What makes an injury catastrophic?

Accidents lead to injuries, and any injury can significantly affect your life. However, there are injuries, and then there are catastrophic injuries, and their impacts are not equal. A catastrophic injury may force you to leave work for a long time and could drastically change how you live your life.

What kinds of injuries count as catastrophic injuries?

Any injury, severe enough, could conceivably become catastrophic. There is no standard definition of a catastrophic injury per se, but injuries that can significantly impact your life include:

• Amputations: Whether it is an amputation at the accident scene or an injury that is so severe that the only treatment is removal, losing a limb is a catastrophe. This will change your daily interaction with the world and may require long-term accommodation from employers.
• Spinal cord injuries: We have covered spinal cord injuries and their life-long complications before. Almost every spinal cord injury upends a person’s life.
• Traumatic brain injuries: Brain injuries exist on a spectrum, but the most extreme brain injuries vastly change personality and cognitive ability. With those types of changes, you cannot live as you have before.
• Total-body injuries: Sometimes, a broken bone is just a broken bone. Sometimes a burn is just a burn. However, if enough of your body is injured, you can look towards a long recovery time and possible life-long complications.

A catastrophe is just that. If the injury you suffer is a catastrophe for your life, upending what you’ve done and changing your day-to-day experience for a lifetime, then it is catastrophic.

Insurance doesn’t care about your circumstances.

Whether your injury is minor or catastrophic, the insurance company wants to pay as little as possible for it. They take every step they can to ensure that you get as little compensation for your injury as possible.

Your circumstances demand that you fight to get what you deserve.