Maison Law can help you and your family when there’s an accident that leaves you facing traumatic injuries in California. Every injury is traumatic on some level, but ones involving your diaphragm are different. Anytime there’s an issue with your breathing, it’s serious. Our team can guide you through the claims process so you can move forward. Set up a free consultation today.
Should I Get a Lawyer?
When you have an injured diaphragm, it’s obviously pretty serious. As the main muscle that’s used in breathing, any damage to it brings up immediate problems—no matter what kind of accident you’re in.
Medical care is a must in these situations, but after that, you’re going to start wondering how you’ll pay for medical bills and surgeries, deal with lingering pain and anxiety, and how you can make up for missed paychecks at work. That’s where the legal process comes in, but you might be wondering if you need a lawyer for it. The honest answer is that it depends on your particular situation, but generally, our team will help you with:
- Understanding what the legal path forward looks like.
- Looking into what caused the accident and who might be responsible.
- Helping you gather medical records and other evidence, then putting it together for a claim.
- Handling all the talks with the insurance company.
When you’re dealing with a serious diaphragm injury, the last thing you should have to worry about is trying to manage an injury claim at the same time. With our team, you don’t have to. We handle the legal side so you can focus on healing. But even with such an injury, it’s important to look at what caused it in the first place.
What Kinds of Accidents Lead to Diaphragm Injuries in California?
As VeryWellHealth notes, the diaphragm is the muscle that sits just below your lungs and helps you breathe. That makes it pretty easy to see why an injury to it is so traumatic. More to the point, though, it happens when there’s blunt force trauma to your torso, which can happen in different scenarios like:
- Car accidents where the chest or abdomen absorbs a strong impact from the steering wheel, dashboard, or seatbelt.
- Pedestrian accidents, including those involving scooters or skateboards, where the body takes a direct hit.
- Bicycle and motorcycle accidents, either from being struck by a vehicle or hitting the ground during a fall.
- Slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accidents, especially falls from heights or onto hard surfaces.
While injuries to the diaphragm are actually rare, they’re almost always serious. Typically, these injuries include:
- Tears in the diaphragm muscle
- Diaphragmatic ruptures or hernias
- Internal organs pushing into the chest cavity through the tear
- Breathing problems caused by the trauma
Every accident is different, so the exact injury can vary. What’s important to know is that diaphragm injuries are serious and usually need immediate medical care. Once your condition is stable, you can start thinking about what your options are moving forward.
What Evidence Can Help My Diaphragm Injury Claim?
No one expects to walk away from an accident with an internal injury like a torn diaphragm. But when it happens, the claims process is really about documenting what happened and how the injury has affected you. To do that, you can start collecting evidence like:
- Your medical records show what doctors found after the accident. This might include CT scans, chest imaging, surgical reports, and notes from specialists describing the diaphragm injury and any complications. These records help connect the injury to the accident.
- Police reports or incident reports create an official record of what happened. They usually include details about when and where the accident occurred, who was involved, and what may have led to it.
- If anyone saw the accident happen, their account can help explain how it unfolded. In some cases, doctors or surgeons may also explain how the force of the accident caused the diaphragm injury.
- Pictures of vehicle damage, the accident scene, or the area where a fall happened can help show the kind of impact involved.
- Diaphragm injuries often mean hospital stays, surgery, and follow-up care. Keeping track of medical bills, prescriptions, and other related costs helps show how the injury has impacted you financially.
After such a serious injury, it’s hard to think about collecting evidence and putting it all together. Your focus should always be on your health first, and everything else will take care of itself. But our team can make sure you have all of this evidence and that it’s presented in the right way.
Who’s Legally Responsible for Diaphragm Injuries in California?
From a legal standpoint, the seriousness of your injury doesn’t change your rights. If your diaphragm injury happened because someone else was negligent, you can file an injury claim to recover financial support—called damages.
But the starting point of any claim is figuring out who was legally responsible for the accident itself. With these types of accidents and injuries, that could fall on:
- Drivers who were speeding, distracted, impaired, or otherwise careless.
- Property owners who allowed dangerous conditions on their property that led to a fall or other accident.
- Employers who failed to provide safe working conditions or proper safety equipment.
- Companies that made defective products, such as faulty vehicle parts or unsafe equipment.
- Government agencies that failed to properly maintain roads, sidewalks, or other public spaces.
One of the challenges in this situation is that more than one person can be (and usually is) involved. When that happens, blame can get passed around. But to get damages, you actually need to file a claim
What Damages Can I Get With a Diaphragm Injury Claim?
While your rights are the same no matter what kind of accident you’re in—or what injury you have to your diaphragm—it’s still about one thing: recovering damages. This is going to be crucial financial support to help with everything you’ve lost in the accident, and you actually get them by:
- Filing an insurance claim outside of court, or
- Filing a personal injury lawsuit.
At that point, it’s about presenting your evidence and making a claim. With a successful claim, you can potentially get things like:
- Current and future medical expenses
- Current lost income or a loss of future earnings if you can’t work anymore
- Repair/replacement costs for your damaged property
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Reduced quality of life
What you’re able to recover is going to depend on your specific diaphragm injuries and what you’re able to show in terms of documentation. But one way or the other, you’re dealing with a serious injury that is going to make your life more difficult in both the short-term (and usually the long-term). But it’s not something you have to go through alone.
Contact Maison Law After a Diaphragm Injury in California
If you’re in an accident that injures your diaphragm, it’s not like other injuries. You’re immediately in a life-threatening situation. But once your immediate medical needs are taken care of and you start healing, the legal process is going to become very important to your overall recovery. That’s where our team of California traumatic injury lawyers at Maison Law can step in and guide you. To talk through your options, contact us today for a free consultation.
