Like other bodily harm and damages, personal injury cases can lead to traumatic amputations under certain circumstances. According to personal injury professionals like those from Katzman & Sugden, LLC, traumatic amputations can result from many reasons with their top causes including.
Motor vehicle accidents
Regardless of the type of motor vehicle accident you’re involved in, the primary cause of amputation for these accidents is vascular diseases. Motor vehicle vascular-related accidents lead to amputation, considering they lead to improperly functioning arteries, capillaries, and veins at the site of harm, carrying blood from the site to other parts of the body.
When this happens, the vascular system at the injury site stops circulating blood which eventually demands amputation because the site loses its life and becomes numb and worsens over time. Some of the top types of motor vehicle accidents causing amputation include car collisions and truck wrecks.
Traffic accidents
In addition to accidents caused by motor vehicles, other causes of amputation are traffic accidents. These accidents include those caused by bicycles, truck crashes, and different cars. Amputation usually occurs due to traffic accidents when your limbs are severely damaged or crushed beyond repair. Usually, traffic amputations happen when you’re riding a bicycle. Due to the impact, you fall on top of the car or down the road crushing your limb. Depending on the amount of the crushing force, the accident can damage your muscles, nerves, and veins, leading to complete bone damage; thus, the need to amputate the limb else it affects your entire body’s functionality.
Construction sites accidents
Besides traffic and motor vehicle accidents, amputations also result from construction site accidents. These accidents occur from heavy machinery and power tools used in construction sites. In addition to power tools and heavy machinery, accidents can cause amputations from falls and slips. You can fall from scaffolds, ladders, or anything in between, especially equipment on higher positions on a construction site, including during roof installation and more. Another cause of accidents from construction sites leading to amputation is when struck by falling objects, especially heavy enough elements that crush limbs.
Severe burns
While minor burns can be easy to treat and manage, third and fourth-degree burns can be fatal, leading to amputation. This is because higher degree burns affect tissues underneath your skin, going deeper into affecting your muscles and bones. When this happens, severe burns can lead to stroke due to systematic effects of your lymphatic system, primarily due to lack of enough body fluid, thus leading to other challenging issues, including heart attack and more. To prevent the severity of the effects of these burns, you’ll be amputated.
Dangerous jobs
Dangerous jobs in this sense refer to types of employment prone to catastrophic injuries leading to amputations. The same can also happen due to employers’ negligence from seeking protective measures to keep their employees safe during and after work in their working premises. It can occur due to negligence during food processing procedures, industrial and agricultural work-related accidents leading to amputation. For instance, it can be cut, crushed by heavy objects, and electrocuted. Dangerous jobs causing amputation also include driving competitions, martial arts involving fighting with sharp objects, skiing, and more.
Medical malpractices
Besides accidents and dangerous jobs, amputations can occur due to medical malpractices. This happens when doctors make unpredictable and uncorrected mistakes leading to permanent effects on their patients. Medical malpractices leading to amputations include surgical errors, failure to diagnose correctly, and giving wrong anesthetics. Surgical error amputations refer to negligent medical procedures and care related to surgeries and post-operative recoveries and treatments. These amputations also happen due to improper monitoring of surgeries, misdiagnoses, and improper management of post-operative diseases. It can also be due to complications caused by surgeries, especially during the initial performances. Postoperative complications and diseases can be blood clots and anything in between, disrupting blood flow within organs, thus the immediate need for amputation.
On top of surgical errors, misdiagnosis also leads to amputations, especially when your doctor negligently fails to identify the primary cause of your limb diseases or takes long to diagnose. Unlike other scenarios, the critical consideration for amputations caused by misdiagnosis is that the doctor’s negligence leads to increased severity because of failing to take the case seriously and professionally, especially during emergencies. In summary, while there are many causes of amputations, medical malpractices, work-related accidents, especially those occurring in construction sites and motor vehicles, and dangerous jobs are the leading causes of amputations.
