Lake Charles Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer

Because impaired drivers often travel at extremely reckless speeds, a drunk driving accident often causes high-impact crashes that cause catastrophic injuries, including some of the following:

• Traumatic brain injuries: Traumatic brain injuries occur when a violent blow or jolt to the head disrupts normal brain function. They range in severity, but even mild cases can cause disability. More severe TBIs can cause a coma, amnesia, cognitive skill impairment, and even death. TBIs often require extensive inpatient rehabilitation along with potentially lifelong medications and therapies.
• Spinal cord trauma, including paraplegia and quadriplegia: The uncontrolled motions of a drunk driving collision can crush, tear, or severely damage the spine. This trauma can paralyze victims, resulting in partial or total loss of limb function and mobility. Paraplegia affects the lower body, while quadriplegia impacts all four limbs. Both conditions typically demand significant home/vehicle accessibility modifications and long-term rehabilitative care.
• Disabling fractures requiring surgery: Drunk driving crashes frequently break victims’ bones in multiple places, often requiring complex surgical repairs with plates, screws, and pins. These compound fractures carry high risks for severe complications, including bone infections, blood clots, nerve damage, and premature arthritis. After initial hospitalization, victims typically need extensive physical therapy to relearn how to use the affected limb.
• Internal organ damage: Getting slammed around in a drunk driving wreck can detach, rupture, or lacerate organs. Livers, kidneys, and spleens tend to be the most vulnerable. Damage ranges from minor contusions to catastrophic tearing, sometimes demanding full or partial organ removal. Surgeries, medications, dialysis, and transfusions are common for stabilization.
• Severe burns: Explosive fires or friction with pavement or vehicle components can cause drunk driving victims disfiguring second- and third-degree burns over large portions of their bodies. Debriding, grafting, dressing changes, and other burn treatments can also be painful. Significant scarring and contractures requiring ongoing medical care are common long-term effects.
• Amputated limbs: Crush injuries from drunk driving wrecks frequently destroy skin, muscle, nerves, and bone beyond repair. Though advances in microsurgery can sometimes salvage severely damaged extremities, emergency first responders still must occasionally amputate mangled appendages to save lives. Prosthetics, more surgeries, and rehabilitation help amputees adapt.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder: Surviving the trauma of a drunk driving collision can emotionally scar victims for life, causing flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about their crash. Psychotherapy helps victims cope, but PTSD is chronic, potentially worsening over time without lifestyle modifications.

These severe injuries carry potentially lifelong complications, demanding extensive emergency, surgical, and post-acute medical treatment. Our attorneys help clients recover financial damages to cover all accident-related costs.

Be sure to document all expenses associated with any injuries incurred during a drunk driving accident. Your damage award may include compensation for medical bills, lost income, decreased earning capacity, physical and vocational therapy, accessibility vehicle/home modifications, and pain and suffering, among other drunk driving accident-related costs.