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San Bernardino Broken Bones Injury Lawyers

Since 1979, the San Bernardino California broken bone injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have stood by their clients and helped them recover from their broke bone injuries. Broken bones are very common and many of them are not the fault of the injured person. We are ready to start helping you today. We want to discuss your particular case and begin the process the legal process. We have probably represented the entire scope of fracture cases from workers’ compensation claims and work injury cases to personal injury cases.

Trust DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo

Broken bone injuries are usually very inconvenient and painful. It usually means the patients have to shower more carefully and adjust how you walk, eat or write. We want to be there for you and help you get back to your normal life as soon as possible. We will ensure you get the proper medical care you need. Our San Bernardino California broken bones injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will also provide you and your family a full team of experienced professionals to help conduct your case. We will consult with accident reconstructionists, physicians, economists, and vocational experts to ensure you are awarded the maximum award you are rightfully and legally due by the judge, jury or insurance company.

Broken Bones - Definition

The medical term for broken bones is fracture and in this country, each person will most likely have two or more of their bones break during their lifespan. In addition, one of the two fractures typically occurs during our young childhood as kid’s bones are softer and they are accident prone. Fractures happen to a bone or bones when the amount of force that is applied to the bone is stronger than the actual bone. The result of this force is a disruption in the continuity of the bone (and, of course, pain). Medical professionals will abbreviate broken bones or fractures in a variety of ways including #, FRX, or Fx. Bones are always adding new bone cells which is why most fractures should heal.

Ways to Tell it is a Fracture

Please consult your medical professionals if you think you may have a broken bone as this paragraph is only meant for general information. Fractures are not always easy to confirm, especially when it is a hairline or stress fracture. Common signs of a broken bone are: swelling, pain, bruising, and tenderness. Your physician or nurse will most likely use an X-Ray machine as a method to locate or diagnose the break.

Broken Bone - Causes

Some of the common ways bones break are from slips or falls, osteoporosis related breaks and truck, car and motorcycle accidents. The complete list of common causes for broken bones, in no particular order, is:

Broken Bones: Types of Fractures

The types of broken bone are almost as varied as the amount of ways to break the bone. Health professionals have sorted all broken bones into these general categories. Your fracture could possibly fit into more than one category.

Open or Compound Broken Bone: In this type of fracture, the broken bone has punctured a hole in the injured person’s skin. Medical professionals will still categorize it as an open break if the bone does pierces the skin but then the bone goes back beneath the skin. Open fractures are a bit trickier as they carry the additional risk of a deep bone infection that is named osteomyelitis. It can be acute or chronic and can be caused by the infectious germs that get in through the open wound. This disease usually affects the longer bones like the leg bones and spine.

Closed or Simple Broken Bone: When the break is a closed fracture, the bone still breaks but the trauma and injury does not cause an open hole in the skin.

Greenstick Broken Bone: This type of fracture happens the most to the bones of children. Greenstick fractures are when the bone has bent because of physical force but it has not broken or snapped. This, of course, is like trying to break a green twig in nature. They are possibly more difficult to diagnose correctly because they do not cause the same level of signs of regular fractures.

Transverse Broken Bone: Transverse fractures have occurred when the break is at a 90 degree angle to the alignment of the bone.

Linear Broken Bone: This type of fracture is quite opposite to that of the transverse fracture. These occur when the break’s line is parallel to that of the bone.

Impacted Broken Bone: These painful fractures are when two of the injured patient’s bone’s ends are forced into each other due to a trauma (like falling). This type of fracture usually happens to older adults and children as they are the most likely to slip, trip or fall. Our bones won’t be at full strength until we get to age 30.

Pathologic Broken Bone: Fractures with pathologic causes are those that occur partially or fully because of a disease that weakens the bones like osteoporosis, tumors, infections, and some bone disorders. Osteoporosis is the major pathologic cause of weak bones throughout the globe. It is occurring because the bones are losing old bone cells faster than they can add new bone cells. Though seen as more of a problem for women, osteoporosis is also a major problem for men in rest homes.

Displaced Broken Bones: Displaced broken bones have happened when the bone fractures and gets shifted out of its usual location and alignment.

Non-displaced Broken Bone: The fractures that are categorized as non-displaced are breaks where the bone does not move out of its usual alignment and spot on the skeleton.

Commuted Broken Bones: If a break is so bad that the bone fractures into many separate pieces, it is called commuted.

Stress Fractures: Stress fractures do not happen because of an acute event. They are caused by a repetitive force against the bones over a longer duration. Over time, the injury becomes a stress fracture. Athletes’ feet and shins are the most common places to find these types of breaks. Poor nutrition could also put a person at a greater risk for getting a stress fracture.

Possible Broken Bones List

Cranial and Skull Broken Bones: The skull has the very important task of protecting our brain. The skull does include eight cranial bones and they are: the two parietal bones that protect the top of the skull along with the sides, the two temporal bones that are located below the parietal bones, the occipital bone that is protects the back of the skull, the frontal bone, the sphenoid bone which is located in front of the temporal bone, and the final bone that makes up the skull is the ethmoid bone.

Facial Broken Bones: The face includes fourteen bones in its bone structure. They include 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 hyoid bone in the throat, 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).

Thorax Broken Bones: The thorax is made up of 25 bones. Included in this area are the 24 ribs and the sternum bone. Some health professional will say, though, 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 a portion of the ribs connect to in the front of the chest. The 24 ribs protect many of our vital internal organs. Broken ribs are probably very painful since it even hurts when the injured person breathes heavily or laughs.

Broken Spinal Cords: The spinal cord contains twelve thoracic vertebrae, five lumbar vertebrae and seven cervical vertebrae. There is more detail regarding spinal cord injuries here.

Broken Shoulders and Collarbones: The collarbone is also called the clavicle. It is part of the shoulder and its most important functions are to keep the shoulder up while providing protection for the blood vessels and nerves in that region. The second bone that makes up the shoulder is the scapula. It is more commonly known as the shoulder blade. There are three types of scapula fractures that are common: scapula body fractures, scapular neck fractures, and glenoid fractures.

Wrist Broken Bones: Broken wrist injuries are the most common types of fractures for people under sixty-five years old. More than fifteen percent of broken bones injuries that are treated in the ER are for broken bones around or in the wrist. A wrist fracture typically refers to either of the two forearm bones being fractured. They are the radius and ulna. These forearm bones go from the elbow down to the wrist. The scaphoid is part of the eight carpal bones that are the wrist joint. The eight bones are in two rows of four bones. One row has the lunate bone, triquetrum bone, scaphoid bone, and pisiform bone and the other has the trapezoid bone, capitate bone, trapezium bone, and the hamate bone. The scaphoid bone is the most common among the eight to break.

Hand Broken Bones: The metacarpal bones are what connect the fingers and the wrist while creating the palm. There is one metacarpal bone for each of the four fingers and the thumb. These bones are broken most often when someone punches something that is too hard or with too much force. The fingers are quite incredible and play a major role in many of our daily activities like eating, writing, driving, and dialing the phone. It is very common for fingers to sprain, break, or dislocate since we use them so frequently and they are relatively fragile because of their exposed nature. 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 does not have a middle phalanx but it does have the proximal phalanx and the distal phalanx.

Arm Broken Bones: Forearms are much more likely to fracture than the upper arm bones. As mentioned before, the forearm is two long bones called the ulna and the radial. These bones often break because of falls or trauma from car or motorcycle accidents 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. Radial head breaks are when the radial bone breaks near the elbow. The humerus is a very thick and strong bone that is the main part of the upper arm from the elbow to the shoulder. The humerus head is the part of the bone 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.

Pelvis Broken Bones: The pelvis has four bones. The two hip bones are the most common bones that break for people who are over sixty-five years old. Hips have the following three parts: the ischium, the ilium, and the pubis. Most broken hips happen because the bones are weakened from 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. These four bones create the pelvic cavity.

Leg and Thigh Broken Bones: The thigh’s big bone is called the femur and it is the largest bone in our body. Amazingly, it can support over 25 times the weight of an average American adult. Due to that strength, trauma to the femur bones can result in the hips breaking instead of the femur. In total, the lower legs consist of six bones with three for each leg. They are the fibula, patella, and tibia. The tibia and fibula are found below the knee. The patella is the bone whose nickname is: kneecap.

Foot Broken Bones: About 10% of all fractures that happen in the US are breaks in and around the foot. The human foot is vulnerable to breaks because it is easy to injure and used heavily. An example of how easy it is to break a foot bone is the fact that most people reading this will know someone that has broken a toe while doing something simple like walking around the house or kicking a ball. The foot is constructed with three sections consisting of the forefoot, midfoot, and the hindfoot. These three sections combine to have 26 individual bones.

Hindfoot Broken Bones: The hindfoot has two big bones called the talus and the calcaneus. The calcaneus is the largest bone of the entire foot and is our heel. The talus is what is connected to the leg bones and is the ankle.

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

Forefoot Broken Bones: The forefoot has 19 bones and it is long and constructed in a very similar way to our fingers and palms. Each toe starts with a distal phalanx at its front. The toe’s middle phalanx comes next (though big toes do not have a middle phalanx). After the middle phalanx comes the proximal phalanx as they connect to the long metatarsal bones. The ball of the foot is beneath this section.

Broken Bones: Possible Treatments

Your treatment options and the length it will take for your injury to heal are different for all broken bone cases. It will partially depend on the location(s), the severity, the type of break and the other injuries that were sustained. Sometimes, the doctor will just need to set the broken bone in their proper spots (which is called reduction) and then put a cast on to let it heal as the bone rebuilds itself. Some breaks may need more help to heal the right way. In these more complex cases, pins, screws, rods and plates may be used.

Free Consultation ~ Contact Us

Initial case consultations are free for all possible clients. In addition to the first meeting being free, we will work for you on a contingency basis where you do not pay us anything unless we win. At the initial consultation and case evaluation, you will meet with one of our firm’s lawyers. The fracture injury attorneys 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
San Bernardino, California
Call us anytime at: (909) 436-4610

30+ Years Of Experience

Our successful reputation for over three decades as broken bone injury attorneys is known throughout San Bernardino, California, Ventura, Long Beach, Orange County, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, Upland and Central California. Throughout that time, we have received many honors from organizations like the Better Business Bureau. The honor that we are most proud of, though, is that many of our clients refer us to their friends and family. Thank you.