Missouri Injury Attorney Blog

David Payne is an experienced auto injury lawyer and understands that help is needed at just about every corner for client's to understand the process. Part of that help is giving resource to the client about what is know about their diagnoses. Below is some info a common injury from a car wreck or any injury.

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My doctors have told me I have a herniated disc--What is a herniated disc?

Spinal discs are round cushions that lie in between the vertebrae of the spinal column-we all have them. These discs basically act like little shock absorbers between the vertebrae, cushioning them when we contort our bodies. These discs consist of both an external shell and a liquid substance in the middle. A metaphor often used with juries in personal injury cases is that the discs are like jelly donuts.

If a disc is injured from trauma during an auto accident, the "jelly" may, and often does, leak out of the disc. If the inner core of the disc extrudes back into the spinal canal, it may impact a nerve root and that is where the pain comes in. The weak spot in a disc is directly under the nerve root and a herniated disc can put great pressure on the nerve, which can cause great pain to radiate throughout the whole body.

Where exactly the pain radiates to depends on where the disc herniation occurs. When a patient has a symptomatic herniated disc, the pain is not felt in the disc area; rather, the disc herniation is pinching a nerve in the spine that causes 'radicular' pain. This radicular pain is typically described as a pain that shoots through the body, usually to one area in particular.

Each nerve in the spine is connected to a particular area of the body. This pain can be nerve root pain, or even leg pain if the herniation is in the lumbar (back), or yet still arm pain from a cervical (neck) herniated disc.

A herniated disc is rarely diagnosed in the ER after an auto crash. This is because the disc is invisible on an x-ray and a patient typically needs a CT scan or MRI test so that a physician can pick up a disc herniation. A discography, myelography, or an electromyography are sometimes also used to diagnose herniated discs.

However, even is diagnosed with a herniated disc, it is worth noting that most experts agree that these diagnostic tests cannot diagnose the injury victim's pain. There is no clear cut correlation between the degree of the herniation and the patient pain symptoms.

What is a herniated disc case worth by settlement or at trial?

Sorry, I can't give a definitive answer. The answer, naturally, is that it depends on the injury and overall facts and circumstances of the case. Some herniated disc injuries leave a patient in constant pain for the rest of their lives. Some try traction, steroid injections, therapy and surgery and still find themselves in pain that will last a lifetime.

The more complicated cases involve preexisting injuries of the victim. A favorite tactic of lawyers defending personal injury cases on behalf of the insurance companies involving herniated discs is pointing the finger at preexisting degenerative problems with a patient's spine, such as spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, and spondylolisthesis. Most of these are conditions that begin in many people in their early 30s and are not related to trauma and often accompanied with pain of any kind.

Therefore, it must be established that the patient's problems are not due to the degenerative condition, but to the trauma sustained in the accident.

All of this begs the question of what happens when a person has a preexisting herniated disc or some type of degenerative changes and was asymptomatic (without symptoms) before the accident.

If you have either one of these issues, you and your attorney must be able to clearly articulate the difference between your problems and treatment before the auto accident and your current condition. If there is no difference in your condition after the accident, your chances of a substantial recovery may very well diminish dramatically. On the other hand, if there is a notable difference in your way of life after the accident that would not have occurred in the absence of the auto accident, your chance of a quality settlement will likely increases dramatically.

Call David Payne for more information and advice from a local personal injury attorney in Missouri.