A brachial plexus injury happens when trauma damages a bundle of nerves in your shoulder. These nerves carry signals between your brain and your upper limbs. When these signals get disrupted, you might experience symptoms ranging from weakness to paralysis. If you’ve sustained this type of injury in Boca Raton, FL, we can help.
You can sometimes recover partial functioning of your shoulder and arm with intensive physical therapy. But in many cases, you will suffer lifelong disabilities. A Boca Raton brachial plexus injury lawyer from Hollander Law Firm Accident Injury Lawyers can fight to obtain the compensation you deserve for your injury in Florida.
Contact our law firm today by calling (561) 708-4525 to schedule your free consultation with a Boca Raton personal injury lawyer to discuss your case.
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How Hollander Law Firm Accident Injury Lawyers Can Help After You’ve Sustained a Brachial Plexus Injury in Boca Raton, FL
Hollander Law Firm Accident Injury Lawyers was founded in 1996 to provide legal representation to injured clients in Boca Raton, Florida. Our founding attorney provides small-firm attention with big-firm resources to help clients battle insurers.
After an accident, a Boca Raton personal injury lawyer from our firm provides:
- A free consultation to learn about your injuries and explain your legal rights
- Preparation of your insurance claim and aggressive negotiation to settle your case
- Over 28 years of litigation experience to pursue a lawsuit if your case does not settle
A brachial plexus injury can limit the movement, strength, and feeling in your upper limbs. Contact Hollander Law Firm Accident Injury Lawyers to discuss your injury and how we can help you pursue fair compensation for it.
Are Brachial Plexus Injuries Common in Boca Raton, Florida?
The brachial plexus can get injured in many ways. However, the causes and frequencies vary depending on the age of the victim.
In newborns, damage to the brachial plexus commonly results from a birth injury. Rough handling by doctors can damage the nerves in the newborn’s neck and shoulder region, leading to a form of brachial plexus injury called Erb’s Palsy. This injury happens in about 1.5 out of every 1,000 births, or about 0.15% of births.
In adults, brachial plexus injuries typically result from neck and shoulder trauma. Some common causes identified by research studies include:
- Vehicle crashes, particularly motorcycle accidents
- Falling objects
- Falls
- Assault
- Medical malpractice
No database tracks exactly how many adults suffer brachial plexus injuries. But you can estimate the number based on the individual causes.
For example, 17% to 36% of motorcycle crash victims will suffer a neck or face injury. You can infer from these numbers that it’s likely at least some of these motorcyclists could have damage to the brachial plexus.
What Is a Brachial Plexus Injury?
Your spinal cord includes 31 pairs of spinal nerves. A pair of spinal nerves branches from the spine and forms a nerve root extending into your body at each vertebra. The location of the nerve root corresponds to the body region it serves. Thus, a nerve root in your neck reaches into your shoulder, while the nerve root below it might branch into your arm.
The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerve roots branching from your bottom four neck vertebrae and your top chest vertebra. These five nerve roots innervate the shoulders, arms, hands, and fingers. An injury to this bundle of nerve roots can have a variety of causes and effects.
Causes of Brachial Plexus Injuries
Your brachial plexus can get injured in three primary ways. First, a traumatic incident could cause an injury that compresses the brachial plexus. This is probably the most common brachial plexus injury. In a minor form of this injury, you might strain a muscle, causing it to swell. The swollen muscle presses on the brachial plexus, causing it to inflame and misfire.
A more severe form of this injury happens when you herniate a disc in your spine. When you herniate a disc, the herniated disc can compress the nerve roots of the brachial plexus. Since herniated discs do not heal, you might require surgery to repair this injury.
Trauma to the arm, shoulder, or head could also stretch the brachial plexus. When the nerves stretch, they can develop the nervous system’s equivalent of short circuits, causing the nerves to misfire or drop signals.
This type of trauma leads to Erb’s Palsy. The traction on the brachial plexus can cause nerve damage when a doctor pulls on a baby’s arm during labor and delivery.
Additionally, trauma can sever the nerves of the brachial plexus. Severed nerves cannot carry signals. As a result, you will experience total paralysis and loss of sensation below the injury.
Effects of a Brachial Plexus Injury
Brachial plexus injuries affect your shoulders, arms, hands, and fingers. Some symptoms you might experience after injuring these nerves include:
- Paralysis
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Weakness
- Lack of coordination and dexterity
Erb’s Palsy, for example, can paralyze a baby’s shoulder and arm.
Schedule a Free Consultation With a Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Boca Raton
A brachial plexus injury can cause permanent disabilities that prevent you from working or even caring for yourself. As South Florida’s top-rated personal injury law firm, we have protected the rights of injury victims for over 28 years.
Contact Hollander Law Firm Accident Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to discuss the compensation you can seek for your injuries today. Our Boca Raton brachial plexus injury attorney works on contingency, so we only get paid if you do.
