SOFT TISSUE INJURY

The body is made up of what is called hard tissue and soft tissue. The hard tissue is the bones, and basically everything else in the body can be considered soft tissue. When doctors and lawyers refer to a soft-tissue injury, they are generally referring to a back injury that is not a serious injury or a whiplash injury with regard to muscles, ligaments, or tendons.

Blood supply to muscles, ligaments, and tendons is generally what helps soft tissue injuries to refresh and heal when muscles, ligaments, or tendons have been bruised or injured. The greater the blood supply to the soft tissue, the more apt it is to recover quickly. Therefore, muscles, which have the greatest blood supply, will tend to heal more quickly than a ligament or tendon, which has much less blood supply, or very little blood supply. A tendon connects the muscle to the bone, and a ligament connects the bone to the bone.

The largest tendon is what is commonly referred to as the Achilles heal tendon, and if that ruptures, it basically has to be re-attached by a medical professional. Also, if a ligament is torn, it generally will have to be re-attached by a medical profession.

For further information see the related sections:

• Spinal Injury
• Brain Injury
• Automobile Accident
• Motorcycle Accidents

Here at the Law Offices of Burg and Brock, Inc. our team of legal professionals has earned many a soft tissue injury settlement for our deserving clients. The key to successfully arriving at a satisfactory soft tissue injury settlement is employing a personal injury attorney who a) brings to the table a wealth of experience and expertise at negotiation, and b) has sufficient trial experience to deter the opposition from pursuing the matter in court.

Let us begin with the concept of negotiation. A soft tissue injury settlement can be a complex and convoluted legal matter, and it requires the attentive and capable hands of an accomplished personal injury attorney. Our founder, Cameron Brock, has a deep wellspring of knowledge on personal injury law, including issues arising from soft tissue injury. He also a proven track record; over the last 21 years, he and his firm have won over $200 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of their clients.

Trial experience is also essential to a successful soft tissue injury settlement. This may seem counter-intuitive, because a settlement takes place outside the courtroom. But a big insurance company won’t feel the need to settle out of court if they like their chances at trial. Cameron Brock has a solid reputation at court, and many defendants will balk at taking him on in a trial that might cost them much more in time and resources than a quick soft tissue injury settlement.

Burn injuries often result from:

• on the job incidents,
• automobile accidents,
• fires in structures,
• electrocution or electrical burns,
• thermal burns, and
• chemical burns.

Electrical burn injuries result from exposure to high voltage electricity. On the job exposure for those working in the electrical field is ever present. The burn injuries result from electric current flowing through the body and causing a severe exit wound. Possibly, high voltage will cause the heart to stop beating and result in the death of the victim. Workers can be electrocuted on the job and experience fatal work-related injuries.

Thermal burn injuries occur when there is exposure to, or contact with steam, flames, flash, and hot surfaces or hot liquids with a temperature of 115 degrees. Thermal burn injuries may be on the job related and occur while cooking on hot stoves, for example.

Automobile fires may result from auto accidents, putting passengers at great peril. Automobile fires may be caused by gas explosions as well as contact with another object.

Chemical burn injuries are caused by contact with acids or strong bases such as alkaloids. Often strong chemicals are used in laboratories and place on the job workers at risk. Very strong chemicals will dissolve skin at contact and are difficult to wash away at contact exposure.

Fires are a common cause of residential fire deaths and office building fire deaths. Heating and electrical equipment may malfunction and result in serious burn injuries or death.

When skin is severely burned, scar tissue is formed. This burn scar tissue loses many normal characteristics because of the severe scaring.

• Loss of Ability to Regrow: When the skin suffers third degree burn injuries, it may lose its ability to regrow. In that event the surgeon will transplant undamaged skin from another part of the body to the damaged area. Modern medicine has also developed artificial skin or skin grown in laboratories to cover severely burned areas of the body.
• Loss of Elasticity: Skin normally has a wonderful characteristic of elasticity. Loss of elasticity is a consequence of burn scar tissue.
• Loss of Sense of Touch: Normally we rely on our sense of touch to tell when objects are hot or cold. Loss of sense of touch is a consequence of severely burned and scared skin tissue.
• Loss of Ability to Perspire: One way the body acts to stay cool is to perspire. Perspiring brings the fluid to the skin surface, so the fluid can evaporate and we then feel cooler. Perspiration also helps the body eliminate waste. A seriously burned victim’s skin may not perspire normally as the quality and ability of the skin tissue has been compromised. This loss of ability to perspire means that the body’s own way of cooling itself can no longer function.
• Need for Protection from Weather: Severely burned skin, even after healing, must be permanently protected from the sun and weather elements.
• Risk of Infection: Dead Skin (called eschar) needs to be remove to make a clean, raw place for skin grafting or new skin to grow. This is called debridement. Debridement is necessary to help prevent infection since dead tissue from burns is a breeding ground for bacteria and infection.

Burns may cause devastating, life altering, debilitating, burn injuries, and even death.
Repeated surgeries for skin grafts may be required with painful recovery. Because there are so many ways a person can become burned, it is impossible to state in general if there is liability and impossible to specify under what circumstances there might be liability.
Whenever a person is severely burned they or their family members should seek legal counsel. Whenever a family member is deceased as a result of serious burn injuries, their family members should seek legal counsel.