Facts About Amputation
An amputation is the partial or full removal of an exterior body part (finger, toe, arm, hand, or leg). Amputation may reduce an individual’s quality of life or prohibit them from adequately performing some of their previous job duties.
Below are some facts about amputations in Louisiana:
- According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, the average number of amputations each year from 2003 to 2015 was 74 in Louisiana and 6,759 nationwide.
- The number of non-fatal, work-related amputations with days away from work in Louisiana ranged from 20 to 170.
- For manufacturing industry workers, amputation is a serious risk that causes more than 1,400 serious injuries a year.
- In 2015, 2,600 amputations occurred nationwide—57% of themhappened in manufacturing.
- OSHA announced that amputation injuries were most common in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
- One of the common causes of amputations in the manufacturing industry is when workers operate machines without a proper safeguard. This is usually because they lack training.
Ultimately, amputations are a preventable occurrence in the workplace. When the cause of injury is often lack of safety equipment or poor training, it's an employer's responsibility to ensure worker safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) stated that their goal is to enforce safety regulations to hold employers responsible for not protecting their workers or not reducing instances of worker amputations.
What Is the Impact of a Lost Limb?
The loss of a limb is an extremely traumatic experience, both physically and emotionally. A catastrophic injury like this can leave individuals in pain and anguish for years, and it can make it hard for them to make a living. Aside from that, the medical expenses can be insurmountable. Limb prosthetics can cost tens of thousands of dollars—not including physical therapy and the loss of income.
The various consequences of amputation include the following:
- Body image issues
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Fatigue or exhaustion
- Infection
- Loss of mobility and dexterity
- Muscle contraction
- Social isolation
- Stump and phantom limb pain
Studies show that amputees face an average cost of about $30,000 in hospital and professional treatments in addition to prosthetic costs. When including prosthetic, a patient’s life expenses increase to $403,000 on average. These costs don’t include counseling, emotional pain, and suffering, or the costs of finding a new career.
Contact Our Louisiana Amputation Lawyers Today: (888) 493-1629
If you or a loved one lost a limb because of another person’s negligence, you have the right to receive compensation for your injuries. Proving that negligence caused your amputation means that you can start over without fear or financial hardship. Regardless of whether the party responsible was an employer, a driver, an insurer, or a manufacturer, our Baton Rouge injury attorneys can help you fight for the resources you need. We've helped our clients obtain quality treatment, lost wages, future earnings, and long-term rehabilitation.
People turn to our Louisiana amputation attorneys because we’ve:
- Won billions of dollars for our clients
- Set state and national records with our victories
- Won hundreds of results worth $1 million or more
- Won cases for our clients in more than 40 states
We are here to help you. Contact our Louisiana amputation lawyers today for a free case review at (888) 493-1629!
