When Surgery Is Only the First Chapter
A spinal cord injury is measured twice: once by what the imaging shows, and once by what the injury takes away. Fusion hardware, a wheelchair, a modified home and, in the most severe cases, a ventilator are not complications of the injury. They are the injury, and they last for decades, not months.
If you or someone in your family suffered paralysis, a spinal cord injury, or an injury requiring major surgery and hardware in Texas, this article explains why these claims are valued differently and what to do early on.
How spinal cord injuries and paralysis happen
The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center reports roughly 18,482 new traumatic spinal cord injuries in the United States each year, and motor vehicle accidents are the single leading cause, responsible for close to 40% of new cases, followed by falls and workplace incidents. Commercial vehicle collisions, an 18-wheeler crash, a delivery truck rollover, are disproportionately represented in the most severe injuries because of the forces involved.
On a jobsite, a fall from height, being struck by falling material, or a crush injury on a construction site or in industrial work can produce the same catastrophic result. In both settings, the injury is only half the story. What matters just as much is who controlled the condition that caused it: a trucking company’s driver qualification and maintenance files, a contractor’s fall-protection procedures, a property owner’s site safety.
Complete, incomplete, and why the distinction changes the case
Spinal cord injuries are described as complete, total loss of sensation and function below the injury level, or incomplete, partial function retained. The level of the injury, cervical, thoracic or lumbar, and its completeness together determine whether someone will use a wheelchair, need a ventilator, or retain the ability to work in some capacity, and every one of those outcomes changes what the claim is worth.
Multiple surgeries are typically part of the picture regardless of level: decompression, fusion with hardware, and later revision surgery as hardware wears or as the body ages around it. Even an incomplete injury that does not result in full paralysis can require years of surgical care and never fully resolve.
The worker who does not make a claim
A meaningful share of catastrophic spinal injuries happen at work, and the person hurt is often someone working a job where speaking up has a cost. He assumes workers’ compensation, where it exists, is the only avenue. He assumes that because he was told to do the task that hurt him, nothing can be done. He is afraid a claim will cost him the job.
The first assumption is often wrong in a way that matters. Texas does not require private employers to carry workers’ compensation, and whether this employer subscribes changes the entire path of the claim. A third party, an equipment manufacturer, a general contractor, another subcontractor, a property owner, may also be responsible, and that claim exists alongside a workers’ compensation claim rather than instead of it.
The fear of retaliation is real, and it deserves a real conversation rather than a slogan on a website. It is a conversation we have most often, and we have it in Spanish.
Why the number in a spinal cord injury case is not the surgery bill
According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, first-year care for the most severe injuries, high tetraplegia, can run over a million dollars, with each following year adding a substantial six-figure cost, and lifetime direct costs for a person injured young can exceed several million dollars. Those figures do not include lost income or the value of a family member who leaves a job to provide care.
In a routine injury case, past medical bills anchor the value. In a spinal cord injury case they are a fraction of it. The real components sit in the future: lifetime attendant care, home modification for wheelchair access, a modified or adapted vehicle, ongoing therapy to manage complications, and what a career would have paid against what, if anything, this person can now earn. A life care planner, treating physicians and a forensic economist have to build that projection before anyone signs anything, and that work takes months.
When the family is not all in Texas
A catastrophic spinal injury does not stay inside one country. The person injured is often the reason a household in Mexico, Colombia or Costa Rica makes rent, and parents abroad often learn what happened from someone who has to explain it in Spanish, at whatever hour they can take the call. Manuel Diaz was born in Mexico City, and the firm works across Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and the United States, so a family abroad can be part of the case, and money that was being sent home is documented as part of the claim rather than assumed away.
The deadline, and why it is shorter than it looks
Texas generally allows two years from the day a claim accrues, under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Two years sounds generous until you count what has to happen inside it. The neurological picture has to stabilize enough for a physician to give a reliable long-term prognosis, which alone can take the better part of a year. The life care plan and economic projection have to be built. Evidence has to be preserved, and in a commercial vehicle case that means requesting the carrier’s electronic data within weeks, not months, before it is purged.
What happens when you call
Three steps, and the first one costs nothing and commits you to nothing. First, one conversation about what happened and where treatment stands. Second, evidence gets preserved before it is lost. Third, nobody puts a number on the case until the medical picture is stable enough for a physician to describe what the coming decades look like. That projection is what stands between a family and an early, inadequate offer.
What helps a spinal cord injury case, starting now
Keep every hospital, surgical and rehabilitation record. Keep imaging reports and surgical notes, including hardware specifications. Track the hours family members spend providing care, and keep receipts for anything bought to accommodate the injury, from a ramp to a modified vehicle. If a commercial vehicle was involved, note the carrier and unit number if you can. If you were sending money to family in another country, keep those records too.
The same accident that causes a spinal injury sometimes also causes a severe burn or an amputation. If that applies to your case, our articles on burn injury claims and on amputation injury claims go into how those are valued. Our page on catastrophic injuries covers how all of these severe injury cases are built and valued as a whole, and our article on wrongful death and survival claims explains what happens when an injury like this proves fatal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a spinal cord injury or paralysis claim in Texas?
Claims typically involve a complete or incomplete spinal cord injury, paraplegia or tetraplegia, or another injury requiring fusion, hardware or multiple surgeries, most often from a motor vehicle or commercial truck collision, a fall, or a workplace or construction accident.
I was hurt at work. Is workers’ compensation my only option?
Not necessarily. Texas does not require private employers to carry workers’ compensation, so the first question is whether this employer subscribes. A third party, such as an equipment manufacturer, a general contractor or a property owner, may also be responsible, and that claim can exist alongside a comp claim.
Why do spinal cord injury settlements take longer than other injury claims?
Because the medical picture has to stabilize before a physician can give a reliable long-term prognosis, and a life care plan covering decades of attendant care, equipment and home modification has to be built by qualified experts before the case can be accurately valued.
Does immigration status affect a spinal cord injury claim?
A personal injury claim in Texas rests on someone else’s negligence and on the harm it caused. Texas courts have held that neither citizenship nor a work authorization permit is a prerequisite to recovering damages for lost earning capacity.
Do I need to speak English to be represented?
No. Manuel Diaz Law Firm handles matters in Spanish, and has since it opened.
My family is in another country. Can they still be part of the case?
Yes. The firm works across Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and the United States, and relatives abroad are spoken to in Spanish. Support the injured person was sending to family in another country is part of what the injury took away, and it can be documented and claimed.
Contact Our Lawyers Today
Nobody plans for a wheelchair, a modified home, or a caregiver’s schedule built around theirs, and nobody should have to work out what the next several decades will cost alone. At Manuel Diaz Law Firm, PC, we build spinal cord injury and paralysis cases around what a lifetime of care actually requires, using the medical, vocational and economic evidence needed to prove it.
There is no fee unless we win your case. Please call (855) 900-3429 today for a free case evaluation with our spinal cord injury lawyers. Manuel Diaz Law Firm, PC serves clients throughout Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Denton, Mesquite, and other nearby areas.
