Back Injuries

How Back Injuries Happen

Back injuries are among the most common—and most serious—injuries we see in personal injury cases. The spine is vulnerable to sudden forces, twisting motions, and direct impacts that can damage muscles, ligaments, discs, and vertebrae.

• Motor vehicle accidents – The violent forces in car accidents, motorcycle crashes, and truck collisions can throw your body in unnatural directions. The rapid acceleration and deceleration cause your spine to twist, compress, or hyperextend, leading to herniated discs, fractured vertebrae, and soft tissue damage.
• Slip and fall accidents – Landing hard on your back or twisting as you fall can cause compression fractures, herniated discs, and spinal cord damage. Property owners who fail to maintain safe premises can be held liable for these injuries.
• Workplace accidents – Construction workers, warehouse employees, and others who lift heavy objects, work at heights, or operate machinery face significant risks of back injury. Falls from ladders or scaffolding, being struck by falling objects, and repetitive stress injuries are common causes.
• Sports and recreational accidents – High-impact sports, diving accidents, and recreational activities can result in serious back and spinal trauma.
• Assault and violent acts – Physical attacks can cause severe back injuries including spinal cord damage.

Types of Back Injuries

The severity of back injuries varies widely—from painful but treatable strains to catastrophic spinal cord damage. Here are the most common types we handle:

• Sprains and strains – When muscles and ligaments surrounding the spine are stretched beyond their limits, small tears occur in the tissue. This causes bleeding into the muscle, resulting in swelling and painful muscle spasms that can range from mild twitches to debilitating pain. Your body uses pain and spasms as a warning system to protect the injured area from further damage.
• Herniated discs – Your spinal discs act as cushions between vertebrae. When a disc ruptures or bulges out of place, the inner material can leak out and press against nearby nerves. This causes radicular pain—sharp, shooting pain that radiates to other parts of your body. You might feel pain traveling from your neck down your arm, or from your lower back down your leg (sciatica).
• Bulging discs – Similar to herniated discs but less severe, bulging discs occur when the disc protrudes but doesn’t rupture. They can still cause significant pain and nerve compression.
• Fractured vertebrae – Vertebral fractures come in different forms:
  • Compression fractures occur when the bone collapses on itself and gets compressed
  • Burst fractures are more severe—the vertebra shatters and bone fragments can explode into surrounding tissue and nerves
  • Fracture-dislocations are among the worst, where broken bone pieces become jammed between dislocated vertebrae, usually requiring surgical repair
• Spinal cord injuries – Damage to the spinal cord itself can result in partial or complete paralysis, loss of sensation, and loss of bodily functions below the injury site. These are catastrophic, life-altering injuries.
• Degenerative conditions accelerated by trauma – An accident can worsen pre-existing conditions like degenerative disc disease or spinal stenosis, even if you didn’t have symptoms before the injury.

Warning Signs That Require Immediate Medical Attention

Some back injuries are obviously severe, but others develop gradually or have symptoms that might not seem connected to your back. Seek immediate medical care if you experience:

• Weakness in your leg or arm muscles
• Difficulty walking or loss of balance
• Sharp pain or numbness that radiates down your arms or legs, especially when aggravated by coughing, sneezing, or sitting
• Pain that wakes you up at night or worsens when lying down
• Numbness in your buttocks, genital area, or around the anus
• Loss of bladder or bowel control
• Difficulty starting urination or inability to feel your urinary stream
• Severe pain that doesn’t improve with rest

These symptoms can indicate serious nerve damage or spinal cord injury. Even if your pain seems manageable at first, it’s crucial to get evaluated by a medical professional. Some back injuries worsen over time, and delayed treatment can lead to permanent damage.

Treatment and Recovery

Treatment for back injuries depends on the severity and type of injury:

• Conservative treatment – Many back injuries respond to non-surgical treatment including rest, ice and heat therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and pain management through injections or nerve blocks.
• Surgical intervention – Severe injuries may require surgery such as discectomy (removing damaged disc material), spinal fusion (joining vertebrae together), laminectomy (removing bone to relieve pressure), or vertebroplasty (stabilizing fractured vertebrae).
• Long-term management – Chronic back pain may require ongoing physical therapy, pain management, lifestyle modifications, and assistive devices.

Recovery timelines vary dramatically. A minor strain might heal in weeks, while a herniated disc could take months. Spinal fractures and surgical repairs often require six months to a year of recovery. Spinal cord injuries may result in permanent disability requiring lifelong care.

The costs add up quickly: medical bills, lost wages during recovery, reduced earning capacity if you can’t return to your previous work, and the need for ongoing treatment. This is why it’s essential to pursue full compensation—not just for today’s expenses, but for your future needs.

Why Insurance Companies Fight Back Injury Claims

Insurance adjusters are often skeptical of back injury claims because:

• Back pain is subjective and difficult to measure
• Many people have pre-existing back problems
• Imaging studies don’t always show the full extent of soft tissue damage
• Conservative treatment can appear less expensive than it actually is over time

They’ll look for any reason to minimize your claim or deny it altogether. They might argue that your injury was pre-existing, that it’s not as severe as you claim, or that it wasn’t caused by the accident.

This is why you need an experienced Fresno back injury attorney who knows how to counter these tactics. We work with orthopedic specialists, neurologists, and other medical experts who can document your injuries and testify about the connection between the accident and your condition.

What Compensation Can You Recover?

If someone else’s negligence caused your back injury, you may be entitled to:

• Economic damages – Medical expenses (past and future), surgical costs, physical therapy and rehabilitation, prescription medications, medical equipment and assistive devices, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, and home modifications if needed.
• Non-economic damages – Physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium (impact on your relationship with your spouse), and reduced quality of life.

In California, you can recover compensation even if you were partially at fault for the accident. Your recovery will simply be reduced by your percentage of fault.