also be called simple fractures. It probably does not seem very simple to the victim of a simple fracture but the lack of a puncture would does indeed lessen the chance of infection and osteomyelitis.

Displaced Broken Bone Injuries: Displaced fractures are when the bone breaks and then gets moved out of its regular alignment. The bone can also be considered commuted if the fracture caused the bone to break into many separate pieces. As you can tell, how a bone breaks and what the final condition of everything around it all are factors in determining the duration before it is healed and what treatment options you have.

Non-displaced Broken Bone Injuries: The broken bones that are put in this category are fractures where the bone does crack (either full or partial) but the bone still does not break or move.

Greenstick Broken Bone Injuries: This fracture occurs more frequently in children. Greenstick fractures are when the bone has bent because of outside force but it has not broken. They can be much more difficult to diagnose properly since the injury does not cause the usual symptoms and signs of a more typical fracture. This happens to children more because of kid’s softer bones.

Transverse Broken Bone Injuries: Transverse broken bones are when the fracture is at a 90 degree angle to the bone. An example of this could be if a baseball bat breaks someone’s shin bone. The shin bone goes straight up and down but the break is happening from the front to the back.

Linear Broken Bone Injures: This type of broken bone is the opposite of transverse fracture since they occur when the break’s line is parallel to the bone.

Impacted Broken Bone Injuries: These difficult injuries are when two bone’s ends are forced into each other due to a trauma. These types of broken bones typically happen to young children and older adults as both demographic groups of people are the most likely to trip, fall, or slip. In general, a person’s bones won’t be at full strength until age 30.

Pathologic Broken Bone Injuries: Fractures that have pathologic causes are any broken bones that happen due to an area of the body that is weakened due to diseases like osteoporosis, infections, tumors, and some bone disorders. Osteoporosis is a major pathologic cause of bones becoming weak around the world. Osteoporosis is occurring when the bone is losing old bone cells faster than it is adding new bone cells. Many doctors recommend frequent tests of your bone density to generally determine your risk of osteoporosis and the equivalent age of your bone strength compared to your actual age. Osteoporosis is not only an issue for women as some studies have shown it to be a major problem for men in rest homes.

Stress Fractures: These injuries are different from most other fractures. They do not happen due to one acute injury event. Rather, they are caused by a repetitive force against the bones during a long duration that eventually becomes a stress fracture. Athletes’ feet and shins are common places to find stress fractures. Poor nutrition can be a part of putting a person at a greater risk for getting a stress fracture.

A List of Possible Broken Bones

Facial Broken Bones: The bones of the face consist of 14 bones that are flexible enough so the face can function (eating, talking, breathing, etc) while still providing as much protection as possible. The orbits of the eyes happen to be good example as there are seven bones that form them. The list of facial bones include the hyoid bone in the throat, the mandible (which is the lower jaw and where the lower teeth anchor to), the two maxilla bones that can be called the mustache bones since they come together to form the upper jaw, the two cheek bones (zygomatic bones), the two palatine bones, the two nasal bones that are next to each other and create the nose’s bridge, the vomer, the lacrimal bone, and the inferior nasal concha (or sometimes known as the inferior Turbinated Bone).

Cranial and Skull Broken Bones: The skull is meant to protect our brain. The skull includes eight cranial bones and they are: the two parietal bones that are the sides and top of the skull, the two temporal bones that are to the rear and below the parietal bones, the frontal bone, the occipital bone that is designed to protect the skull’s back, the sphenoid bone is in front of the temporal bone, and the final cranial bone is the ethmoid bone which is the bone that is in between the brain and the nasal cavity.

Broken Shoulders and Collarbones: The collarbone’s other name is clavicle. It makes up the shoulder along with one other bone. The collarbone’s most important functions are to keep the shoulder up while providing protection for the blood vessels and nerves in that region. Male teenagers have a statistically higher rate of occurrence of breaking their collarbone because that injury happens most while playing sports or falling with your arm outstretched (example: diving for an outfield fly ball with your glove hand outstretched and landing on your armpit).

The second bone in the construction of the shoulder is called the scapula. It is more commonly known as the shoulder blade to most people. It is meant to not only provide strength for the shoulder but provide much needed protection for the area between itself and the rib cage. There are three types of scapula fractures that are common: scapular neck fractures, scapula body fractures, and glenoid fractures.

Thorax Broken Bones: The thorax section of the skeleton is made up of twenty-five bones. Included are the 24 rib cage bones and the one sternum bone (though some medical professional state that the sternum is made up of three individual bones called the gladiolus (body of the sternum), the xiphoid process, and the manubrium. The sternum is what some of the ribs tie into in the front of the chest. An example of breaking the sternum bone is when a driver is in an accident and gets pushed or crushed into the steering wheel during a car accident. A broken sternum may possibly mean more damage is below as it can cause cuts and bruises to the lung tissues and capillaries. The twenty-four ribs of the human body protect many of our internal organs. Broken ribs can be very painful, even when the injured patient breathes heavily or laughs.

Broken Spinal Cords: The spinal cord is discussed in detail elsewhere but here is a quick overview. It contains twelve thoracic vertebrae, five lumbar vertebrae and seven cervical vertebrae.

Arm Broken Bones: Forearms are much more likely to have a break than upper arm bones. The forearm is actually two long bones called the ulna and the radial. These bones often fracture because of falls or trauma from car accidents, fighting, or injuries sustained while playing sports. When the fracture is in the middle section of the bone (not near the wrist or the elbow) then it is referred to as a radial shaft break or ulnar shaft break. Olecranon breaks are fractures at the end of the ulna bone near the elbow. It is sometimes referred to as the “funny bone” part of the arm. Radial head breaks are when the radial bone breaks near the elbow.

The humerus is a very thick bone that makes up the upper arm from the elbow to the shoulder. The humerus head is where it meets the shoulder socket. Two parts of this area that commonly break are called the surgical neck of the humerus and the anatomical neck of the humerus.

Hand Broken Bones: The metacarpal bones are what bridge the fingers and the wrist together while providing room for the palm. There is one metacarpal bone for each finger and thumb. These bones are broken most often when someone punches something that is too hard or with too much force. An example of this is the all too common moment when a pitcher punches the dugout wall.

The fingers are incredible and are key to many of our daily activities like eating, typing, writing, driving, and even brushing our teeth. It is very common for fingers to break, sprain or dislocate since we use them so frequently and are relatively fragile given their exposed nature. The treatment usually will just be taping the injured finger to a healthy one to stabilize it and allowing it time to heal. Each finger has three bones while the thumb only has two bones above the metacarpal palm bones. The closest bone to the wrist is the proximal phalanx. The middle bone amongst the four fingers is mercifully named the middle phalanx, while the last bone (and furthest from the palm) is the distal phalanx. The thumb’s two bones are the proximal phalanx and the distal phalanx as it does not have a middle phalanx.

Wrist Broken Bones: These are the most common types of broken bones for all patients under sixty-five. Most of us have either seen or known someone who tried to use their hands to break a fall only to break the wrist bones. More than fifteen percent of all broken bones treated in an emergency room will be for wrist fractures. This is especially true for children as they fall often. A wrist fracture typically refers to either of the two forearm bones being broken near the wrist. They are the radius and ulna. These big bones go from the wrist to the elbow. The scaphoid is another bone that may break near the wrist. It can also be referred to as the navicular bone. It is beneath the thumb.

The scaphoid is part of the eight carpal bones that are the wrist joint which allows for most of the movement of the hand. The eight bones are in two rows. One row has the triquetrum bone, scaphoid bone, lunate bone, and pisiform bone and the other has the capitate bone, trapezium bone, trapezoid bone, and the hamate bone. The scaphoid bone is the most common among the eight to break.

Waist and Pelvis Broken Bones: The pelvis has four bones. They include the two hip bones. The hips are the most common bones for people over sixty-five to break. Hips have the following three parts: the ischium, the ilium, and the pubis. Most broken hips occur due to the patient having osteoporosis. The other two bones of the pelvis are the sacrum and the coccyx. The sacrum is at the bottom of the spine whereas the coccyx is also called the tailbone. All combined, these four bones also create the pelvic cavity where the reproductive organs can be found.

Leg and Thigh Broken Bones: The thigh’s big bone is called the femur. Actually, the femur is the biggest bone in the entire human body. Though it can support over 25 times the weight of the average US adult, femur bones can and do break. More commonly, though, trauma directed at the thighs will cause the hips to break instead of the femur.

In total, the lower legs consist of six bones (three for each leg). They are the patella, tibia and fibula. The tibia and fibula are found below the knee whereas the patella is the bone whose more common name is the kneecap.

Foot Broken Bones: About 10% of all fractures that happen in the US occur at the foot. The feet are made up of many bones and we often put them in vulnerable situations. An example of this is that it is very easy to break a toe while walking, running or kicking. The foot is divided into three sections consisting of the forefoot, midfoot, and the hindfoot. In all, these three sections have 26 individual bones. Since we constantly use our feet, foot fractures can be very disruptive to our lives. This is especially true when the foot injuries inhibit people from climbing stairs, driving, walking, or even standing.

The forefoot has 19 bones: It is long and is constructed somewhat like the fingers and palm of the hand. Each toe has a distal phalanx at the front of the toe. The toe’s middle phalanx comes next (though not for the big toe as, just like the thumb, it does not have a middle phalanx). Proximal phalanges come next and they connect to the metatarsal bones that are long. This section of the foot has what is known as the ball of the foot.

The middle part of the foot has five bones which include the medial cuneiform bone, navicular, cuboid, intermediate cuneiform bone and the lateral cuneiform bone. This section of the foot has two primary functions: create the arch and absorb shocks.

The back of the foot, or the hindfoot, has two larger bones called the talus and the calcaneus. The calcaneus is the biggest bone of the foot and makes up the heel. The talus is what is connected to the leg bones and is considered the ankle. It is crucial to protect your feet and take good care of them.

Broken Bone Injury Causes

The top three causes for fractures are: (1) falls, (2) osteoporosis and (3) car accidents. The common causes for broken bones, in no particular order, are:

Treatments for Broken Bones

Treatments and length of time for fully healing will differ for all broken bones cases depending on the location(s), the severity, the type of break and the other injuries that were sustained. Most of the time, the doctor will just need to set the broken bone properly (called reduction) and then let it heal as the bone rebuilds itself over time in a cast. Some breaks need more help to heal properly. In these cases, pins, screws, rods and plates may be used. These devices may or may not be removed later.

Free Initial Consultation ~ Contact Us

Initial case consultations are free and very informative. You will meet with one of our firm’s attorneys so you get a chance to discuss your broken bone case and learn about your options. The better news is that we work on a contingency basis. This means that you will not incur any legal fees or expenses for our assistance or time unless and until we win your case. The fracture and broken bone injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will meet you at your home, our office or your hospital room on Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:30pm. By appointment, we will even meet with you on Saturday and Sunday and in the evening.

Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Riverside, California
Call us 24 hours a day at: (951) 977-7787

We Have Been Ethical & Successful

Our successful reputation for over thirty years as broken bone injury lawyers is known throughout Riverside, California, Orange County, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Long Beach, San Diego, and Central California. We have been given the honor of being chosen as Preeminent Lawyers by Martindale-Hubbell. Less than five percent of all lawyers are given this honor.