Serious Bodily Injuries Resulting From Maryland Commercial Truck Accidents

As trucking injury lawyers, we know of individuals who have been hurt, either in a minor road accident or a serious traffic collision. As experienced Maryland trial lawyers with training in the area of personal injury law, the legal team at Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, understands the bodily pain and physical discomfort that being in a car, truck or motorcycle wreck can cause any individual. Across the U.S. every year, more than six million highway collisions take place, with a percentage of those happening on a weekly basis here in our state.

Based in the Baltimore area, our law offices are convenient to many individuals who seek help with a personal injury lawsuit or wrongful death claim. Our skilled attorneys know that dozens of innocent victims are hurt or killed every month in Maryland; usually as a result of a negligence-related traffic accident. These accidents, which take place on the interstate, highway and beltway, affect people from all over the state, including Bowie, Hagerstown, Frederick, and Annapolis.

As professional auto and trucking accident lawyers, our legal team knows that a motorcycle, automobile or commercial trucking crash can happen without much notice. We also understand how very easily the occupants of a relatively small passenger vehicle can find themselves in the local hospital emergency room with painful or even life-threatening injuries. We are skilled trial attorneys with experience in handling commercial trucking-related personal injury cases. As such, we know that finding a qualified professional to help victims recover damages from the responsible parties can be almost as critical as getting the best medical care following a crash.

For many people who have been injured in trucking-related roadway accidents, there is often a concern regarding the recovery of doctor, hospital and rehab costs resulting from the injuries caused by that collision. We understand how insurance companies can appear to be holding out or giving the victim the runaround. If this is happening to you or someone you love, it could be time to consider retaining a qualified personal injury lawyer.

It’s certainly no great secret that trying to take on any insurance company by oneself can be a frustrating and often disappointing process. Without some kind of prior experience, the average auto or trucking accident victim must learn while doing, which when one is laid up in a hospital room or convalescing at home in great pain can be next to impossible. Understanding the many and varied legal concepts is difficult enough for most people, but for a victim suffering from the aftereffects of a severe auto injury accident, the task can be simply overwhelming.

Consider for a moment the various injuries that can result from a bad traffic wreck. For anyone who has ever been caught up in Maryland roadway collision, just doing simple everyday tasks can be extremely difficult. Meanwhile, the insurance company may be looking into the reasons for the victim’s injuries in order to decide whether or not those were pre-existing conditions that had nothing to do with the car, truck or motorcycle accident in question. Here is a brief list of some of the more serious bodily injuries that can result from a severe roadway accident:

Sometimes referred to as closed-head trauma, brain-related injuries occur with the skull and dura mater still intact. Unfortunately, brain-related injuries are the key cause of death in youngsters four years of age or younger. In fact, even in cases of non-fatal brain injury, infants and toddlers can wind up with some kind of physical or cognitive disability in the future. Generally, head trauma cases, as well as other more mild forms of traumatic brain injury, account for more than 70 percent of the approximate 17 million brain injuries that take place annually across the U.S.

Coma is known to result from any number of conditions or events, such as intoxication; metabolic abnormalities; central nervous system diseases; among others. Although drug-related coma is the most frequent (40 percent or more), the inability of the brain to get a sufficient amount of oxygen is the second most common cause of coma, amounting to about a quarter of all cases. Coma brought on by oxygen deprivation is usually attributed to serious cardio-pulmonary conditions, such as a heart attack, which can sometimes result from a traffic accident.

Rupture of any organ in the body should be cause for alarm, as well as immediate medical treatment. Instances of car and trucking-related accidents involving high-speed impacts can result internal injuries. A frequently injured organ in the human body is the spleen, which is located in the upper-left portion of the abdomen. The role of the spleen is critical when it comes to filtering blood and removing old or damaged blood cells and platelets.

Also referred to as internal bleeding, this condition involves loss of blood from the body’s vascular system, which then collects within a body cavity. This kind of condition can occur as a result of blunt-force trauma, as sometimes experienced by accident victims during the sudden deceleration that often happens when a small car hits a large truck, or vice-versa.

From a medical standpoint, internal hemorrhaging is a rather serious condition that can often prove life-threatening to the victim, especially in situations where there is a high rate of blood loss. Some of the more critical parts of the human body that can experience internal bleeding as a result of a trucking-related collision include the stomach, lungs and brain. In the worst instances, victims suffering from a serious case of internal bleeding can experience a heart attack and eventual death.

A compound fracture is on in which the broken bone pierces the skin, causing extreme pain and related bleeding from the wound. This type of fracture is particularly dangerous for victims since the bone may become contaminated and possibly infected. Depending on the angle of the fracture and other aspects of the injury, manipulation of the bone by a skilled physician may be needed to set the bone correctly so that it can mend. Surgery is often needed to repair the damage.

Aside from those medically-necessary and planned procedures, amputation of a trucking accident victim’s limb may take place as a result of a severe impact. The force with which many commercial trucking collisions take place can end up severing a victim’s arm, leg or head. While decapitation is a particularly gruesome and fatal result of some automobile and trucking-related road accidents, the loss of an arm or a leg can result in massive blood loss, which themselves can result in possible death.

The kind of traffic accident is often a factor in the type and severity of bodily injuries received by a driver, passenger or pedestrian. This is especially true when the victims’ vehicle has been hit by a large commercial motor vehicle. Serious and life-altering complications can often put the victim of a commercial trucking accident in a hospital bed for weeks, if not months. Spinal cord injuries are some of the most serious and can mean a lifetime of medical treatments and nursing care.

Those injuries involving the spinal cord are differentiated from other problems affecting the spine. Depending on the area along the spinal cord where the injury occurred, symptoms experienced by the victim can vary between mild to severe pain to instances of partial or complete paralysis. Treatment for injuries sustained by the spinal cord can often involve a substantial amount of physical therapy and rehabilitative care. These treatments can last for months or years and add up to overwhelming medical costs over time.

While physical injuries are certainly serious and of immediate importance, especially following a serious commercial trucking collision, these bodily injuries are not the only negative results of a negligence-related trucking accident. Sometimes, the emotional and psychological consequences of a bad traffic wreck can be just as debilitating for a victim as those tangible scars and physical trauma. Therefore, it should be stated that a percentage of CMV-related highway wrecks can lead to moderate or even severe psychological issues for some accident victims, as well as their families.

For some victims of commercial truck accidents involving much smaller automobiles -- those who survive such traumatic events -- the opportunity for short- or long-term psychological issues can be even more significant than the physical injuries sustained in the crash. This can be especially true when a victim experiences such severe emotional distress caused by a vehicle fire or the death of friends or family traveling in the same vehicle.

It should come as no surprise that some victims of bad trucking-related roadway accidents can experience continuing or persistent anxiety, a variety of emotional issues, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Considering the multitude of ways in which a commercial trucking accident can negatively affect those innocent victims, there is no reason why anyone so affected should bear the burden of medical or psychological care when negligence is found to be the cause of the accident that caused the injuries in the first place.

If you or a loved one has been badly injured in a trucking-related accident cause by the negligent actions of a trucker, the legal staff at the law offices of Lebowitz & Mzhen is ready, willing and able to help you recover medical and rehabilitation expenses necessitated by a serious traffic accident. Our years of legal experience in handling Maryland personal injury cases qualify us to assist victims and their families. As car, truck and motorcycle injury attorneys, we are prepared to discuss the details of your commercial trucking-related injuries. Please contact our offices toll-free at (800) 654-1949. Or, should you prefer, you may email either Jack Lebowitz or Vadim Mzhen to set up your free, no-obligation consultation.