Posted On: November 11, 2008 by Finch McCranie, LLP

Spinal Cord Injury in Georgia

Georgia injury lawyers who represent victims of spinal cord injury (SCI) see the devasting results of truck accidents, automobile accidents and on-the-job or workers compensation accidents. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, as many as 450,000 people in the United States are living with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Every year, an estimated 11,000 SCI's occur in the United States. Most of these are caused by trauma to the vertebral column, thereby affecting the spinal cord's ability to send and receive messages from the brain to the body’s systems that control sensory, motor and autonomic function below the level of injury.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), SCI costs the nation an estimated $9.7 billion each year. Pressure/bed sores alone, a common secondary condition among people with SCI, costs an estimate $1.2 billion. While there are advances in emergency care and rehabilitation which allow many SCI patients to survive, methods for reducing the extent of the injury and for restoring function are still limited. Currently there is no cure for SCI. Therefore, prevention of SCI from happening in the first place is key.