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San Bernardino Spinal Cord Injury Attorney

Since 1979, we have been there to help people who have suffered a spinal cord injury at work, at home, in the car, or anywhere else.  We know how serious suffering a spinal cord injury is regardless of the severity of your injury. The San Bernardino California spinal cord injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will work hard to assist the injured victim and their family throughout this rather difficult time.

Trust Experience

We want you to be able to relax and focus on what should be your top priority: getting to Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) as soon as possible. We will protect your rights, take over the paperwork and represent you in court.  Our firm’s job will be to get you the fair and full compensation that you legally deserve for your spinal cord injuries including the related expenses. Our San Bernardino California spinal cord injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will field a comprehensive and experienced team of expert attorneys, vocational experts, staff, physicians, economists, and accident reconstructionists who will work together to fight for you and maximize the recovery given to you by the insurance company, judge, or jury.

Our Reputation Is Success

Since the late 1970s, the insurance and legal communities have come to respect our work and ethical practices. Our firm consistently gives back to the community. That generous community development along with our vast legal experience and firm name recognition are unique benefits you receive as our client. Our quality reputation as spinal cord injury attorneys throughout San Bernardino, California, Riverside, Orange County, San Diego, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and Central California speaks for itself: We provide all of our clients with personal service (which includes the fact that we return your calls promptly) and top-notch representation.  This will be true for whether your case is a work injury, workers’ compensation, or personal injury case.  We investigate all injury cases to make sure the scope of your case is maximized including investigating the details for the potential of adding a Third Party injury claim. 

Defined: Spinal Cord Injury

The spinal cord is naturally protected against most low to medium trauma by the spine.  Even with that protection, there are plenty of injuries that cause it to be injured.  A Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is damage or harm to the spinal cord that causes a loss of function.  The potential functions that could be partially or completely lost due to spinal cord injuries include balance, feeling or mobility. The spinal cord is actually the soft nerve bundle that extends from the lower back up to the brain. It runs through the spinal canal.  The spinal cord carries information, commands and signals between your brain and your body.  If someone totally loses the ability to use an area of the body because of a spinal cord injury it is referred to as a complete injury.  It will be referred to as an incomplete injury if a patient with a spinal cord injury still has partial use of the affected part of the body.

Causes for Spinal Cord Injuries

The causes for spinal cord injuries vary greatly but can be put into two general categories: internal and external causes. Our firm has experience with almost the entire range of causes since we have been helping spinal cord injury patients since 1979.  The most common external causes for damage to the spinal cord are from:

The most common internal causes for injuries to the spinal cord are from: neurodegenerative diseases, vascular malformations, transverse myelitis (resulting from a stroke or inflammation), tumors, ischemia from the occlusion of spinal blood vessels (including dissecting aortic aneurysms, emboli, arteriosclerosis) and developmental disorders. 

Neurodegenerative diseases can also affect the spinal cord.  Examples are Friedreich's ataxia and spinocerebellar ataxia. The list of tumors that could go on to injure the spinal cord includes meningiomas, ependymomas, astrocytomas, and metastatic cancer.

The developmental diseases that can cause an injury to the spinal cord include meningomyolcoele, spina bifida, and mentakengithupthtehbatty. The list of vascular malformations that could play a part in injuring the spinal cord include dural arteriovenous fistula (AVF), spinal hemangioma, arteriovenous malformation (AVM), cavernous angioma and aneurysm.

Three syndromes can also cause a spinal cord injury. Anterior cord syndrome, central cord syndrome, and Brown-Sequard syndroome all might hurt the patient’s ability to fully function.  Central cord syndrome is linked to ischemia, hemorrhage, and necrosis.  It may cause impairment for a patient’s legs and arms but it hopefully should spare the patient’s lower body.  Due to this fact, it is sometimes also called inverse paraplegia.

The Spinal Cord Injury Resource Center has statistics that show that just about half a million citizens of the United States of America have injuries to their spinal cord. Currently, there are still about 10,000 new SCI's every year. The large majority of these spinal cord injuries have external causes to blame. The top three causes for SCI are as follows: slipping and falling (21.2%), violence (28.9%), and motorized vehicle accidents (36%).  We know how to help you, though, regardless of how it happened or developed.

The Spinal Cord Segments

Our spinal cord is crucial to living and being able to use our body.  The actual location of your injury along the spine is very important as each segment generally controls a different area of the body (including wrists, hands, and abdomen down to our feet and toes).  The next few paragraphs will go over, in general terms, what could happen to a person when harm or damage occurs at each specific part of the spinal cord.

Sacral Vertebra (S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5)

Spinal cord injuries that occur within this segment could cause the partial loss of the functions of the leg and hip. Additionally, the functions of the urinary system and anus could be affected. This area starts at the pelvis and runs down to the end of the spine.  S1 and S2 combine to be in charge of the flexion of the toes and the plantar flexion of the foot.  They also help to guide the legs movements that extend from the hips and the flexion from the knee.  S3 and S4 work together to play major roles in controlling the urinary bladder and the urinary system, in general. S5’s main job is to direct the muscle that is part of the pelvic wall that is called the coccygeus.

Lumbar Vertebra (L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5)

Spinal cord injuries in the Lumbar segment may result in the decreasing control of the legs and hips.  This region is above the pelvis but below the chest area. It is in between the sacral and the thoracic segments.  L1 is important as it controls the abdominal muscles and thigh flexion.  L2 and L3 are crucial for thigh flexion, thigh adduction, and the extension of the legs (at the knees). The L4 vertebrae also help to control thigh adduction, thigh flexion, and the leg extension at the knee. The overlapping duties of many of the vertebra can cause injuries to be less severe.

L4 teams with L5 to be in charge of thigh abduction, hamstring movements, extension of toes and the dorsiflexion of the foot.  L5 is also important for the plantar flexion of the foot, the extension of the leg at the hip, and the flexion of the toes.  All together, the Lumbar Vertebra combine to control much of what causes us to sit up, walk, run and stand.

Thoracic Vertebra includes T1 down to T12

Spinal cord injuries that occur throughout the thoracic segment of the spine and below (the Lumbar and Sacral segments) have a chance in resulting in paraplegia.  The hands, neck, arms, and diaphragm (for breathing) are not usually lost by injuries sustained here.  Injuries here are still serious as balance, mobility, and stability functions can be disrupted. Spinal cord injuries at T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, and T8 can all hurt the patient’s chances of having control over their abdominal core muscles.  The lower down the injury happens within the Thoracic segment should result in less severe outcomes.  Abdominal muscles directly correlate with trunk stability.  This means that injuries to this area can severely weaken a patient’s trunk stability. Spinal cord injuries that happen to thoracic vertebra lower than T8 (which consist of T9, T10, T11 and T12) also may cause the partial loss of function for the abdominal muscles. The thoracic vertebra can be located in the chest region of the spinal cord. The complete segment of T1 thru T12 consists of about half of the height of the spinal cord.

Cervical Vertebra (C1 thru C8)

In general, cervical spinal cord injuries may cause the loss of function for the legs, hands and arms for an injured person. The cervical segment is found along the neck and they are the uppermost vertebra. A severe injury may result in quadriplegia. 

  • C1, C2, & C3: Injuries here may require the patient to have a ventilator to help with their breathing as the injury may have caused a loss of diaphragm function.
  • C4: The shoulder and bicep functions may be significantly or partially lost.
  • C5: Spinal injuries that happen here have a chance in resulting in the complete loss of function for wrists and hands. Potentially, injuries here may affect the shoulders and biceps (especially if C4 has been injured as well).
  • C6: Injuries at C6 could result in the partial or full loss of hand function and it may also limit the patient’s wrist control.
  • C7:  Injuries here may result in limited use of the arms. They may also cause a lack of dexterity for the fingers and hands.

Other Issues due to Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries cause issues that go beyond what was listed above.  The following is a list of the problems that may also be caused by injuries to one’s spinal cord:  Central Nervous System (including the brain), spasticity, trouble breathing, Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems, Lower Motor Neurons (LMNs), Upper Motor Neurons (UMNs), Peripheral Nervous System, atrophying of the muscles, neuropathic pain, chronic pain, bone degeneration, dysfunction of the bowel and bladder, autonomic dysreflexia (abnormal increases in automatic body functions like sweating and blood pressure), osteoporosis, and problems with sexual function and fertility.

Treatments for Spinal Cord Injuries

Treatment will be different and vary for spinal cord injuries depending on many factors including the specific location(s) along the patient’s spine, the patient’s overall health and the severity of the injury.  Occupational therapists are being called in to help patients more frequently than in the past to assist the patient by helping them try to regain control of their impaired body parts (though the rates of failure versus success vary widely).  The first round of treatment will be about not causing further injury and stabilizing the patient.  This includes keeping the patient breathing, preventing shock, immobilizing the back and neck, and working to prevent and fight respiratory, stool, urine, and/or cardiovascular problems.

Then, once the patient is at a hospital, emergency room, or spine injury center, they will probably be treated in the ICU (intensive care unit).  The ICU should have a complete team of surgeons, psychologists, therapists, neurosurgeons, social workers, and spinal cord specialists there.  The potential treatments for the injury will range from medications (like medrol) and surgery to the use of neck collars and traction.  Back, neck or spinal cord surgery is sometimes done to remove fractured vertebrae, herniated disks, and bone fragments. 

Contact Us - Free Initial Consultation

The Law Offices of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
San Bernardino California
Call us any time at: (909) 436-4610

Since 1979, we have witnessed how hard spinal cord injuries can be on the patient, their friends, their career and their family. Our entire firm believes in protecting your rights and giving you complete customer service that will start with a free initial consultation. 

The initial consultations are free to all of our clients. You will speak with a lawyer who will listen to you, answer your questions and give you an idea as to what options you have. You will not incur any legal fees or expenses for our assistance or time unless and until we win for you a positive trial verdict or settlement. The San Bernardino spinal cord injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo are ready to have a meeting with you at our law firm’s office, your home or your hospital room throughout the typical work week of Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:30pm. Our lawyers and staff will also meet you all other times throughout the week and weekend, including Saturdays, Sundays and evenings, by appointment. Call us today at (909) 436-4610 and let us earn your trust.

We Can Help You Recover