Spinal Fusion

Fort Lauderdale Spinal Fusion Attorney Helps Injured Clients

Anthony Quackenbush is a Fort Lauderdale Spinal Fusion Lawyer who helps clients who have undergone spinal fusion surgeries and procedures anywhere in the State of Florida. He does this, for example, in Broward County and South Florida.

A spinal fusion is a procedure wherein your doctor removes one of your intervertebral discs and “fuses” the adjacent two vertebrae together. Your vertebra are the “bony” structures that you feel in your back. In between the vertebrae are located intervertebral discs. These discs are fluid filled and act as “shock absorbers,” essentially cushioning the vertebrae and allowing for mobility and movement of your spine. In between every two vertebrae is a disc, and on either side of each disc are located vertebrae.

When you’ve been injured in an accident, fluid from one of your discs may leak out. This is referred to as a herniated disc. Because your spinal cord and spinal nerves are close to the discs, leaked fluid from a herniated disc may affect the spinal cord and nerves and cause symptoms such as pain, numbness and tingling in other parts of your body. Herniated discs in your neck, for example, may cause symptoms in your arms, hands, and fingers. Herniated discs in your back may cause similar symptoms in your legs, feet and toes – this is referred to as “sciatica.”

In the worst case scenario, if you herniated disc impinges on your spinal cord enough, you could be at risk for paralysis, paraplegia or quadriplegia.

If you’ve underwent a spinal fusion procedure anywhere in the State of Florida, contact this Fort Lauderdale Spinal Fusion Law Firm at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation. Should you retain Mr. Quackenbush to try to obtain compensation for your procedure, he will not charge you until you’ve received compensation in your case. Because of this, there is no risk to you. Mr. Quackenbush can help you if you’ve been involved in an accident leading to a fusion procedure in Miami and West Palm Beach and throughout the State of Florida as well.

Legal Counsel for Clients of Fort Lauderdale Spinal Fusion Lawyer Anthony Quackenbush

To alleviate the pressure on your spinal cord, your doctor may recommend a spinal fusion procedure. In this procedure, your doctor will remove the intervertebral disc that has become herniated. Once the disc has been removed, your doctor will “fuse” the neighboring vertebrae together. He can do this using cadaver bone or other materials. Once the two vertebrae have been fused together, your doctor may place “hardware” such as metal plates and screws in your neck or back near the area of the fusion in order to allow it to remain stable, not move and heal. The plates and screws may remain in your neck or back for the rest of your life. You may also have a scar where the doctor made the incision in your neck or back necessary to do the surgery.

If you have herniated discs at multiple levels or areas in your neck or back, your doctor may perform a multiple-level fusion surgery. This means that your doctor will fuse three or more vertebrae in your neck or back, rather than just two. This has serious implications for your future prognosis.

South Florida Spinal Fusion Attorney Pursues Justice on Behalf of Clients

Once you’ve undergone a spinal fusion procedure, you may be left with physical restrictions. For example, you may have less mobility in your neck or back. This is because the intervertebral discs are meant, at least in part, to allow for movement in your neck and back. Once one of your discs has been removed, you will have less mobility. The more levels that are fused, the worse will be the loss of mobility.

Additionally, once one of the levels in your neck has been fused, there will be a heightened risk for degeneration and future fusions at the other levels. This is because a fused disc that has less mobility will put stress on other levels of the neck or back. The other levels of the neck or back will now carry more responsibility for movement and this can cause increased wear and tear. Again, the more levels of your neck or back that have been fused, the greater the risk for wear and tear in other levels of your neck.

This increased wear and tear can cause the need for future spinal fusion surgeries in the future. These procedures would most likely take place at the levels neighboring the level of the original fusion. This is because those neighboring levels pick up most of the slack for the fused level in terms of responsibility for mobility and movement and generally experience the most wear and tear after the original fusion.

Degeneration is the term used to describe this wear and tear. Degeneration can be part of the normal aging process, or it can be the result of an injury or a procedure designed to treat an injury such as a fusion.

A problem in the body causing by symptoms can be degenerative (that is, it can be the result of the normal aging process or just develop with time) or it can be “acute” (i.e., due to an accident or injury). Frequently, defense attorneys will argue that your injury is degenerative or pre-existing and not acute or from your accident. It will be this South Florida Spinal Fusion Lawyer’s job to try to counter this argument (for example, by pointing out and arguing that you did not have any symptoms or require any treatment before your accident). Additionally, you can have degenerative changes in your neck or back, then get into an accident, sustain a new injury and aggravate your degenerative changes. The degenerative changes can be asymptomatic (i.e., not have any symptoms) and then be aggravated by an accident or acute injury to the point that they now cause symptoms in your neck or back or other parts of your body. You are entitled to be compensated for this, and this Broward County Spinal Fusion Attorney can help you with this.

The law, for example, says that you are entitled to be compensated for aggravations of pre-existing conditions. That is, if you have a pre-existing condition such as degenerative change in your neck or back and then get into an accident which makes that condition worse, you can receive compensation for the worsening. That is because the law says that the wrongdoer “takes his or her victim as she or he is” – meaning the negligent party doesn’t “get off” or escape responsibility simply because the victim had a pre-existing condition. After all, the negligent person should know that there are people with pre-existing conditions in society. The negligent person has a responsibility to behave in a non-negligent manner so as not to injure those people, just as the negligent person has an obligation to not act negligently and injure perfectly healthy people. In other words, people with pre-existing conditions deserve to be kept safe too!

Get Compensated for Your Harm with the Help of a Broward County Spinal Fusion Law Firm

If you’ve undergone a spinal fusion procedure due to an accident occurring anywhere in the State of Florida, contact Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation. Should you make the decision to retain this Broward County Spinal Fusion Lawyer to represent you, he will not charge you unless and until you’ve made a recovery in your case. There is therefore no risk to you.