Catastrophic injuries can change a person’s life. They often leave people with lasting disabilities or major health problems. These injuries cause stress on the victim and their family on a physical, emotional, and financial level. To understand what these injuries mean and get help, you need to know about them and what caused them.

For people affected by catastrophic injuries, getting legal help is often the first step toward getting justice and financial support. Catastrophic injury attorneys can help determine who is responsible and make sure that victims get compensation for their medical bills, lost wages, and long-term care. This is especially important for injuries like amputations that can change a person’s life and require expensive rehabilitation.

Below are the different types of catastrophic injuries you should know about.

  1. Amputations

Amputations are when a hand, foot, or leg is lost completely or partially because of an injury or necessary medical intervention. 

  • Causes: The main ones are machine accidents at work, car accidents, building accidents, and medical malpractice.
  • Effects: People who are victims may have trouble moving around, be in pain all the time, and deal with the mental effects of losing a body part.
  1. Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs)

Traumatic brain injuries happen when a sudden blow, jolt, or object that goes through the skull damages brain cells and changes the way the brain normally works. TBIs can be as mild as a concussion or as serious as brain damage that affects a person’s ability to think and move for a long time.

  • Causes: Most of the time, it is caused by car accidents, falls, sports injuries, and violent acts.
  • Effects: Symptoms include problems with thinking and speaking, as well as long-term challenges that make it hard to move around and do everyday things.
  1. Spinal Cord Injuries

A spinal cord injury is damage to the spinal cord that makes it hard for signals to get from the brain to the body. This can cause a range of functional losses. The severity depends on where the damage occurred and how much damage was done.

  • Causes: Common causes are falls, high-impact car accidents, sports injuries, and violent acts.
  • Effects: Victims may become partially or completely paralyzed, lose control of their bowels and bladder, have trouble breathing, and be in constant pain.
  1. Severe Burns

Extreme heat, dangerous chemicals, electricity, or radiation can all cause severe burns, which damage more than just the skin and reach nerves, muscles, and deeper tissues.

  • Causes: Severe burns are commonly caused by house fires, car fires, workplace accidents, and electrical malfunctions.
  • Effects: Complications include infections, limited movement, nerve damage, and long-term pain that needs long-term care.
  1. Multiple Fractures and Orthopedic Injuries

Multiple fractures and orthopedic injuries happen when the bones and musculoskeletal system take a lot of damage from impact. These injuries can make it hard to do normal things and require a lot of medical care.

  • Causes: Car accidents, accidents at work, sports, and falls from high places.
  • Effects: It can take months to heal, and victims often have to go through surgery, rehab, and being limited in their movement.