What is a Degloving Injury Lawsuit?
A degloving injury is a grave, extremely painful and gruesome injury requiring immediate and special medical care. A victim suffering from a degloving injury has their blood supply to the tissue halted. The skin, tendons, nerves, and muscles are cleaved off from the bone entirely. Moreover, degloving injuries are debilitating and have very long recovery time. With some even requiring multiple surgeries.
Furthermore, after the injury is healed, the victim is left with extensive nerve damage and extreme scarring. Sometimes, they may require amputation. In some instances, the nerve damage ensuing extend to the spinal cord and the brain.
Tissue Damage in Degloving Injury
There are two major types of tissue damage classified as degloving injuries:
- The skin gets torn off, which restricts blood supply to the underlying tissue region. Quite often the victim requires skin grafting surgery to repair this.
- The second type is closed injury. This type of degloving injury is caused by extreme trauma applied to the tissue, which ruptures blood vessels, however, the skin remains intact and doesn’t break. Often, this injury leads to some of the underlying tissues to become necrotic (or dead) due to lack of, or interrupted blood supply. The skin may also become lose or slack as it is no longer attached to the underlying tissue.
Degloving Injury Common Causes
The major causes of degloving injuries are usually a result of operating machinery and motor accidents.
- Accidents, involving farm machinery and equipment like tractors and combined harvesters
- Industrial accidents that involve heavy machinery like grinders, machine cutters, or drill presses
- Pedestrian accidents including bicycles and motorcycles that result in the victim grazing the pavements or roads leading to scrapes, abrasions and degloving injuries.
- A dog bite which results in the dog tearing away the skin leading to a degloving injury.
Long-term Consequences of a Degloving Injury
In an instance of degloving injury, early intervention is critical in ensuring the best form of treatment as well as limiting the instance of secondary injuries occurring. Long-term consequences of degloving injuries include:
- Amputation
- Severe Nerve damage, that extends to the spinal cord and brain
- Numbness and temporary paralysis of the region
- Reduced or complete loss of functioning
- Scarring and quite possibly disfigurement
- Disability in extreme cases
- Psychological trauma
Degloving Injury Compensation Claim
In case of degloving injury due to negligence, you are entitled to a compensation, degloving injury falls under personal injury and as such laws revolving around personal injury claims are applicable. There is no doubt that degloving requires multiple surgeries and a great deal of physical therapy, therefore, medical expenses may continue to grow exponentially in the subsequent months or even years. Your compensation should reflect your changed future.
Lawsuit and Evidence
As you outline the damages you want to pursue in your lawsuit, you will need to be armed with evidence, and a good lawyer, to safeguard your entitlement to your claim value. The best most probable way is to document everything from the time of your injury, to support your accidental claims. Include your medical treatment files, ability to perform work, your present physical condition, and how drastically your life has changed.
Prepare yourself with the following documents to help you prove your cause and help in calculating your damage as well.
List of Documents
- Medical documents that include hospital bills and invoices from the hospital, in addition to medical specialists or individual doctors’ invoices, and all possible written communications with regard to your diagnosis and treatment required.
- Physical and psychological therapy bills. In the case of potential damage, chiropractors or special therapists invoices are to be presented, also include the money spent on a psychological therapist in the case of psychological trauma associated with the degloving accident.
- Reliable witness reports and testimony. A witness can provide information to prove damages incurred by testifying accurately to the type of injury and pain experienced, and also estimating how long you will take to make a full recovery.
- Your personal testimony. Ensure your personal injury claim depicts accurately the story of your injury and road to recovery. If your claim progresses to trial, testify to the cause of your injury, the expenses incurred on medical treatment and diagnosis, the things you cannot do anymore as a result of the injury (walk, eat, sleep, etc.), and any other relevant altered aspect of your life.
- Photos or videos. If you possess any, provide pictures, they can be crucial in further proving your account on what caused your injury, and also can be used to elaborate clearly its effects.
