Any injury can lead to disruptive or devastating aftereffects on everyday life, either permanently or temporarily. However, a legally classified catastrophic injury is its own category of injury that requires special and often complex legal attention.
Difference Between Personal Injury and Catastrophic Injury
Catastrophic injury is a type of personal injury, similar to how all squares are also rectangles. However, just as not all rectangles are squares, not all personal injury cases are as severe as catastrophic injury cases.
Personal injuries can range from minor and temporary to severe and long-term or permanent. At its most minor, a catastrophic injury is still severe enough to cause a person vital loss, whether it be loss of a limb, loss of mobility, loss of brain function, etc. Catastrophic injury is typically permanently life-altering, as it significantly impacts a person’s quality of life, enjoyment of life, ability to function, and/or ability to work.
Catastrophic injury can also be defined in several ways by several different authorities. Federal law and Georgia law, for instance, define catastrophic injury as one that prevents the injured from performing their duties for current/prior employment, as well as duties they are qualified to perform for other employment opportunities on a national scale. In other words, if the damages are so severe that the injured can’t find work they are qualified to perform anywhere else in the United States, then their injuries can be deemed catastrophic. If there is work available* anywhere in the country that the injured could still perform (even if it would require the injured to move), their injury might not be considered catastrophic by the court.
*The opportunities for work must be available in substantial numbers within the national economy. If there is a random position in the middle of Nebraska, for example, that fits the injured’s restrictions, the injured can still be considered for a catastrophic injury case.
What Classifies as a Catastrophic Injury?
Legally speaking, several injuries can be classified as catastrophic ones if they, by nature and severity, prevent the injured person from performing qualified work both locally and nationally.
Such accidents or injuries can include:
Amputation
The loss of a hand, foot, arm, or leg or the loss of function in the hand, foot, arm, or leg is typically deemed a catastrophic injury. Even if a person loses only part of the limb or appendage but still loses the entire use of the appendage, they can pursue a catastrophic injury claim.
An exception is the loss of a finger or toe. While catastrophic on a personal level, losing a finger or toe is not considered catastrophic from a legal standpoint unless the loss renders the hand or foot entirely unusable. When it comes to catastrophic injury, limited function is not viewed the same as nonfunction or total loss.
Blindness
Injuries that damage the eyes and lead to total or industrial blindness can be considered catastrophic. To claim blindness, the injury must cause the injured person’s vision to drop to 20/200 or less, which is the threshold for legal blindness in the US. Chemical burns, penetrating objects, blunt force trauma, and other causes can lead to catastrophic blindness.
Brain or Head Injury
A trauma to the head can be considered catastrophic if the resulting damage causes issues like severe:
- Motor or sensory impairment
- Communication limitations
- Disruption of normal brain function
- Disruption to consciousness
- Neurological complications
Even though they can be life-altering and devastating to face, minor to moderate cerebral or neurological changes following a head or brain injury may not qualify as catastrophic. The effects must be severe and disruptive to a person’s daily function to be considered catastrophic.
Severe Burns
Second- or third-degree burns that affect 25% or more of a person’s body and third-degree burns that affect 5% or more of a person’s face or hands can be deemed a catastrophic injury. Severe burns often cause lasting damage to organs and bones, disfigurements, and painful nerve damage that can make daily functions difficult to perform.
Spinal Cord Injury
A spinal cord injury that renders the victim paraplegic, quadriplegic, or significantly limited in mobility can be considered catastrophic. Catastrophic damage to the spinal cord can result in the loss of many normal functions, including movement in the arms or legs, feeling throughout parts of the body, control of bodily functions, and more. It can even disrupt a person’s ability to breathe, depending on where on the spine the injury occurred.
Additional Injuries
Catastrophic injuries do not always fall into the buckets specified above. Incidents that lead to multiple bone fractures, hearing loss, organ damage, and the lasting damage that relates to such injuries can be considered catastrophic from a legal standpoint with sufficient evidence.
What Are the Costs of a Catastrophic Injury?
Catastrophic injuries can place a substantial financial burden on the injured, their family members, or their caregivers. When a person suffers a catastrophic injury, the injured may face:
- Loss of wages
- Enormous medical bills
- Ongoing medical care
- Physical and occupational therapy
- New equipment and technology to aid with daily function
- Home retrofits to accommodate a wheelchair or other assistive devices
It’s crucial to receive compensation for a catastrophic injury caused by the negligence of another party. It can also be a massive challenge to prove the injured sustained catastrophic injuries as a result of the negligence. Plaintiffs must provide substantial evidence, and courts typically require expert testimony from numerous professionals, including the injured’s doctors, financial consultants, and others, to reach an informed decision about the case.
If you have been catastrophically injured due to the negligent actions of another party, including your employer, let the catastrophic injury attorneys at Clark, Smith & Sizemore provide you with fierce representation.
Our personal injury lawyers are experienced in advocating for victims of catastrophic workplace accidents and other catastrophic injury cases. We’ll fight for you to receive fair compensation, as well as any benefits you are entitled to. You have rights—let us protect them as we fight for justice.
Call us today for a free consultation: 478-254-5040.
Thanks for checking out part 3 in our 6-part series about personal injury. Stay tuned for all of our personal injury articles, which include:
- What Is Considered a Personal Injury?
- Do I Need a Personal Injury Attorney? And Other FAQs
- What Is a Catastrophic Injury?
- Personal Injury vs. Workplace Accident
- Should I Hire a Car Accident Attorney After a Bad Wreck?
- Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney