Brooklyn Neck Injury Lawyers

Most serious neck injuries in New York are incurred due to auto accidents, slip and falls, construction accidents, truck accidents, medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle accidents, and a variety of harmful sports accidents.

What Type of Monetary Recovery Can I Obtain After a Neck Injury in New York ?

After a personal injury in Brooklyn where you suffer a neck injury, you can recover fair and reasonable compensation for all of your harms and losses which the law calls damages. It is very important to obtain a free consultation to fully understand all aspects of personal injury law because the insurance company is acting in its own financial interests and is your adversary.

In New York City, accident victims are entitled to recover for all their past and future damages including:

Medical Expenses – all emergency room and hospital bills, physical therapy bills, all doctor expenses including orthopedic, neurology, surgery expenses.  For the future, your doctor will provide a report outlining the expected medical expenses to a reasonable degree of medical certainty. For example after a car accident, your doctor may say you need physical therapy twice per week for the next five years at a cost of $100 per visit. An economist will then calculate the present and future value allowing you to prove your medical costs into the future which can be very significant especially for a younger accident victim.

Lost Wages – the value of past and future salary lost as a result of the personal injury.

Pain and Suffering – the impact the injury had on your life including loss of enjoyment of life. This is usually the largest financial compensation you will receive.

What types of rehabilitation therapies are available after a serious neck injury?

After neck, the damage has been diagnosed and successful surgeries or other treatments have been completed, doctors normally refer their patients to rehabilitation specialists. These experts design therapies based on the initial injury, treatments already received, and remaining cervical neck healing needs.

Here is a closer look at the most common goals and therapeutic activities used in neck injury rehabilitation when patients are still in the initial, most acute stages of their recovery. This information is followed by a review of specific exercises used to help all neck injury patients regain better ROM (range of motion), while lessening their pain and other difficulties.

Rehabilitation goals that guide patients’ treatment during the initial, acute phase

• Discuss with patients the best ways to control all their pain and lessen all neck inflammation
• Teach physical routines and exercises that help increase range of motion (ROM) without pain
• Help patients learn activities that can further heal primary tissue damage
• Demonstrate different ways that patients can improve their cervical spine posture while strengthening area muscles
• Teach patients activities and exercises that will help them avoid developing muscular atrophy in the areas surrounding the cervical spine. Also, they must be shown how to strengthen their postural muscles while minimizing their pain.

Therapeutic lessons that help patients improve during the acute phase of rehabilitation

• Oversee patients’ usage of NSAIDs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Care must be taken to be sure that these drugs are not abused since difficult side-effects can develop.
• Teach patients how to perform a series of isometric muscle exercises that will strengthen their overall cervical neck region.
• Explain and demonstrate all basic or general forms of physical neck therapy
• Help patients stabilize their range of motion in the neck while protecting areas not yet fully healed
• Show patients how to keep up proper muscle and strength conditioning throughout their bodies
• Use manual therapy to relieve pain in the patient’s neck muscles

Special types of rehabilitative neck therapies – dependent on the nature of the initial injury

When a patient’s initial or secondary neck injury involved a neck sprain or strain, the following therapies may be used.

• Cold therapy. Ice packs may be applied for 15-20 minutes every one to two hours — or an ice massage may be given for five to ten minutes about every one to two hours after the injury. This type of therapy can help to decrease muscle pain and spasms — and reduce inflammation. If cold therapy works as designed, most patients will then be able to begin different exercises with less pain.
• Active ROM (range of motion) activities and isometric exercises to strengthen neck muscles. If patients are experiencing too much pain during these exercises, the physical rehabilitation therapist might encourage them to use a TENS (transcutaneous nerve stimulation) device or some form of cryokinetics.
• A series of isometric exercises. The therapist will encourage the neck injury patient to begin learning these exercises in neutral positions — until it is possible to increase the range of motion with limited pain. The goal is for patients to perform these types of exercises without experiencing any pain. Stretching exercises are not recommended while patients are still in the acute phases of rehabilitative therapy because they can cause certain types of tightness and spasms in the muscles.
• Special exercises to decrease chronic contractures. When patients suffer too many ongoing contractures, they are more likely to suffer a reinjury and serious pain. Once patients are out of the early, acute phase of rehabilitation, gentle stretching exercises may begin helping them prevent further contractures.
• General aerobic exercises will also eventually be introduced to re-establish and maintain the patient’s proper weight and overall health. These may include swimming and the use of a stationary bicycle. To avoid re-injury to the neck while swimming, patients are strongly encouraged to use a mask and snorkel so they will not aggravate their cervical muscles while rotating their necks to breathe.
• Stretching and light exercising. Once a patient has left behind the initial, acute phase of rehabilitation, these two activities should be performed to prepare the neck area and all other muscles for a higher level of workout activity.

Clients should always keep their Brooklyn neck injury lawyers advised of their progress through each treatment program. An experienced personal injury attorney will coordinate a patient’s medical care and medical treatment with top specialists that will help cure a serious neck injury.

Progression to more advanced, remaining stages of rehabilitation therapies

Patients can enter the more advanced recovery phases of rehabilitation when the following criteria are met.

• All major pain is gone whenever the patient performs any exercises and therapies involving the neck area.
• The patient exhibits far greater improvement in their neuromuscular control and their range of motion in the neck region.
• All are most muscle spasms have ended.
• The patient no longer experiences significant pain while maintaining an appropriate neck posture — at rest or while exercising.

Patients who begin rehabilitation after a very severe neck injury may be first required to immobilize their necks by using cervical collars – until they are healthy enough to begin more progressive healing therapies.

Experienced Brooklyn Personal Injury Lawyers

Frekhtman & Associates are Brooklyn injury lawyers specializing in serious neck and spinal cord injuries. After a car accident, it is important to obtain a free case evaluation from a personal injury attorney experienced in all aspects of cervical spine injuries who can work with best in class specialists and develop an ironclad case to present to a jury at trial.

With offices in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan, our law firm handles personal injury cases throughout the New York City area including Staten Island, Westchester, upstate New York, and Long Island Nassau and Suffolk counties.

We have litigated serious back injuries such as paralysis, quadriplegia, paraplegia, and wrongful death. F&A has been successful in recovering medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Our accident attorneys will ensure you receive fair compensation for your personal injury case whether it is a truck accident, car crash, brain injury, premises liability, or construction site accident. Contact us to obtain full justice for your personal injury claim.

Should I Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer ?

Whether you need a car accident lawyer, sustained a brain injury,  or need help with a wide range of accident cases it is imperative to obtain a consultation from an experienced personal injury law firm. As a patient, you may not realize the full extent of your physical injuries unless you see the right specialists who provide medical care and diagnosis.

An experienced lawyer can also guide you through the personal injury lawsuit legal process explaining every step of the way en route to maximum monetary compensation. Whether you suffered broken bones, a herniated disc, a bulging disc, or related injuries an attorney will help obtain a full compensation award including economic damages, lost salary, medical expenses, and related costs.

If you have suffered a severe spinal cord or neck injury caused by another person’s negligence, you need to contact our New York City spinal cord injury law firm. We will carefully investigate all the facts of your case, review all your medical records, and then fight hard to win the maximum compensation available to you. We want every client to fully recover for all lost wages, pain and suffering, medical expenses, and other losses.