Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord damage can be caused by a physical injury or occasionally by a medical accident. Viruses and other infections can also cause permanent damage leading to paralysis. However, a spinal cord injury is not an illness. Parts of the body don't work as they used to but the personality, hopes and fears, likes and dislikes and the sense of humour of a person with a spinal cord injury, are the same as before. You are still you.
All sorts of people, with all sorts of needs, can suffer damage to the spinal cord. Road traffic and sporting accidents are responsible for most spinal injuries, so most people who are injured are quite young, with full and active lives still ahead.
Unlike broken bones, which can mend, the tissue in the spinal cord does not spontaneously regenerate. Research into stem cell treatment offers hope for the future but these are very early days and in the meantime, the spinal cord will not repair itself.
Many people with spinal cord injuries do not make a claim. Perhaps they blame themselves or are not confident of winning in court. Perhaps they find the prospect of discussing personal and intimate details too embarrassing and distressing to contemplate instructing a solicitor.
A person with a spinal cord injury has the right to live independently if he or she chooses. This doesn't mean living alone or without help and support. It means being responsible for and in control of one's daily life and being able to set and achieve one's own goals. The key to independence is the ability to get help, through compensation, with the tasks of every day living.