Chest Injury
Your chest is made up of bones, muscles, and organs that play vital roles in helping you maintain your mobility and function at your best. Being in an accident that results in a chest injury can mean experiencing rib fractures and even organ damage that could impact your entire life.
If you suffered these injuries because of negligent conduct, you may have legal recourse. To be able to recover your losses, the best option is to file a personal injury claim. Learn more about the types of chest injuries that you can experience, as well as how to pursue fair compensation.
Most Common Chest Injuries
Some of the most common chest injuries you can experience are rib fractures. Your ribs protect your lungs, heart, and other vital structures, but they are relatively fragile. Blunt trauma can cause everything from stress breaks to compound fractures, which involve ribs tearing through the skin. One of the dangers associated with rib fractures is organ damage from a puncture.
A rib fracture, as well as serious trauma, can cause a collapsed lung. This is also called a pneumothorax. It occurs when air leaks and collects between the chest wall and the lung. If blood collects there instead of air, you have suffered a hemothorax.
Blunt cardiac injuries can also occur. You can suffer bruising of the heart muscle or more serious issues like a cardiac tamponade, which happens when there is so much fluid surrounding the heart that it can’t pump normally.
Accidents That Can Cause Chest Injuries
Chest injuries can occur for a number of reasons, including traffic accidents. Being in a car accident can cause you to hit your chest against the steering wheel or dashboard, especially if your seat belt or airbag doesn’t function as needed. Even if the airbag deploys, the force of it rapidly inflating could still mean suffering broken ribs or serious internal bruising.
Falls are also a common cause of chest injuries. Slip and fall accidents can result in fractures, especially if you land directly on your chest. The more significant the height you fall from, the worse the injuries can be, which puts people who work dangerous jobs, like construction, at serious risk of suffering collapsed lungs and multiple fractured ribs.
Beginning a Personal Injury Claim: What Do You Need to Prove?
Not every accident you experience gives you the right to file a personal injury claim. To recoup your losses, you must demonstrate that another party was negligent or wrongful in their conduct. This means that they didn’t behave with the reasonable care that someone else in the same position would have exercised.
The first thing you must prove is that the other party owed you a duty of care and that they breached it. For example, if a driver was intoxicated and they slammed into your vehicle, causing a chest injury, they breached their responsibility toward everyone on the road to drive safely.
You then have to show that their conduct resulted in your losses. If you can prove that the intoxicated driver’s conduct resulted in your chest injury, you can hold them liable.
This becomes more difficult, however, if there are many parties involved. If, for example, the chest injury you suffered happened in a chain accident, it becomes imperative to investigate the crash to assign degrees of fault to the various drivers.
Damages Available In a Chest Injury Claim
A chest injury allows you to claim economic damages. These compensate you for financial losses, beginning with medical expenses. Depending on the severity of the chest injury, you may need surgery and ongoing medical care.
All of this would be covered by economic damages. Future medical expenses would also apply.
It’s possible that you also had to miss work while your ribs healed or you recovered in the hospital. The wages and other income you lost would be covered, too. If you can’t return to work, you may be able to receive future lost wages, as well.
As part of the claim, you may be entitled to non-economic damages. These compensate you for the pain and suffering you’ve experienced, as well as the loss of enjoyment of life if you’re not able to live as you used to.
Fight for Fair Compensation With Help from a Denver Lawyer
Sustaining a chest injury in an accident can leave you with pain and serious expenses. With help from personal injury lawyers with experience handling catastrophic injuries, you can fight for fair compensation.
At Zaner Law Personal Injury Lawyers, our personal injury lawyers offer the dedicated support you need as you navigate the claims process. Contact us online or call (720) 613-9706 to talk to our Colorado team to schedule a free consultation.
