The topic of personal injury is a vast and difficult to understand one, particularly in regards to personal injury claims. In any kind of claim, the type of injury and severity of that injury are the two most important variables when it comes to determining the kind of compensation that you are entitled to.
In order to help you better understand and categorise your injury, Salmon Solicitors have put together this article. In it, we’ll be going through the various kinds of personal injury, detailing the key indicators of each. By the end, you should be able to categorise an injury the same way we do, making any communication between yourself and your personal injury solicitor much easier.
Personal Injury: By Category
Burn Injury & Scaring
Burn injuries are caused when the skin is exposed to chemicals, heat, or electricity. They are extremely painful immediately after the event. Burns can cause serious damage to your body, as well as psychological distress and harm.
Lacerations, meanwhile, are normally caused when a part of the body comes into contact with a moving sharp object, such as a machine blade that doesn’t have the proper safeguards installed.
Whiplash Injuries
Whiplash is an injury wherein a person suffers a sudden jolt to their head. This causes damage to muscles, ligaments, tendons and other soft tissues in the neck, which in turn causes considerable pain and stiffness in the neck; pain in the shoulder, arms, or back; headaches; muscular pain; spasms.
It’s very common to associate whiplash injuries with driving; however, whiplash injuries can come as a result of falls, slips, assaults and attacks.
Industrial Disease
Industrial disease covers a range of illnesses that may come about as a result of mismanagement at work. This range includes: Asbestos-Related Illness, Occupational Asthma, and Repetitive Strain Injury.
Anyone who has developed a disease due to hazardous materials in their workplace is eligible to make a claim, including: construction workers, coal miners, and shipyard workers.
Head & Brain Injury
Head and brain injuries cover both internal and external injuries leading to scarring, neurological damage, or any kind of change in personality. These injuries will often be traumatic and lead to serious issues down the line.
Types of head and brain injury include: Concussion, Skull Fracture, Hematoma, and Anoxic Brain Injury.
Broken Bones
Broken bones are a common, yet complicated injury. Some fractures can be treated via a simple splint, whereas others will require serious surgery to repair.
Causes of broken bones include:
- Falls on wet or uneven ground or due to negligence – for example, if material has been left in a place where it shouldn’t have
- A car accident
- Sporting injury
- Defective work machinery
- Assault or other form of attack
Upper Limb Injury
Upper limb injury includes any injuries, including sprains and ligament damage, to any injury involving your arms, shoulders, elbows, hands, fingers, thumbs or wrists. This type of injury can be massively damaging, as most of our day-to-day tasks involve our upper limbs in some way or other.
Typical injuries include:
- Tennis elbow
- Hand or wrist sprains
- Limb amputation
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
Back & Spinal Injury
Back and spinal injuries cover a wide variety of issues and can come about because of a number of situations, such as rear end shunts, manual handling injury at work, or by falling from a great height.
Chest & Rib Injury
Related to back & spinal Injuries, chest & rib injuries cover injuries to the front of the sternum. This type of injury can lead to serious complications, such as internal organ damage, or it could be something relatively straightforward. These types of injuries can be extremely painful, requiring weeks or even months in order to heal properly.
Causes of chest & rib injuries include:
- Assault
- Playing contact sports, such as gaelic football or rugby
- Road traffic accident – IE if you have been shunted forward into your steering wheel
- A slip where you have landed on your sternum
Common types of chest & rib injury include:
- Pneumothorax
- Haemothorax
- Splenic rupture
Lower Limb Injury
Similar to upper limb injury, lower limb injury covers injuries cover injuries involving a set of limbs. In this case, it covers injuries to the hips, legs, knees, ankles and your feet. Lower limb injury covers such injuries as amputations, sprains, ligament damage, and broken and fractured bones.
Common lower limb injuries include:
- Torn Ligaments
- Dislocation
- Broken bones and fractures
- Pulled muscles
- Sprains and strains
These types of injuries can come as a result of the following:
- Wet flooring causing you to trip or fall
- Tripping or falling on broken stairs
- Tripping or falling from a height
- Tripping or falling due to poor lighting
Psychological Injury
Related to head & brain injuries, psychological injuries involve injuries to the psyche that can affect your life. These types of long-lasting injury include anxiety, adjustment disorders, specific phobias, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Symptoms of psychological injuries may include:
- Anxiety – for example, if you’ve been involved in a road traffic accident you may feel anxiety driving
- Depression in your day to day life
- Sleep disturbance – for example flashbacks and nightmares – as a result of a traumatic event
Industrial Deafness
Industrial deafness is, as its name suggests, hearing loss caused by exposure to sustained loud noises in a work environment. Work environments where industrial deafness is a common side effect include:
- Steelworks
- Engineering
- Mining
- Shipbuilding
Damaged Sight & Eyes
Our eyes are our primary sensory organ, and damaging them can lead to serious complications. This damage can come as a result of numerous situations – including trauma to the face and substance in the eye. Such events can lead to partial or total blindness.
Different types of eye damage include:
- Blurred vision
- Temporary or permanent blindness
- Deteriorating vision
- Eye pain
Common causes of damage to the eyes include:
- Head trauma, whether due to a road accident, debris, or through violent assault
- Chemical contamination of the eyes
- Electrical shock
- Medical negligence – for example during laser eye surgery
Other Serious Injury
Other serious injuries include any kind of injury with devastating consequences on your long term happiness, ability to live independently, or your right to life.
The list of injuries that could be classified as a serious injury includes:
- Serious burns
- Head and brain injuries
- Amputations
- Spinal injuries leading to paralysis or requiring long-term care
- Other fatal injuries
Contact Salmon Solicitors for Serious Injury Claims in Stoke On Trent
If you have been the victim of professional negligence or another person’s careless attitude, contact Salmon Solicitors today. We are one of the leading no win no fee solicitors in Stoke On Trent, specialising in personal injury, conveyancing and family law.
For legal advice or help on launching your compensation claim, contact Salmons Solicitors Ltd.
