Texas Amputation Injury Lawyers–Statistics, Causes, Costs

Amputations are one of the most life-altering and horrific conditions our personal injury clients face. The impact these injuries have on the daily lives of victims and families cannot be measured.

Please call Morrow & Sheppard now at 800-489-2216 if you or a loved one has suffered an amputation injury at work, offshore, or in an 18-wheeler or other personal injury accident.

It would be our privilege to discuss your rights for free, in private, and with no strings attached. We even travel nationwide to provide in-home and hospital consultations to those who need our help.

Amputations Are Far Too Prevalent

There are 2 million amputees living in the United States today. That number is expected to double by 2050.

What Is the Most Common Cause Of Amputation?

54 percent of amputations are caused by vascular disease. This includes diabetes and artery disease.

45 percent of amputations are caused by trauma, including work accidents, vehicle collisions, and other personal injuries.

What Is The Most Common Type Of Amputation?

Below-knee amputations constitute 71 percent of all amputations.

How Many Amputations Occur Each Year?

185,000 amputations occur in the United States every year.

How Many Amputations Occur In Texas Each Year?

In 2012, there were more than 14,120 amputations in the State of Texas.

The number of amputations performed in Texas increased by 15 percent from 2007 to 2012, which was nearly double the national average of 8.4 percent. In all, 77,416 amputation procedures were performed in Texas between 2007 and 2012.

Of those, 6,142 were upper-limb amputations, approximately 10 percent of the national total. There were more than 71,000 lower-limb amputation procedures performed during the same timeframe.

In 2012 alone, there were more than 14,000 amputation procedures performed in Texas. These included 1,121 upper-limb amputations and 12,996 lower-limb amputations.

How Many Amputation Injuries Occur Each Year?

Personal injuries, including truck accidents, offshore injuries, and work accidents, result in an estimated 80,000 plus amputations every year in the United States.

How Much Does An Amputation Cost?

Even not adjusting for inflation, the conservative Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery estimates healthcare costs associated with a single lower-limb amputation are more than $500,000. Higher levels of amputation injuries are generally much more expensive.

Of course, even that conservative estimate can and often does skyrocket when the rapid inflation of healthcare costs is taken into consideration. It also does not account for lost wages, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of intimacy with one’s spouse, mental anguish, or inability to perform household chores and activities, all of which are damages that amputee victims may able to recover in truck accident cases, offshore injury cases, defective product cases, industrial accident cases, and other personal injury cases, particularly with the assistance of an experienced personal injury lawyer.

Breakthroughs In Prosthetics

Modern science has provided several improvements in prosthetic limbs and other treatments to help improve the lives of amputee victims. These include:

• New materials. Advancements in materials have made a big difference. Unlike wood, carbon fiber prosthetic feet provide amputees with an additional sense of feeling. Thermoplastic sockets make the fittings more comfortable. Titanium helps prostheses last longer.
• Bluetooth. Increasingly, Bluetooth software is used to help prosthetic limbs communicate easier, which can assist with regulating stride, speed, and pressure.
• Muscle reinnervation. Nerves from the amputated limb are reenergized in a different part of the body. This enables an amputee to think about using the amputated limb, activate a nerve in a different part of the body, and trigger the prosthesis.
• Myoelectric technology. Sensors are placed on the muscle near the site of amputation. The muscle’s electronic signals control a microprocessor in the prosthesis, which in turn activates and deactivates the prosthesis.
• Micropressure knees. This breakthrough helps amputee victims by analyzing the pressure on missing limb areas and applying the appropriate resistance on inclines. This helps ensure artificial prostheses do not buck under the users.

Of course, these breakthroughs can be incredibly expensive. Our Houston-based personal injury lawyers take great pride in working hard to ensure that amputee victims nationwide, those who would not otherwise be able to afford this cutting-edge technology, obtain a settlement or judgment that allows them to get the help they need.

What Resources Are Available To Amputee Victims?

As with so many of the poor and suffering, not enough resources are devoted to taking care of amputee victims. There are, however, several wonderful organizations that do their best to help.

One of the best organizations is the Amputee Coalition, a 30-year-old institution that makes its mission to “reach out to and empower people affected by limb loss to achieve their full potential through education, support and advocacy, and to promote limb loss prevention.”

For amputee victims in Texas, other helpful organizations include:

• Texas Centers for Independent Living
• Texas Department of Vocational Rehabilitation
• Texas Department of Protection and Advocacy

Morrow & Sheppard Amputation Injury Lawyers Are Here To Help

The personal injury lawyers at Morrow & Sheppard are privileged to assist amputee victims and their families nationwide who have been affected by tragedies such as maritime accidents, offshore injuries, 18-wheeler wrecks, work accidents, and defective products.

While nothing can turn back the clock and make things whole again, modern medicine has made it much easier for families to cope.  Morrow & Sheppard fights tirelessly to provide our clients an opportunity to get the treatment they need.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury requiring amputation, whether in a work accident, offshore, by a defective product, or in a train or 18-wheeler accident, it would be our privilege to help you and your family accomplish two very important objectives:

1. Seek maximum compensation for you and your family; and
2. Hold responsible parties accountable to make sure the same thing does not happen to someone else.

We are Texas injury lawyers who travel around the country helping victims, and we provide free and confidential in-home and hospital visits to those who need us. Calls us now at 800-489-2216 for a free and confidential consultation.