Your body is home to trillions of nerves that regulate everything from breathing and temperature stabilization to motor movement and digestion. A car accident that causes long-lasting nerve damage can have a profound impact on your overall health and well-being. These injuries vary widely in terms of severity and prognosis, which is why it can be challenging to negotiate fair compensation.

Ready to start your personal injury claim and fight for the compensation you know you deserve? Let’s talk about your options. Call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661 to set up a consultation.

The Effects of Nerve Damage

Nerve damage truly affects every victim differently. If you suffer damage to the nerves that control your legs, you may experience leg pain and limited mobility. If the nerves that control your bowel and bladder are damaged, you may experience incontinence of both. Those with damage to nerves that manage breathing may need machine assistance to breathe.

These effects also depend on the severity of the nerve damage. All nerve injuries are not created equal. While some may cause temporary tingling or discomfort, others could impact you for the rest of your life.

Measuring Nerve Damage

To understand how your injuries may affect your life, you need to know more about the types of nerves and the levels of damage. The body is home to three types of nerves. Autonomic nerves are responsible for involuntary activities like digestion and breathing. Motor nerves manage your controllable physical movements. Sensory nerves handle conveying pain, discomfort, and other sensations to your brain.

There are three levels of nerve damage, listed here in order of increasing severity:

• Neuropraxia: The most minor type of nerve damage is neuropraxia, which involves interruption of nerve conduction. When left alone, neuropraxia generally resolves within four to six weeks.
• Axonotmesis: The next level of nerve damage is axonotmesis. This occurs when the axon is physically damaged but the connective tissue remains intact. Axonotmesis takes considerably longer to heal since the axon must regrow to reach the target muscle.
• Neurotmesis: The most severe type of nerve damage is neurotmesis, which happens when the axon and its connective tissue are completely severed. While the other types of injury may resolve on their own without medical treatment, neurotmesis cannot heal on its own without treatment. Even with treatment, permanent damage may still occur.

Symptoms to Look Out For

Since nerve damage is so diverse in how it affects the human body, it can be difficult to identify. However, these are some of the most common side effects of nerve damage:

• Numb or tingling extremities
• Buzzing feeling
• Sharp pains that come and go
• Overall muscle weakness
• An inability to pick up or hold onto objects, which often presents as randomly dropping items
• A feeling of compression on the hands or feet

Unexpected changes in breathing, use of the restroom, sexual function, or temperature regulation can also be signs of nerve damage. It truly all depends on which part of the body is affected.

Pursuing Compensation

In order to receive fair compensation for your nerve injuries, you will need substantial proof of the other party’s negligence, the link between their negligence and your injury, and the extent of your injury. This is one reason you need an attorney—they know what type of evidence will conclusively tie your injury to the other party’s actions.

Proof of your injury comes in many different forms. Medical records and updates are obviously useful, as are reports from your physical therapist. You may also want to provide information on any adaptive equipment you need.

If your injury has left you unable to perform some or all of your work duties, your tasks at home, or other parts of your daily life, take note of that every time you run into issues. You may be owed compensation for those losses.

Get Your Claim Started with Mann & Potter

Nerve damage could possibly follow you for the rest of your life. Make sure you get properly compensated for all of the pain it has caused you. At Mann & Potter, we’re ready to help you pursue what you’re owed. Give us a call at 205-879-9661 or connect with us online and let’s set up a time to talk.