CHICAGO PARALYSIS LAWYER

What is Paralysis?

Paralysis is often the result of a severe spinal injury. This condition prevents victims from making voluntary movements in parts of their body or their whole body.

Paralysis occurs when there is significant damage to the central nervous system – AKA the brain and spinal cord. Neurons, also called nerve cells, are responsible for almost all our necessary bodily functions and sensations. They send messages from the brain, to the spinal cord, and to the rest of the body.

Motor neurons in particular send messages from the central nervous system to the muscles so that we can move our bodies. If some kind of spinal cord damage has occurred, those messages will be interrupted, and therefore, the injured person may not be able to move.

How Many Americans Suffer From Paralysis?

According to a 2013 report, approximately 5.4 million Americans suffer from some form of paralysis.

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

There are multiple types of spinal cord injuries that people can suffer from. The type of injury heavily depends on what kind of accident occurred and where the injury occurred in the spinal canal. For example, if someone suffered a thoracic spinal cord injury, they may suffer from paralysis in just the lower body. Meanwhile, if someone suffered a cervical spinal cord injury, they could suffer from full body paralysis.

There are two main types of paralysis: complete spinal cord injuries and incomplete spinal cord injuries.

• Complete Spinal Cord Injury, also known as complete paralysis, means that the victim has lost all muscle control and sensation below their spinal cord injury. For example, let’s say a person suffers a severe injury in their cervical spine (neck). If the injury is complete, they will have no muscle control or sensation below the neck.
• Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury, also known as partial paralysis, means that the victim has some sensation and control over their muscles below the spinal injury. So again, let’s say that someone suffers a cervical spinal cord injury. If they suffered an incomplete injury, they may have some muscle control and sensation below the neck.

Types of Paralysis

There are also several types of paralysis that people can suffer from that, again, is often dependent on the location of the spinal cord injury. Additionally, these types of paralysis often depend on the type of accident or incident that occurred. So some paralysis cases may be caused by a motor vehicle accident while others are caused by a stroke, for example.

• Monoplegia prevents someone from moving only one of their limbs.
• Hemiplegia prevents someone from moving one side of their body.
• Paraplegia means that someone can’t move or feel anything from the waist down.
• Quadriplegia means that someone can’t move all four limbs. The pelvic organs are generally impacted by quadriplegia as well.

Paralysis injuries are often broken down further by how the muscles are affected. For example, spinal cord injury victims can suffer from flaccid or spastic paralysis. Flaccid paralysis describes muscles that are floppy, sagging, and shrinking. Meanwhile, spastic paralysis sufferers experience tight, jerky, and stiff muscles. Cerebral palsy patients generally suffer from spastic paralysis.