Dallas Oil Rig Spinal Injury Lawyer

Injuries to the back and spine can be traumatic and potentially life-altering. If you faced a serious injury at work on an offshore oil rig, you may be unable to return to work because of the residual pain. If your injuries involved paralysis or permanent harm, you may be unable to work at all.

In these situations, you should consider taking your case to a Dallas oil rig spinal injury lawyer like those at The Queenan Law Firm. You may be entitled to file a negligence lawsuit that can help you recover compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and other serious harms. To learn more about your options for filing a lawsuit, contact our law offices online today or call our attorneys at (817) 476-1797.

Common Spinal Injuries for Offshore Oil Workers

Oil rigs have constant risks of slip and fall and trip and fall injuries. From the simple risks of a wet deck or slippery staircase to the more severe risks of carrying and moving heavy machinery and equipment, oil rig workers can face serious back and spine injuries. Many of these include the following injuries:

Slipped and Herniated Discs

Your spine is made up of a series of tube-shaped bones that house and protect your spinal cord. These bones are separated by disc-shaped tissue that helps pad the bones to prevent rubbing and injury. When you overexert yourself, you can actually cause this tissue to slip out of place or and bulge out from between bones. This “herniated disc” injury can be extremely painful and cause complications.

In some cases, the misalignment and herniation can put pressure on your spinal cord, causing nerve pain, numbness, and motor control issues. It can also make it impossible to stand or perform job tasks. These injuries can produce ongoing issues, where some days you may have too much pain to work at all. Herniated disc injuries can also require ongoing care and, potentially, surgical intervention.

Broken Vertebrae

Breaking or shattering a bone in your spine can be a terrible injury. As long as the injury does not cause damage to the spinal cord, you may not face paralysis, but the damage to the vertebrae can be painful and cause permanent problems. Shattered vertebrae may require surgery to repair, potentially including spinal fusion as a treatment. This fuses the bones to the next vertebra to help keep the spine in alignment and allow the unbroken bones to take up the stress the broken bones cannot. You may also need implants like pins and rods to help support a weakened spinal column.

Spinal Cord Injury and Paralysis

If the spinal cord itself suffers damage, you may become paralyzed. The spinal cord sends signals from your brain to all parts of your body. The bundle of nerves in your spine is fragile, and any traumatic injury could put extra pressure on the spinal cord or sever it altogether. If the spinal cord suffers enough damage, you can face numbness, loss of feeling, and motor control problems below the point of injury. More severe injuries mean cutting off function entirely below the point of injury. This can leave you with paraplegia – paralysis in your legs – or quadriplegia (a.k.a., tetraplegia) – paralysis in all four limbs. These injuries can easily cause ongoing, permanent, life-changing injuries that require intense medical care and rehabilitation.

Filing a Lawsuit for Oil Rig Back and Spine Injuries

Many of these injuries leave victims with permanent or severe effects. If you or a loved one was injured on an offshore oil rig, you may be entitled to file a negligence lawsuit against the at-fault parties to seek compensation.

The at-fault parties in a workplace injury case are often the employer and their agents. In some oil worker cases, the responsible parties may be the oil rig owner or the owner of the oil ship. Taking these parties to court allows you to claim damages for any harms they caused.

The damages paid in worker injury cases often go towards covering medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. These are the most common damages you might face if you are injured and unable to return to work. If your injury is severe enough that you must change jobs entirely or you cannot work at all, you could also claim damages for reduced earning capacity and future lost wages. Ongoing medical care can also be covered by projected medical expenses.

To prove your case and get the compensation you need, you must show that the at-fault party did something wrong. This usually happens by showing they were “negligent,” that is that they failed to uphold some duty that would have kept you safe from injury, such as properly maintaining the ship or rig, properly training your coworkers, or following safety protocols. If a breach of duty like this caused your injuries, you may be able to recover damages in court.

Dallas Workplace Injury Lawyers for Offshore Oil Back and Spine Injuries

If you or a loved one faced serious back or spine injuries while working on an offshore drilling platform, contact The Queenan Law Firm today. Our attorneys offer free legal consultations to help you understand your options to seek compensation and how much your case might be worth. To discuss your potential case and get a free legal consultation, contact our law offices online or call today at (817) 476-1797.