Spinal cord injuries don’t just stop at the initial trauma—they can lead to serious complications like dangerous blood pressure spikes, kidney issues, respiratory infections, and painful pressure sores. These problems often stick around for the long haul and can end up costing more over a lifetime than the injury itself. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize these long-term effects should be factored into their legal claim.

That’s where we come in. At TSR Injury Law, we’re proud to stand up for people who’ve been hurt. Our Minneapolis-based attorneys have helped countless Minnesota crash victims get real results, and we fight to make sure the people responsible are held financially accountable.

Not sure if you even have a case? No pressure—we’re here to listen and help you understand your options.

Call us for your FREE case review: (612) TSR-TIME.

What Are Secondary Complications From Spinal Cord Injuries?

Secondary complications from spinal cord injuries are separate medical conditions that develop because of the original spinal cord damage. Secondary complications create some challenging and dangerous health risks for spinal cord victims, and they are both challenging and costly to treat.

Secondary complications that are common to spinal cord injury victims include:

Spinal Shock

Spinal shock occurs within hours of the initial injury and can last for weeks or months. During this period, your body loses all the reflexes and sensations below the injury site. This condition makes it difficult for doctors to assess the full extent of permanent damage, often leading to uncertainty about the victim’s long-term prognosis and treatment planning.

Respiratory Complications

Spinal cord injuries affecting the cervical spine (C4 and higher up the spinal column) have the greatest risk of developing respiratory complications. However, victims with lower cervical or higher thoracic spinal injuries may have some breathing difficulties as well.

Respiratory complications after spinal cord injuries occur due to:

• Paralyzed Breathing Muscles: High-level spinal injuries (cervical/neck region) can paralyze the diaphragm and intercostal muscles between the ribs that control breathing, making it difficult or impossible to breathe independently.
• Weakened Cough Reflex: Spinal cord damage reduces the ability to cough effectively, preventing victims from clearing mucus, saliva, and secretions from their lungs and airways.
• Reduced Lung Capacity: Paralyzed chest muscles cannot expand the lungs fully, leading to shallow breathing and decreased oxygen intake.
• Increased Infection Risk: Accumulated secretions in the lungs create breeding grounds for pneumonia and other respiratory infections, which are leading causes of death in spinal cord injury patients.
• Aspiration Risks: Difficulty swallowing or clearing the throat can cause food, liquids, or saliva to enter the lungs, leading to aspiration pneumonia.
• Ventilator Dependency: Severe cases require mechanical ventilation for life support, creating additional risks of ventilator-associated pneumonia and other complications.

These respiratory issues often require expensive interventions like ventilators, frequent suctioning, chest physical therapy, and specialized nursing care. These costs can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and continue for a victim’s entire lifetime.

Cardiovascular Instability

Your spinal cord helps regulate blood pressure and heart rate. When damaged, these vital functions become unstable. You might experience dangerous drops in blood pressure when sitting up, irregular heart rhythms, or poor circulation throughout your body. These issues can lead to fainting and increase your risk of stroke or heart attack.

Loss of Bladder and Bowel Control

Neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction may occur if spinal cord damage disrupts the nerve signals controlling these functions. This condition leads to frequent urinary tract infections, kidney problems, and the need for catheterization or surgical interventions.

Chronic Pain Syndromes

Many spinal cord injury victims develop severe, persistent pain, different from typical injury pain. Traditional pain medications often prove ineffective, requiring specialized treatments like nerve blocks, implanted pain pumps, or experimental therapies.

What Secondary Complications Are Common With Spinal Cord Injuries?

Secondary complications from spinal cord injuries affect nearly every major body system and become more debilitating and expensive to treat as time goes on.

The most frequent immediate complications are:

• Neuropathic Pain Syndromes: Spinal cord injury victims may experience excruciating pain that feels like burning, stabbing, or electric shocks. These sensations often resist traditional pain medications.
• Pressure Ulcers: Reduced sensation means you cannot feel when prolonged pressure damages your skin. These wounds commonly occur on your tailbone, heels, and other areas.
• Muscle Spasticity: Involuntary muscle contractions and stiffness can affect spinal cord injury victims. Your muscles below the injury level might suddenly contract without warning, causing painful spasms.
• Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT): Blood clots in the legs may develop, making this one of the most dangerous early complications. Immobility allows blood to pool in your leg veins, forming clots that can break loose and travel to your lungs.

How Do Secondary Complications Affect My Minneapolis Injury Claim?

Secondary complications resulting from spinal cord injuries create complex legal challenges that significantly impact the value and timing of your claim. These additional medical conditions often prove more expensive than the original injury itself, yet insurance companies routinely try to minimize or deny coverage for complications they claim are unrelated to your initial trauma.

Increased Claim Value

These medical complications dramatically increase your claim’s value because they represent additional lifetime damages. Conditions like respiratory infections, pressure sores, and blood pressure crises require expensive treatments, specialized equipment, and round-the-clock care costing hundreds of thousands annually. Insurance companies frequently deny coverage by arguing complications are unrelated to your original injury, making clear medical documentation and estimates of future medical costs essential.

Timing and Legal Challenges

Many complications develop months or years after your initial injury. Minnesota’s statute of limitations and settlement deadlines create pressure to resolve claims before complications fully emerge or before lifetime costs are fully known. Experienced lawyers consult medical specialists to predict future complications and include projected costs in settlement negotiations.

Future Care Planning

Successful claims must account for both current and future medical complications. This requires comprehensive life care planning addressing respiratory care, infection prevention, and mental health services. Without proper representation, victims often settle for amounts covering only immediate expenses, leaving them vulnerable when inevitable complications arise later.

How Long After My Spinal Cord Injury Can Secondary Complications Appear?

Secondary complications from spinal cord injuries can develop anytime from minutes after the injury to decades later. This timeline creates significant challenges for determining medical treatment and assessing legal claims. Complications that seem minor initially can evolve into severe, expensive conditions requiring lifelong management.

Keep in mind that this is just an estimate and that the time can vary depending on each person’s unique circumstances.

• Cardiovascular Instability: Blood pressure and heart rate problems typically appear within 24 to 48 hours.
• Respiratory Failure: Injuries lower on the spinal cord might not show respiratory issues for 24 to 72 hours as swelling around the spinal cord progresses.
• Neurogenic Bladder and Bowel: Loss of bladder and bowel control may become apparent within the first few days as spinal shock begins to resolve.
• Deep Vein Thrombosis: Due to immobility and changes in blood circulation, blood clots are most at risk of forming within the first two weeks after the initial injury.
• Pressure Ulcers: Skin breakdown can begin within days of injury but often takes 1 to 2 weeks to become visible. Due to immobility, pressure ulcers can also develop any time after the initial injury.
• Autonomic Dysreflexia: This dangerous complication typically does not appear until spinal shock resolves, usually 2-6 weeks after injury.

How Do Doctors Predict Secondary Complications in Spinal Cord Injury Cases?

Doctors use a combination of scientific research, standardized assessment tools, and clinical experience to predict which secondary complications are most likely to develop after spinal cord injuries. This prediction process is essential for medical treatment planning and legal claim valuation, as it helps establish the long-term care needs and associated costs that injury victims will face.

In each case, doctors use these primary factors to assist in forecasting secondary complications for spinal cord injury cases.

• Injury Level and Severity: The location and completeness of your spinal cord injury serves as the foundation for predicting complications.
• ASIA Impairment Scale Classification: Doctors use the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale to identify injuries severity.
• Age at Time of Injury: Younger victims typically face longer lifespans with complications. Older victims’ capacity and pre-existing health conditions may reduce healing time and could lead to complications.
• Pre-Existing Medical Conditions: Your health status before the injury significantly impacts complication predictions. For example, diabetes increases the risk of infection and skin breakdown.

Can I Claim Compensation for Future Secondary Complications?

Yes, you can claim compensation for future secondary complications from spinal cord injuries, and these claims often represent a large portion of your settlement or jury award. Minnesota law recognizes that spinal cord injuries create ongoing medical needs that extend far beyond your initial treatment, and courts regularly award compensation for complications that have not yet developed but are medically probable.

Why Insurance Companies Dispute or Deny Secondary Complication Claims

Insurance companies frequently dispute or deny secondary complication claims because these complications represent expensive and long-lasting aspects of spinal cord injury cases. Insurers may challenge the validity, causation, or severity of secondary complications, leading to a reduction in the amount that is offered to injury victims. Their objective is to protect their bottom line. Therefore, some injured victims may not receive the medical care they need.

Medical Records Needed to Prove Secondary Complications

Secondary complications from spinal cord injuries require detailed medical documentation that establishes clear connections between your original injury and subsequent health problems. The strength of your medical records often determines whether insurance companies accept or dispute your complication claims, making proper documentation crucial for securing fair compensation.

Essential medical records may include:

• Emergency Room Records: provide the foundation for all future complication claims
• Trauma Center Records: Detailed trauma center documentation includes neurological examinations, imaging studies, and surgical reports
• Initial Surgical Reports: Operative notes from spinal fusion, decompression, or stabilization surgeries describe the damage observed during surgery.
• ICU and Acute Care Records: Intensive care unit records could document respiratory failure, cardiovascular instability, and neurogenic shock

Secondary Complications That Require Lifelong Medical Treatment

Secondary complications from spinal cord injuries often demand continuous medical management for the remainder of your life, creating ongoing expenses.

Permanent Bladder Dysfunction

This condition may require lifelong management because the nerve connections controlling bladder function cannot regenerate. You will need ongoing urological care, including regular cystoscopy examinations and urodynamic studies. Additionally, you will need medication adjustments to prevent kidney damage and manage infection risks.

Chronic Urinary Tract Infections

These infections require continuous monitoring, prophylactic antibiotic treatments, and immediate intervention when infections develop. Severe infections often necessitate hospital admissions and intravenous antibiotic therapy.

Kidney Damage Prevention

Long-term bladder dysfunction leads to progressive kidney damage requiring lifelong nephrology care. Regular blood tests, imaging studies, and specialist evaluations monitor kidney function decline. Many victims eventually need dialysis or kidney transplantation, both requiring intensive ongoing medical management.

How Minneapolis Weather Affects Spinal Cord Injury Secondary Complications

Minnesota’s extreme seasonal weather creates unique challenges for spinal cord injury victims, triggering serious secondary complications that significantly impact medical care needs and associated costs.

Winter Weather Complications

• Temperature Regulation Emergencies:Minnesota winters with sub-zero temperatures pose serious hypothermia risks for spinal cord injury victims who cannot regulate body temperature normally.
• Increased Spasticity and Pain: Cold weather significantly worsens muscle spasticity and neuropathic pain.
• Respiratory Complications: Cold, dry winter air exacerbates breathing problems common in cervical spinal cord injuries, triggering bronchospasms and increasing pneumonia risks.
• Mobility Restrictions: Snow, ice, and freezing temperatures severely restrict wheelchair mobility for months.

Summer Heat Complications

• Dangerous Overheating: Minnesota summers, with temperatures reaching the 90s and high humidity, create life-threatening conditions for victims who cannot sweat below their injury level.
• Circulation and Swelling Problems: Hot, humid weather causes increased swelling in paralyzed limbs due to poor circulation.

Proving the Connection Between Your Crash and Secondary Complications

A clear link between your car crash and secondary complications is crucial for securing compensation. However, insurance companies often challenge these connections to reduce claim payouts.

You will need medical evidence and strategic legal documentation that demonstrates how your spinal cord injury directly led to each complication.

Evidence you may include in your claim:

• MRI and CT Scan Results: Imaging studies reveal the exact location and extent of spinal cord damage, directly correlating with specific complication risks.
• Follow-Up Imaging Studies: Serial MRI scans over time can show the development of complications like spinal cord cysts (syringomyelia) or progressive cord damage.
• Specialized Diagnostic Tests: Urodynamic studies document neurogenic bladder dysfunction. Electromyography (EMG) tests reveal nerve damage causing muscle spasticity.
• Outpatient Specialist Records: Neurologists, urologists, pain management specialists, and other experts provide crucial evidence linking complications to your spinal cord injury.

Why You Need Experienced Minneapolis Legal Help for Secondary Complication Claims

Secondary complication claims in spinal cord injury cases represent some of the most complex and high-stakes legal challenges in personal injury law. The difference between experienced spinal cord injury representation and general legal help can mean more compensation and access to proper ongoing medical care.

An attorney can gather the evidence you will need to strengthen your case. They can investigate the full spectrum of secondary complications and ensure your claim accounts for problems that might develop years or decades later. Based on this information an attorney can help guide you on what compensation to seek in your claim.

Experienced attorneys have established relationships with spinal cord injury specialists, life care planners, and rehabilitation experts. These relationships are crucial because secondary complication cases require multiple expert witnesses who can explain complex medical concepts to juries and establish clear causal connections between your injury and each complication.

If your case does have to go to trial, an attorney knowledgeable about court proceedings can help you prepare your testimony and knows what evidence needs to be presented to a jury. When you take on a court case alone, you may not be sure what steps to take and could become overwhelmed.

Call TSR Injury Law After You Have Suffered From a Minneapolis Car Collision Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries alter a person’s life in ways that are hard to imagine unless you are experiencing it. A single traumatic event can turn into multiple secondary complications, adding layers of suffering and expense to your recovery journey.

At TSR Injury Law, we have a strong reputation for managing complex cases. Although we cannot change what has happened to you, we can fight to recover the compensation you need for a better tomorrow.

Worried about the cost of hiring a lawyer? Don’t be. We take injury cases on contingency, which means you pay us no upfront costs or fees.

Call our trusted law firm today for a FREE consultation. (612) TSR-TIME