Your spine serves two important roles. It both supports your body weight and protects your spinal cord. Sadly, workers can experience accidents on the job that injure or even sever their spinal cords. Falls and traumatic, penetrating injuries can cause massive damage to your spinal cord.
However, you don’t have to be up on scaffolding to suffer a spinal cord injury. Caught-between incidents on the job can also lead to complete or incomplete spinal cord injuries for the person trapped between debris and the ground, a machine and a wall or two pieces of moving equipment.
Caught-between accidents can occur in a second
There is a reason that most equipment on a construction site makes loud beeping noises when it backs up. The goal is to alert people about the possibility of approaching machinery when the person in control of that machinery doesn’t have a clear line of vision for where they want to go.
Standing behind moving equipment could easily lead to a caught-between scenario, although a sudden collapse of a partial structure or falling supplies could also cause caught-between injuries. Even with careful workplace safety practices, you could wind up hurt in an incident that unfolds before you even know what happened.
Getting hurt on the job can impact the rest of your life
Many times, a traumatic injury results when a machine, heavy materials or a piece of equipment strikes a person, especially if it pins them in place. There’s also a secondary risk for damage as co-workers and emergency responders try to extricate the injured worker from their trapped position.
In some cases, adequate treatment might help those with partial spinal cord injuries eventually get back to work. Those with complete spinal cord injuries likely face a future with permanent paralysis below their injury site. Workers with any degree of spinal cord injury could have a viable claim for workers’ compensation for medical costs and lost wages. Getting the benefits you need can help you adjust to your new life after such a severe injury.