Photo of Professionals at Griffith, Lowry & Meherg
Photo of Professionals at Griffith, Lowry & Meherg

We Treat Every Client Like They Are
Our Only Client

A Personal Injury Law Firm That Puts You First

What should you know about crush injuries?

Suffering from a crush injury can do you a large amount of physical harm, even permanently affecting your physical health. Crush injuries can also happen more often and more easily than most people think, and may occur in any instance where you work with or spend time around heavy or large objects.

It is thus important to understand how crush injuries can impact you and what happens when part of your body suffers from a crush injury.

Trunk injuries

Medline Plus discusses the impact of a crush injury on a victim’s overall health. First, crush injuries can often get divided into two categories: trunk or extremity. Sometimes a person may suffer from a full-body crush, which involves the majority of their body getting crushed under a heavy object. This is often the most fatal type of crush incident, and it will come with complications from both trunk or extremity crush injuries if a victim survives.

Trunk injuries involve a crush impact to the main torso and abdomen area of the body. The biggest complications can include organ failure and blood poisoning, which may occur if blood and oxygen cannot properly circulate to organs as necessary.

Extremity injuries

Extremity injuries involve crush impacts to the limbs, i.e. the legs, arms, hands or feet. In these incidents, there is a high likelihood that the victim will eventually need medical amputation of the crushed limb. It is also possible for gangrene, necrosis and sepsis to set in, potentially putting the victim’s life at risk.

Recovery rates for crush injuries will usually take months if not years, and many victims do not fully recover to the physical state they had before the accident.