How Do Crush Injuries Impact Your Health?

Crush injuries can occur at any job, but construction workers suffer from a higher rate of these injuries than anyone else. This is due to a combination of the nature of your work, along with the many heavy items, objects and vehicles you work with.

How do these crush injuries impact you in the long and short term, though? What effect do they have on your overall health and well-being?

What impacts the severity of a crush injury?

Medline Plus discusses the impact of crush injuries on life and health quality after a crush injury incident. First, the outcome can vary vastly depending on several factors such as the area of the body suffering from the injury, the force and weight behind the crushing object, how long the object remained in contact with your body, how quickly you received medical attention, and your overall physical health.

Short- and long-term risks

In many cases, the longer you go without treatment, the higher your chances of developing complications and infections. When a crush injury cuts off circulation and oxygen supply to an area of the body, the cells in that area begin to die quickly. This can allow for gangrene and other bacterial infections to set in within hours. You may even risk developing sepsis, a potentially life-threatening infection of the blood.

Lasting impacts of a crush injury can include amputation, nerve damage, and long recovery periods for infection. This can also cost you a lot in medication, hospital bills and lost wages, and these debts can potentially last for years after the initial incident that caused your injury. This is why many victims in your position choose to seek compensation, and why you may wish to consider it as well.