Tissue or degloving injuries are among the most severe injuries a person can suffer in a car accident, industrial accident, or a pedestrian accident.
Degloving injuries are not only excruciatingly painful, but also debilitating and require very long recovery time. In this post, our Chicago personal injury lawyers will discuss what degloving injuries are, how they occur and how they impact the person.
What is a Degloving Injury?
It is a serious and an extremely painful injury that requires immediate and special medical care. When a person suffers a degloving injury, the blood supply to tissues can get disrupted, and the skin, tendons, muscles and nerves can be pulled or separated from the bone. These injuries are painful, slow to heal, and often require multiple surgeries.
Even after the injury is healed, the victim is often left with extreme nerve damage and scarring. In some cases, the victim may require amputation of a digit or a limb. Victims who suffer degloving injuries sometimes have other severe injuries such as spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury as well.
Degloving injuries and tissue damage
There are two primary types of tissue damage that are described as degloving injuries.
- The skin is torn off, and it restricts or cuts off the blood supply to the underlying tissue. The tissue is scraped back like a glove. The victims of this type of injury often require skin grafts.
- The second type is a closed injury. In this type of degloving injury, an extreme trauma or force is applied to the tissue, which causes blood vessels to break, however, the skin does not tear and remains intact. In case of this injury, some of the tissue can become dead or necrotic, due to interruption of blood supply. The skin may become slack or loose, because it is no longer attached to the underlying tissue.
Common causes of degloving injuries
- Farming accidents, which involve tractors or other farm machinery
- Industrial accidents, which involve heavy machinery such as grinders or drill presses
- Bicycle or pedestrian accidents in which the victim is hit by a motor vehicle and is dragged on the pavement, which results on abrasions, scrapes and a degloving injury
- Motorcycle crashes in which scraping on the pavement results in a degloving injury to the legs, knees, shoulders or hands
- A dog bite in which the dog tears away a piece of skin and causes a degloving injury.
Suffered a degloving injury due to another person’s negligence?
As we mentioned earlier, degloving injuries are extremely painful and expensive to treat. Depending on the severity of the injury, the victim may require multiple surgeries and prolonged medical treatment and care.
If you or someone close to you has suffered a degloving injury in an accident caused by another person’s negligence, you should seek legal help from an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer. Give our experienced attorneys a call today at (312) 957-4166 for a free consultation.
