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Chicago Broken Bone Injury Lawyer
A severe broken bone can be life-altering, leading to long-term medical issues, pain, and stress. It requires specialized treatment from a medical professional such as X-rays or surgery to mend the bone properly.
Complications from such procedures can cause ongoing health problems for the patient, ranging from discomfort to disability. Further, the recovery period for a serious break typically takes months or even years of intensive care and physical therapy to recuperate fully.
The personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, understand the impact a bone fracture can have on an individual's life, including immediate significant pain, medical expenses, and lingering disability.
Contact us at (888) 424-5757 or fill out the contact form to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case. All confidential or sensitive information you share with our legal team remains private through an attorney-client relationship.
Common Causes of Illinois Bone Fracture Cases
Did someone else's negligence cause your fracture injury? In that case, you are entitled to file a personal injury claim to recover compensation for the resulting medical bills, pain, and disability - both past and estimated future costs - no matter your physical condition before the accident.
If sufficient medical testimony establishes a fracture's causation, those responsible for causing the accident might be liable for the ensuing damages. Our Chicago law office regularly represents people who have sustained fractured bones.
Your Chicago personal injury lawyer will review all the circumstances surrounding your injury to identify potential defendants in your case.
A defendant could include:
- A landlord who neglected to repair a broken stairwell
- A supermarket that neglected to clear away ice and snow outside the store entrance
- A motorist who failed to obey traffic laws caused your injuries
Types of Bone Fractures
Large and small bones tend to fracture when stress is applied to bone tissue that can no longer bend against the pressure without cracking or breaking.
Bone fractures come in different forms. Your doctor will use various terms to diagnose your injury. These terms for fractures include:
- Stress - Hard to spot but easy to feel. Stress fractures are hairline cracks within bones
- Complete fracture - This fracture type usually cleanly breaks the bone into at least two pieces. Complete fractures are typically the result of severe car crashes or slip and fall events on hard surfaces, also called stable fractures
- Greenstick - This type of fracture happens when the bone cracks on just one side and not through to the other side of the bone.
- Open - This serious break produces a bone that pierces through the skin, causes mild to severe bleeding, and can even cause internal bleeding, also called a compound fracture
- Closed - Also called simple fractures, closed fractures happen when the bone does not break through the skin
- Single - The bone breaks at a single location
- Comminuted fracture - Bones that break into three pieces or more or are crushed
- Displaced - When the trauma not only leaves the affected bone broken but also moves it out of proper alignment, complicating the healing process. Most common with broken arms
- Bowing - These fractures occur only in children when the soft bone bends but does not entirely break
- Transverse fracture - When the bone breaks at a 90-degree angle to the long section of the bone
- Compression fracture - This bone injury is when the bone shatters or becomes crushed in the spinal cord
The Most Frequently Broken Bones
The clavicle, also known as your collarbone, is one of the most commonly broken bones in the body. The long length of the clavicle leaves it prone to injury, whether you are a child or an adult.
Thus, it is essential to try to protect them from injury. The risks of breaking individual bones increase with age.
For instance, the bone that is broken the most among young people is the wrist, followed by broken arms. However, a broken hip is the most common fracture for older Americans.
The other broken bones owe their breaks primarily to where they are situated and their usage by humans. Not only are these bones fractured the most, but they also produce some of the most devastating consequences if fractured because of their central role in daily functioning.
Medical Treatment for Bone Fracture
The location and type of fracture and the break's severity will determine your medical treatment. After determining what type of fracture you have, your physician will create a plan of action to set the bone and stabilize it in place during the healing process.
You might need to wear a fiberglass or plaster cast to ensure your bones remain set in the same position until the healing is complete.
Based on your type of injury, a surgeon might insert screws into the upper and lower portion of your undamaged bone to ensure that the broken or fractured area remains in place (known as "open reduction internal fixation," or ‘ORIF’). Surgical procedures might require attaching plates bolted on the bone's outer surfaces.
How Long Does It Take to Heal From a Broken Bone?
How soon a fracture heals depends on the severity of the break and the level of care you receive. Typically, the healing process can take anywhere from one to several months.
Everyone's body heals at a different rate, so your healing process could take less or more time.
Fractures in the Elderly
The severity of an injury usually depends on the type and location of the injury and the person's physical condition. As we age, our bones become thinner and more brittle.
The elderly are at risk of developing complex injuries from broken hip accidents and falls that might require surgery to stabilize the bones with hardware and extended rehabilitation.
Special Considerations for Children with Broken Bones
Children are also at a unique risk of sustaining serious injuries due to the activities associated with childhood.
For example, while children's bone fractures are more likely to heal faster than an older person's bones, doctors must evaluate every childhood bone break to determine if the fracture involves the growth plate where the injury occurred near the long bones at the joints where two bones are connected.
Compensation You Could Receive for an Injury
If another's negligence caused your injury, you are entitled to receive financial compensation for your economic damages, including lost wages and medical bills, as well as your noneconomic damages, including pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of ordinary life from the at-fault party.
Your spouse might be able to recover for loss of consortium and loss of services. However, your case's monetary value depends on the severity of your bone injuries and the extent of your damages.
A personal injury lawyer from Rosenfeld Lawyers, LLC can review your case to determine your claim's worth when filed against every potentially responsible at-fault party.
Our broken bone injury lawyers will calculate your case's value based on the accident's circumstances, past and future medical costs, your need for future medical treatment, including physical therapy, and how your serious broken bone injury has altered your daily activities.
How Long You Have to File an Illinois Personal Injury Lawsuit
The state statute of limitations restricts the time you must file a claim before giving up all legal rights to seek financial compensation at any time in the future. Illinois gives bone injury victims two years to file a lawsuit. (See 735 ILCS 5/13-202)
The law might extend the limitation if the victim is a minor. Fortunately, your experienced personal injury attorney can help you identify the time you have left before giving up your rights to seek monetary recovery.
However, if you wait too long, the evidence you need to prove your broken bone injury case could disappear. In that case, eyewitnesses could move away, people's memories could diminish, and the ability to prove your case to a personal injury claims adjuster or a jury could become much more problematic.
Get Started on Your Case Now!
Your broken bone injury lawyer needs to get started immediately to determine the types of bone injuries, the length of your recovery process, the permanency of your disability, and the extent of hospitalization, physical therapy, and medical bills you will generate in the future for needed treatment.
Therefore, it is critically important that you consult Illinois personal injury attorneys as soon as possible after an accident so that they can protect your future recovery should you decide to file an action.
Every experienced broken bone injury lawyer at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC work vigorously to ensure that accident victims receive the maximum compensation under the law. Contact a broken bone injury lawyer from our law firm to see what you can recover from a bone injury lawsuit.
Some Sample Illinois Bone Fracture Accident Settlements and Jury Verdicts
Our Chicago broken bones attorneys have studied legal issues involving patients with serious fractures seeking financial compensation from those responsible for the accident. Some personal injury cases involve workers' compensation benefits, wrongful death, spinal cord damage, and traumatic brain injury.
$250,000 SETTLEMENT, Premises Liability, Cook County, IL
A 49-year-old man fell from his third-floor condo balcony when the floor caved because the verandah allegedly needed repairs.
Management informed tenants not to use the balconies but directed the plaintiff to remove items from his balcony, which collapsed while he was doing so.
The victim sustained a displaced fracture that required an ORIF procedure and a comminuted nasal fracture, resulting in $13,376 in medical expenses. The insurance company for Reliable Management Realty Ltd paid fair compensation to settle the injury claim.
$1.1 MILLION SETTLEMENT, Auto Accident, DuPage County, IL
In a car accident, a 47-year-old man sustained a broken knee, sternum injury, and multiple broken ribs when the defendant ran a stop sign and hit his vehicle in Roselle, Illinois. The knee injury required ORIF surgery and bone grafting.
American Family Auto Insurance (the defendant's insurance company) paid the negotiated catastrophic injury settlement to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff's damages included medical expenses of $358,239 plus a lost income of $17,536. Additionally, he alleged that arthritis might necessitate a future knee replacement.
$418,400 AWARD, Truck accident, Jo Daviess County, IL
A 65-year-old Meredith Glasgow Farms (Scales Mound, Illinois) farm worker was injured when a front loader tractor operated by his supervisor ran over the back of his legs. The victim suffered a broken bone in his right foot and complex leg fractures, requiring extensive surgery, including ORIF (open reduction internal fixation).
His medical expenses totaled $65,416. After the plaintiff finished presenting his evidence, the court entered a directed verdict against the defendant on the issue of liability in the amount of $418,416, consisting of damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of everyday life, and loss of services and consortium for plaintiff's spouse.
Bone Fracture Accident FAQs
Our personal injury law firm understands that many families have unanswered questions concerning dealing directly with an insurance company to be compensated for damages. A personal injury attorney from our law office has answered some of those questions below.
Contact bone injury attorney at (888) 424-5757 for additional information, discuss legal representation, or schedule a free case evaluation.
Get Help from Skilled Chicago Accident Attorneys
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC is committed to getting you the maximum compensation for our clients' broken bone cases. Our bone injury law office has helped recover significant damages for many clients who have sustained severe fractures in various accidents.
Put our experience to work for you: As attorneys experienced with Chicago bone injury cases, our law firm offers a free consultation at your home or hospital, if necessary.
Moreover, we offer a no-fee guarantee: If your broken bone lawyer cannot get a recovery for you through the personal injury claims process, our services are free. Contact our office today at (888) 424-5757.