long beach broken bones injury lawyers
For over three decades, the Long Beach California broken bone injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have diligently represented their clients. Broken bones are still very common in this country. Many times, the injury is not the fault of the injured person. We are available to start helping you right away. We want to meet with you to discuss your broken bone injury case. We represent all types from fracture cases from workers’ compensation claims and personal injury cases to work injury cases. If you’ve been injured while on the job, our Long Beach workers compensation attorneys can help you get back on your feet with the proper care and financial support.
a definition of broken bones
The scientific term for broken bones is fracture. People who live in this country will most likely have two or more broken bones during their life. Interestingly, one of the two broken bones typically occurs during childhood as kid’s bones are softer and children are accident prone. Fractures happen to a bone or bones when the force that is applied to the bone is stronger than the actual bone. The result is forced a disruption in the continuity of the bone. Health professionals abbreviate fractures in a variety of shorthand including the following three: #, FRX, or Fx. Luckily for those who have fractures, bones are always adding new bone cells.
trust us: dimarco | araujo | montevideo
Broken bone injuries and their related treatments and recoveries are usually very inconvenient. It usually means that the injured person will have to adjust how they walk, eat, write and much more. Our firm wants to be by your side and assist you in getting back to your regular life as soon as it is possible. We will work hard to ensure you get the proper medical care you need to recuperate. Our Long Beach California broken bones injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo will also provide you and your family a comprehensive team of professionals to help work on your injury case. We will consult with accident reconstructionists, economists, physicians, and vocational experts to make sure you receive the maximum compensation you are rightfully and legally due by a judge, the jury or the insurance company.
is it a fracture?
Please consult with your doctor if you believe that you might have a broken bone. This paragraph is only here to provide for general information for a brief overview. With that in mind, fractures are not always easy to confirm or diagnose. This is especially true when they are a hairline or stress fracture. Common signs of a broken bone are: pain, bruising, swelling, and tenderness. Your physician or nurse will most likely use an X-Ray machine to help with the diagnosis.
main causes for broken bones
Some of the statistically most common ways that bones fracture are from slips and falls, osteoporosis related breaks and car, truck, and motorcycle accidents. The typical cases that we have represented during our long history of representing broken bone victims are as follows:
- Violence and fighting;
- Car, SUV and Truck or Trucking accidents;
- Pathological fracture from tumors, infections or cysts;
- Motorcycle accidents;
- Work injury;
- Crosswalk/Pedestrian accidents;
- Osteoporosis;
- Repetitive stresses like running on sidewalks, boxing, etc;
- Slipping and falling;
- On The Job Accident;
- War Injuries;
- Ladder injuries;
- Bicycle or Skateboard accidents;
- Defective Hip Replacement
- Sports Injuries; and
- Gun shots.
broken bones – list
Foot Bones: About one tenth of all broken bones in the USA are breaks that happen to our feet. The human foot is vulnerable to breaks because it is used heavily and easy to injure. The foot is constructed with three sections consisting of the forefoot, midfoot, and the hindfoot. These three sections combine to have twenty-six bones that all work in coordination.
Hindfoot Bones: The hindfoot has two big bones called the talus and the calcaneus. The calcaneus is our heel and the largest bone in the hindfoot and the overall foot. The talus is our ankle and it is what is connected to the leg bones.
Midfoot Bones: The middle part of the foot has five bones which include the cuboid, lateral cuneiform bone, medial cuneiform bone, navicular, and the intermediate cuneiform bone. This section of the foot is meant to absorb shocks and create the arch in the foot.
Forefoot Bones: The forefoot has the majority of the twenty-six bones but many are very small. The nineteen bones make up the long part of the foot whose makeup is similar to our fingers’ and palms’ structure. Each toe begins with a distal phalanx at its tip. The toe’s middle phalanx comes second (though each big toe does not have a middle phalanx). The proximal phalanx is next as it connects to the long metatarsal bones.
Pelvis Bones: The pelvis has four bones and it is essential to our general wellbeing and mobility. The two hip bones break the most out of all bones for people who are over sixty-five years old. Hips are made up of the following three parts: the ilium, the ischium, and the pubis. Most broken hips occur because the bones have been weakened from osteoporosis. Osteoporosis lessens the bone density in those that it affects. The other two bones of the pelvis are the sacrum and the coccyx. The sacrum is at the bottom of the spine whereas the coccyx is also called the tailbone. The pelvic cavity is formed by all these bones.
Leg and Thigh Bones: The thigh’s long and strong bone is called the femur. Rather impressively, it can support over twenty-five times the weight of an average adult. Due to that strength, trauma that is directed to the femur bone usually will result in the hips breaking instead. The lower legs from the knees down consist of six bones with three for each leg. They are the fibula, patella, and tibia. The tibia and fibula are found below the knee. The patella is the bone whose nickname is: kneecap.
Hand Bones: The metacarpal bones are the bones that bridge the fingers with the wrist bones. Their location is the palm of the hand. There is one of these metacarpal bones for each of the four fingers and thumb. The fingers play a major role in many of our daily activities like writing, eating, typing, driving, and dialing the phone. Each finger has three small bones while the thumb only has two bones beyond the metacarpal palm bones. The closest bone to the wrist is the proximal phalanx. The middle bone among the three bones for the four fingers is named the middle phalanx, while the last bone of the three, and furthest from the palm, is named the distal phalanx.
Wrist Bones: Fractured wrists are statistically the most common fracture that people suffer who are under sixty-five years of age. More than fifteen percent of fractures that get admitted to the ER are for wrist broken bones. A wrist fracture most likely refers to breaking either or both of the two forearm bones. The forearm bones are the radius and ulna. The eight bones of the wrist are in two rows of four bones. One row has the trapezoid bone, capitate bone, trapezium bone, and the hamate bone while the other has the scaphoid bone, lunate bone, triquetrum bone, and pisiform bone. The scaphoid bone is the most common among the eight to break.
Arm Bones: Forearms are much more likely to fracture than the upper arm bones. As mentioned before, the forearm is two long bones called the ulna and the radial. These bones often break because of falls or trauma from car or motorcycle accidents or injuries sustained while playing sports. When the fracture is in the middle section of the bone (not near the wrist or the elbow) then it is referred to as a radial shaft break or ulnar shaft break. Olecranon breaks are fractures at the end of the ulna bone near the elbow. Radial head breaks are when the radial bone breaks near the elbow. The humerus is a very thick and strong bone that is the main part of the upper arm from the elbow to the shoulder. The humerus head is the part of the bone where it meets the shoulder socket. Two parts of this area that commonly break are called the surgical neck of the humerus and the anatomical neck of the humerus.
Thorax Bones: The thorax has twenty-five bones as part of its structure. Twenty-four of those are the ribs and the twenty-fifth bone is the sternum. Some skeleton experts say, though, that the sternum is actually made up of three bones called the gladiolus (body of the sternum), the xiphoid process, and the manubrium. Some ribs connect to the sternum. The twenty-four ribs protect many of our important internal organs. Broken ribs can be quite painful as it is even painful when an injured person breathes heavily or laughs.
Spinal Cord: The spinal cord contains five lumbar vertebrae, twelve thoracic vertebrae, and seven cervical vertebrae. There is more information about spinal cord injuries here.
Shoulders and Collarbones: The collarbone is also called the clavicle. It is part of the shoulder and its most important functions are to keep the shoulder up while providing protection for the blood vessels and nerves in that region. The second bone that makes up the shoulder is the scapula. It is more commonly known as the shoulder blade. There are three types of scapula fractures that are common: scapula body fractures, scapular neck fractures, and glenoid fractures.
Cranial and Skull Bones: The skull has the critical task of protecting our brain and everything inside of our head. The skull includes eight cranial bones. They are: the two parietal bones that protect the top of the skull along with the sides, the two temporal bones that are located below the parietal bones, the frontal bone, the sphenoid bone which is located in front of the temporal bone, the occipital bone that is protects the back of the skull, and the ethmoid bone.
Facial Bones: These bones are a set of fourteen bones that provide the face with strength and functionality. They include the mandible (which is the lower jaw and it is also what the lower teeth anchor to), the two maxilla bones that are also named the mustache bones since they come together to create the upper jaw, the two nasal bones that are next to each other and create the nose’s bridge, the two cheek bones (zygomatic bones), the two palatine bones, the hyoid bone in the throat, the lacrimal bone, the vomer, and the inferior nasal concha.
broken bones: types of fractures
Health professionals generally accept the following categories for broken bones. Your fracture may fit into more than just one category.
Compound Broken Bone: Compound breaks are where the broken bone has punctured a hole in the injured person’s skin. Doctors will still put it in the compound fracture category if the break does pierce the skin but then the bone goes back beneath the skin. This type of fractures is a bit trickier since it carries the potential risk of a dangerous deep bone infection that is named osteomyelitis. It can be chronic or acute and can be caused by infectious germs that get in when the wound is open. A compound fracture can also be called an open broken bone.
Simple Broken Bone: When it is a simple fracture, the bone or bones still breaks but the injury does not create an open hole in the outer layer of skin. A simple broken bone can also be referred to as a closed broken bone.
Greenstick Broken Bone: This type of fracture usually will happen the most often to the bones of young children. Greenstick fractures are when the injured person’s bone(s) have bent because of physical force but they have not broken or snapped. This is similar to trying to break a green twig in nature.
Transverse Broken Bone: Transverse fractures are when the break is at a 90 degree angle to the alignment of the bone whereas Linear Broken Bones are when the fracture’s “line” is parallel to that of the bone.
Impacted Broken Bone: This type of fracture has happened when two of the patient’s bones’ ends are forced into each (like falling). This usually happens to older adults and children since they are the ones most likely to slip, trip or fall.
Pathologic Broken Bone: Fractures with pathologic causes are those that occur partially or fully because of a disease that weakens the bones like tumors, infections, osteoporosis, and some bone disorders. Osteoporosis is when the bones are losing old bone cells quicker than they can replace those with new bone cells.
Displaced Broken Bones: Displaced fractures are when the bone breaks and shifts out of its normal location and alignment.
Non-displaced Broken Bone: These are breaks where the bone does not move from its normal alignment and location.
Commuted Broken Bones: It is a commuted break if the fracture caused the bone to break into many pieces.
Stress Fractures: Stress fractures are not those that happen due to a single and acute event. They are caused by a repetitive force against the bones over a long duration. Poor nutrition and athletics are two of the top reasons for stress fractures.
broken bones: potential treatments
Your list treatment options and healing times are different for most fracture cases. It will partially depend upon the severity of the break, the location, the type of break and any other injuries that a patient is also suffering from. Sometimes, the doctor will just need to set the broken bone in its proper spot and then put a cast on to let it heal as the bone goes through the healing process. Some breaks may need additional help to heal the right way. In these more complex cases, pins, screws, rods and plates might be utilized.
free consultation ~ contact our firm
Initial case consultations and case evaluations are free for you. We want you to be as comfortable as possible with our firm, so we give you the consultation as a way for you to get to know us and discuss your situation and options. In addition to the first consultation being free, we promise work on your behalf on a contingency basis where you do not pay or owe us anything unless and until we win your case. The broken bone injury lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo Long Beach will meet you at our office, your house or your hospital room on Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:30pm. By appointment, we will even meet with you on Saturday and Sunday and in the evening.
Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Long Beach, California
Call us anytime at: (562) 372-3960
over three decades of experience
Our quality reputation that has been built on over thirty years as broken bone injury lawyers is known throughout Long Beach, California, San Bernardino, Orange County, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Central California. Throughout that time, we have received many honors and awards but the honor that we are most proud of is the high number of past clients that have referred their friends and family to us. There is no better compliment and for that we say: Thank you!
you heal. we’ll take care of the rest
