When it comes to potential injuries from any accident, whether it be a workplace injury or an auto accident, all of them are treated seriously, but none more so than amputation. With many injuries, there is always the possibility of some sort of permanent disability. However, with amputation, that limb or extremity is gone forever. There is no chance of it healing or growing back, it is just gone. For amputation injuries, often compensation settlements are large, complete with inclusions for both permanent disability and occasionally pain and suffering for your permanent maiming. However, there is one injury that is not quite amputation, but should without a doubt be treated the same as one – degloving.
What is Degloving?
Degloving injuries are often gruesome and not something any person would ever want to witness, much less endure after an accident. The term for this type of injury is actually much like how it sounds. A degloving injury is defined as a type of injury in which the skin is “degloved” or removed from an area of the body, leaving behind only the muscle or bone. While the term suggests it is common in the hand area, which it is, it can happen to any body part when introduced to enough friction.
In degloving injuries, you might keep the limb, but it will likely never be the same. Not only will you suffer nerve damage, but degloving injuries result in horrific scarring or expensive reconstruction surgery. Some may argue it is not as bad as an amputation injury, but the loss of function and feeling mind as well put it in the same category because even with expensive surgeries, it will never be the same as it was before the accident in either look or even function.
An Expensive Venture – Treating Degloving Injuries After an Accident
The issue with degloving injuries is not only are the painful and life-altering, but they are very expensive to treat. The truth is that degloving injuries are likely to be even more expensive than an amputation injury. As degloving injuries are likely to leave nerve damage, disfigurement, and a large potential for infection, treatment will require multiple and highly expensive surgeries in order for you to ever “get better,” something that is not even guaranteed from treatment.
Once the injury has been made stable, it will then be assessed for its viability for skin salvage or replantation. Even if some skin can be saved, new skin will need to be grafted back on in order to protect the area from infection. Even with grafts done by a great plastic surgeon, scars are likely to remain. If you have ever witnessed someone who had a skin graft, the tissue will cover the area, but it will not look as natural as the skin that was originally in the area. On top of adding new skin, your surgeons will also need to repair, remove, or transplant new veins to the area or else the skin will die and the procedure will need to be repeated, it that is even possible depending on the extent of the damage.
The process of repairing degloving injuries is even more complicated than it sounds above, and it already sounds pretty complicated. Furthermore, the healing process is very painful and requires extensive medication to treat the pain. Due to the nature of the healing process, and the extensive need for perhaps multiple surgical procedures, it can rack up extensive medical bills, and even if you have great insurance, it will still financially ravage you. Even after all the surgeries are done, there is also the potential that you will have to live with life-long discomfort in the area. While amputation victims may have phantom limb pain, because of the nerve damage in degloving injuries, the discomfort has the potential to be almost constant.
Seeking Compensation for Degloving
In order to receive compensation for your degloving injury, you will first need to prove negligence in a personal injury case, unless it happened in a workplace accident where worker’s compensation will instead be covering your injuries. If you and you alone were responsible for the accident, such as if you laid your motorcycle down going highway speeds because you were distracted by something, then unfortunately the medical bills will fall on you and your insurance provider. However, if the same motorcycle accident happened, a vehicle that is at higher risk of degloving injuries by its very nature, and there was another vehicle involved, you may be able to get compensation from them. If you laid your bike down because a car swerved into or in front of you unexpected, for example, that makes them very liable for your accident and injuries.
As degloving injuries are common in workplace accidents, workers should know that worker’s compensation will cover some of the bill. Unfortunately, compensation is often not as much as the worker would expect. While worker’s compensation insurance protects the employer from lawsuits following work accidents, workers should consider looking into if a third-party was involved in the accident. In accidents that resulted from a manufacturing defect or a person that is not employed by the company, you can pursue a personal injury suit against this third-party to make sure your medical bills are fully covered. Even if the accident was caused by a third-party, if you were at work and it happened while you were on the clock, you may also be able to recover compensation from the worker’s compensation system as well.
Have You Been Hurt?
Degloving accidents are common in workplace and auto accidents, but you run the risk of one of these painful and debilitating injuries in any sort of situation. If you have been in a degloving accident or have a loved one that had to go through it, contact us today. Let Swor & Gatto go after those responsible so you are not left with a potentially life-ruining amount of medical bills. Degloving injuries will be expensive and they need to be covered so you can get to the long process of healing from them.