The spinal cord is a length of tissue that extends from the brain to about the belt line through the backbone or vertebrae. It contains nerves that carry signals to and from the brain to control voluntary movement (like moving limbs) and sensation (like feeling a pinprick). It is sort of an “information superhighway” for the body carrying billions of messages back and forth from the brain.
The nerves within the actual spinal cord are called Upper Motor Neurons (UMN). This bundle of nerves and the brain make up the central nervous system. However this is not enough to connect the whole body; nerves run throughout the arms, legs, torso, and face to connect to areas throughout the body to the central nervous system, sort of like rural roads connecting to the Interstate. These nerves continue to branch out to reach every moveable muscle and sensory area (where you can feel things by touch). This is called the Lower Motor Neurons (LMN) and make up the Peripheral Nervous System. Other systems, such as the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems control things like blood pressure and body temperature.
The vertebrae protect the spinal cord from injury. Like the skull protecting the brain, the bones in the vertebrae act as a hard shell so that this important bundle of nerves does not get damaged during impacts, minor falls, and day-to-day living. Unlike other tissues in the body, the spinal cord can be affected by even the slightest amount of bruising and would be highly susceptible to tearing if it were not protected. Tearing, bruising, and compression can lead to serious and even permanent nerve damage including paraplegia and quadriplegia.
However the backbone system is not perfect. A stiff strip of bone would be much better protection for the spinal cord, but would leave us unable to bend or twist our backs, making it impossible to get up if we fell, bend over to pick something up, or turn our heads to look at something without turning our whole body. A system of 33 interconnected vertebrae helps us do all of these things, but the trade-off is that we are more likely to have a serious spinal cord injury.
In the U.S. there are about 450,000 people living with spinal cord injuries, and there are about 10,000 new cases every year. About 50% of those are caused by auto accidents. The majority of spinal cord injuries (82%) happen to men aged 16-30.
If you have a spinal cord injury due to a car accident, fall, or some other cause and you believe that someone else could be a fault, contact attorney David I. Fuchs at 800-570-2858.