The crash is behind you. The car has been towed, you have given your statement, and then a day later your hands feel numb, or your neck will not sit where you want it to, and you find yourself wondering whether something happened deeper than the bruising. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke lists numbness, tingling or changes in sensation in the hands and feet, paralysis, pain or pressure in the head, neck or back, weakness in any part of the body, and difficulty breathing among the signs of a spinal cord injury. NINDS also notes that motor vehicle accidents and serious falls are the most common causes of spinal cord injuries in the United States.
A spinal cord injury is damage to the spinal cord — in NINDS’s words, “the bundle of nerves and nerve fibers that sends and receives signals from the brain.” What that definition fixes on is the cord, not the structures around it, and that distinction is the one to hold on to.
The cord runs inside the bony column of the spine, surrounded by the vertebrae. NINDS says that direct injury to the spinal cord, or damage to the tissue and bones that surround it, can cause a spinal cord injury. An injury to the cord can therefore begin as an injury to the structures around the cord.
For anyone reading a hospital discharge summary, the phrase names damage to the nerves that carry signals between the brain and the body, not the bones and soft tissue around them. That is narrower than a sore back after a crash, though pain or pressure in the neck or back is itself on the NINDS list above, so back pain does not rule a cord injury out.
NINDS says a spinal cord injury “can cause one or more symptoms, including” the following. In the institute’s own wording:
The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia adds that a minor injury can be enough to damage the spinal cord.
What any of these signs means in a particular person, and what should follow from it, is a question for a clinician who can examine that person.
Because not all of the damage is necessarily done at the moment of impact. NINDS describes paralysis as something that can happen immediately upon injury, which it calls primary damage, or develop over time from bleeding and swelling in the spinal cord and cell death, which it calls secondary damage.
The point is a narrow one: it describes how damage inside the cord can progress after the initial injury. It is not a statement about when a person notices a symptom, and the wider question of how long after a car accident injuries can appear is one we cover on a page of its own.
For someone recently in a crash, the follow-up sits with the treating clinician, who can see how things change across the days afterwards.
If your own crash was days or weeks ago, what to do next belongs with a clinician who can examine you.
MedlinePlus states that “a spinal cord injury is a medical emergency.” The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia describes what a bystander does at a scene where a spinal injury is suspected. Its guidance is that a person who may have a spinal injury should not be moved at all, unless moving them is absolutely necessary. The examples it gives of that necessity are getting the person out of a burning car, or helping them to breathe. Otherwise it says the person should be kept completely still, and kept safe, until medical help reaches them, and that the local emergency number should be called.
We handle spinal cord injury claims from crashes across Indiana through our statewide spinal cord injury practice.
NINDS draws the line by whether nerve signals still cross the injury site. An incomplete injury means the spinal cord is still able to send some messages to or from the brain. A complete injury means that there is no nerve communication below the injury site. Those are categories of description, not predictions.
No. A spinal cord injury is damage to the cord itself, which is not the same injury as a fracture of the surrounding vertebrae, though damage to those bones can cause it. MedlinePlus draws that distinction between the cord and the bone around it, and the two are easy to run together after a crash.
Indiana gives you two years from when your claim arises to file an injury lawsuit. For most crash injuries that means two years from the day of the crash. The rule comes from IC 34-11-2-4, Indiana’s limitation period for an action for “injury to person or character”.
Because the cord carries signals along its length. NINDS states that the symptoms of spinal cord injuries depend on the part of the spinal cord that is damaged and how much damage there is, and that injuries to upper parts of the spinal cord affect more of the body than injuries lower down.
Tom Blackburn, a founding partner of Blackburn Romey, has practiced personal injury law since 1985, and that is the experience behind how we read a crash injury claim. Indiana’s two-year period under IC 34-11-2-4 runs from when your claim arises, so the decision about whether to bring one is not open-ended.
Personal injury and wrongful death law is all we do. We handle car accident claims across Indiana, and spinal cord injuries are among the injuries those crashes produce. A free confidential consultation is the place to start: we will look at what happened and give you a straight answer about whether there is a claim worth bringing.
Call 833-366-6595 or contact us to arrange one.
If you would rather start closer to home, our car accident pages for Fort Wayne, Merrillville, South Bend, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Evansville and Indianapolis each cover that area.
Blackburn Romey founding partner Tom Blackburn graduated with honors receiving a degree from Indiana University at the Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Initiating his legal career in 1977, he has been active in practicing law and currently serves as a member of the Indiana State Bar Association on the Ethics and Advertising Committees, the American Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, as a board member at the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, and as an appointed member of the Executive Committee for the State of Indiana for the National Trial Lawyers Association.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by Founding Partner, Tom Blackburn, who has more than 47 years of legal experience, including over 39 years specializing as a personal injury attorney.
