Suffering a leg injury can often mean facing mobility issues. This places a huge strain on your daily life and could impact your work, hobbies, and relationships. If you have sustained a leg injury because of another party’s conduct, it may be possible to begin a personal injury claim to recover your losses. Learn more about what a leg injury could mean.
Most Common Leg Injuries
Leg injuries tend to be categorized as acute injuries or those that develop over time from overuse.
Acute Injuries
These injuries have an immediate onset and are typically the result of traumatic events, like car accidents or falls. A common injury is a leg sprain. These occur if you stretch or tear ligaments in the limb. An ankle or knee sprain is common and can happen if you twist your foot or leg the wrong way.
Alternatively, you can sustain a strain, also called a pulled muscle. It occurs if you stretch or tear muscle fibers.
Your legs have the two longest bones in your body, which are your femurs or thighbones. Despite being the strongest bones, fractures are still possible. Speeding crashes and motorcycle accidents are some of the most common reasons for breaks to this bone. Of all of the bones in your leg, however, the tibia (shinbone) is the most likely to fracture.
In an accident, you can also sustain a dislocated leg bone. This occurs when a bone is knocked out of its joint. It leads to severe pain and, unlike you might see in movies, requires medical intervention to return it to its proper place.
Overuse Injuries
Some leg injuries can develop over time because of overuse. Stress fractures are one of these. The tibia or fibula (calf bone) are likely to suffer these injuries if you play sports or do a lot of running. Running, especially uphill, can also cause shin splints, which is pain along your shinbone.
Tendonitis is another common overuse injury that can affect your leg. This is inflammation of the tendon, which is the tissue that connects your bone to muscles. Your Achilles tendon is particularly vulnerable to this.
Treatments for Leg Injuries
The treatments for leg injuries can vary, depending on the severity of the injury. For many issues, like sprains and strains, resting the affected limb and alternating between hot and cool therapy are typically the first things to try. You may also need over-the-counter painkillers.
Anti-inflammatories could be useful, too, especially when dealing with issues like tendonitis. It may also be necessary to stabilize the leg by using a brace or splint.
When dealing with a fracture or the complete tear of a ligament or tendon, you might need surgery. This can mean facing months of recovery that requires everything from the immobilization of the leg to physical therapy. You’ll likely need to rely on mobility aids, like crutches.
Personal Injury Claims After Sustaining a Leg Injury
Even mild leg injuries can leave you with pain and mobility issues, so if another party caused the wound, you may be able to hold them responsible for your losses. You can do this by filing a personal injury claim.
These claims involve establishing that another reasonable person would not have behaved in the same manner as the defendant. You’ll have to show that they owed you a duty of care and that their conduct breached that responsibility, causing injuries.
Filing a claim isn’t easy. You might be dealing with pain and may not even know what evidence can demonstrate that you deserve compensation.
Time Limit for Filing a Personal Injury Claim After a Leg Injury
You may also not realize that you have a limited time to begin the claim. In Nevada, you generally only have two years to file. If you miss that deadline, you won’t be able to recover anything.
That is why it’s so vital to hire attorneys to assist you through this process. A lawyer will investigate the accident that caused your injury and gather all of the pertinent evidence that can support your case. They will be able to negotiate with insurance companies, too, which is never easy to do on your own. Above all, they can provide the ongoing support you deserve.
Contact the Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyers at De Castroverde Accident & Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
After suffering a leg injury, you may have the chance to begin a claim. You could recover economic and non-economic damages that would address your medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
At De Castroverde Accident & Injury Lawyers, our experienced team of attorneys has helped clients throughout Nevada fight for the compensation they deserve. You don’t have to go through this alone. Contact our team at (702) 222-9999 to schedule a free case assessment.
