Signs of a spinal cord injury after an accident include sudden, severe pain in your back or neck, often accompanied by changes in sensation and motor function.
It’s also common for people to experience symptoms such as numbness or tingling in the extremities, weakness or paralysis, a loss of sensation or control in their limbs, or difficulty breathing.
Spinal cord injuries are one of the main reasons why accident victims in North Carolina end up requiring serious medical care, but that’s not the only type of care you can pursue. You can also ask for legal support from a Charlotte spinal cord injury lawyer to pursue compensation from the party whose negligence caused your life-changing injury.
Why Spinal Cord Injuries Can Be Missed at First
A spinal cord injury is not the same thing as a sore back. After an accident, almost everyone feels stiff or shaken. That makes it easier for a serious spinal problem to hide behind symptoms that seem normal or minor.
A lot of accident victims also minimize what they feel, especially when they want to get home, return to work, or avoid longer hospital stays. On top of that, pain medication can further blur the extent of your symptoms, as can shock and the fact that symptoms can exacerbate over time.
A spinal cord injury can be complete or incomplete. Some people lose sensation or movement right away, while others experience partial impairment, tingling, weakness, or changes that come and go. Any pattern that feels new, strange, or hard to explain deserves serious attention.
The Red Flag Symptoms People Describe in Real Life
Spinal cord injury symptoms do not always seem life-altering or ultra-concerning right away. A lot of them feel like uncomfortable yet seemingly insignificant side effects that many people expect will subside on their own.
However, these are common warning signs that victims of these circumstances should take seriously:
- Numbness, tingling, and pins-and-needles feelings in hands, arms, legs, feet, or groin
- Weakness that makes it hard to grip, lift, stand, or walk normally
- Loss of coordination, clumsiness, or a heavy-leg feeling
- Burning sensations that travel down an arm or leg
- A feeling that one side of the body is off or different compared to the other
- Trouble balancing, especially when turning or stepping up onto a curb
Some victims describe their legs as feeling delayed, like their muscles aren’t communicating at the same speed as their brain. Others describe sudden leg buckling that makes stairs feel unsafe.
These symptoms matter because they point to nerve involvement, and nerve involvement after trauma can involve the spinal cord.
Pain That Behaves Like Nerve Pain, Not Muscle Pain
Muscle pain tends to feel sore and localized. Nerve pain often behaves differently. After an accident, here’s how nerve pain can show up:
- Shooting pain from the neck into the shoulder and down the arm
- Electric or stabbing sensations down the back into the hip or leg
- Pain that flares when you cough, sneeze, or twist
- Pain paired with weakness, numbness, or temperature changes
Many people assume they simply have a pinched nerve, so they try to wait it out. However, when a spinal cord injury is involved, waiting can end up wasting time that you could otherwise put towards healing and recovering. Seek medical attention just in case.
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Breathing Changes, Chest Tightness, and Fatigue
Some spinal cord injuries affect the muscles that make it possible for you to breathe. This is more common with higher-level injuries, yet even less severe spinal cord trauma can cause fatigue and chest discomfort through pain, muscle spasm, and nerve involvement.
Here are what these warning signs often include:
- Shortness of breath that feels new
- Weak cough
- Trouble taking a full breath
- Fatigue that feels out of proportion to the accident
Accident victims sometimes think they are experiencing anxiety that will subside in time. While anxiety can absolutely be part of the picture after a traumatic event, physical changes still necessitate medical evaluation, especially when paired with neck pain, weakness, or numbness.
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The Difference Between a Spine Injury and a Spinal Cord Injury
People use these terms interchangeably, but they are not the same. A spine injury may involve bones, joints, discs, or ligaments. Meanwhile, a spinal cord injury involves the nerves inside the spinal canal.
You can have a serious spine injury without cord damage, but you can also experience cord involvement without a dramatic fracture. These are examples of spine injuries commonly experienced as a result of an accident:
- Herniated discs
- Compression fractures
- Ligament tears
- Facet joint injuries
- Spinal stenosis aggravated by trauma
Spinal cord involvement often presents as neurological changes. This usually takes the form of weakness, numbness, loss of coordination, reflex changes, or bladder and bowel symptoms.
This distinction matters both medically and legally because spinal cord injury cases usually involve larger damages tied to pain and suffering, disability, and long-term impairment.
The Paper Trail Matters in Spinal Cases
Spinal cord injury claims tend to rely on a detailed record that contains:
- Ambulance notes describing movement limitations or numbness
- ER charting of neurological symptoms
- Imaging results and radiology reports
- Specialist evaluations from healthcare professionals
- Physical therapy notes showing functional limits
- Work restrictions and disability documentation
Photos and videos can make a difference, too, especially when they capture the accident scene. Traffic camera footage, business surveillance video, dashcam clips, and body cam footage can further support your lawyer’s liability claims.
In commercial vehicle cases, black box data and onboard camera footage can also add another layer of proof. The more evidence you have backing your statements, the more prepared you’ll be when proving your points.
Contact Us if You Suffer a Spinal Cord Injury in an Accident
After an accident, spinal cord damage is serious, but sometimes, it isn’t immediately obvious. That’s why familiarizing yourself with the early signs of these injuries is so important. If you’re experiencing pain, numbness, or weakness, try not to worry about it getting worse.
Instead, we encourage you to be proactive and reach out for help, even if your injuries don’t worsen after all. You will never regret taking matters seriously rather than brushing things off and convincing yourself that you’re overreacting.
At CR Legal Team, our attorneys provide Whole-Person Legal Care™. With decades of combined legal experience, our firm has been advocating for people like you for over 36 years.
Our lawyers will Stand Up For You®, Care Like Family, Listen To Learn, and Do What’s Right.
