Anyone that has sustained a spinal cord injury should learn about the available treatment and the potential long-term consequences.
Goals of effective treatment
• Restore the spinal cord’s normal function
• Prevent any further damage to the injured tissues
Types of treatment
• Surgery
• Physical therapy: That strengthens the muscles and improves flexibility
Other forms of rehabilitation
• Some of those decrease the chances for development of pressure injuries
• Some of those decrease the chances for development of a urinary tract infection.
• A rehabilitation program could work to get the victim walking
• A rehabilitation program could focus on limiting the chances for development of depression or anxiety.
What is the physician’s prognosis?
How long should it take the victim to recover? If a doctor had predicted a recovery period of more than 6 months, then the man or woman with the spinal cord injury would be dealing with a long-term injury.
Typical needs of someone with a long-term injury
A caregiver, someone to help with performance of daily tasks, such as dressing and bathing
—A caregiver might help with performance of a physical therapy routine.
—A caregiver might work on getting the patient/victim to do more small tasks, without the aid of others. Those would be tasks such as brushing the hair, feeding self, sorting out some laundry, or doing daily stretching of muscles,
A good caregiver should be able to explain the importance of tasks, such as the stretching of muscles. That helps to keep the blood flowing, so that it can carry nutrients to all parts of the body.
Caregivers often need to help with household chores as well.
• Meal preparation.
• House cleaning
• Transportation
• Serve as companion during visits to a doctor’s office.
There should be someone that can supply the caregiver with food and other necessary items. Those that were not fully recovered after 2 years might need to undergo a vocational program. The results from such a program would determine whether or not the recovering victim would qualify for a continuation of long-term disability insurance.
A professional with extensive knowledge and skills might be able to set up some sort of office space. In that case, the victim’s long-term injury would create a need for acquisition of special office equipment, as per personal injury lawyer in Calgary.
Someone that must remain home on a permanent basis would need help with installation of special equipment, such as a ramp or a chairlift. The location of any such device would depend on the floor plan for the residence in which it needed to be installed. That residence might require an outdoor lift, or it might accommodate a simple ramp. In either case, the installed device should make the life of the victim a bit more tolerable.