Pain after an accident is expected. Pain that keeps getting worse, spreads, or makes even a light touch difficult to tolerate is something else entirely. Complex regional pain syndrome can develop after an injury and leave someone dealing with chronic pain long after the original trauma.
A Riverside complex regional pain syndrome lawyer can help when that condition may be connected to an accident caused by someone else. Sweet James focuses exclusively on accident and personal injury cases, and our attorneys have experience helping injury victims for more than 25 years.
We offer free consultations and have more than 400 legal professionals on our team. Our California complex regional pain syndrome lawyer team can review how your injury occurred, your medical treatment, and how CRPS has affected your life.
How a Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Lawyer Can Help
CRPS can make a personal injury claim harder to sort out because the original injury may not tell the whole story. A broken wrist from a car accident, for example, might heal while severe nerve pain continues. A complex regional pain syndrome lawyer can review medical records, accident evidence, medical bills, and other documentation to connect what happened with the losses that followed.
A Riverside personal injury lawyer can also deal with the insurance company and investigate the negligent parties who may be responsible. That leaves you more room to focus on appointments, physical therapy, pain management, and the everyday reality of living with a painful neurological condition.
With CRPS, what’s in your medical records can matter even more because the condition doesn’t always stay the same. Pain may intensify, sensitivity can develop, and new limitations may show up as time passes. Records from those appointments can help show that progression, including what your doctors observed and the treatments you’ve needed along the way.
What Does Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Feel Like?
Complex regional pain syndrome affects the nervous system and most often develops after an injury or trauma. It has historically been called reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or RSD, although current medical terminology generally uses CRPS.
The condition can look different from one person to another. Symptoms may include:
- Persistent pain: Burning, throbbing, or severe pain may continue well beyond the period normally expected for the initial injury.
- Skin sensitivity: A light touch, clothing, or a change in temperature can become unusually painful in the affected area.
- Skin changes: The affected limb may look red, pale, blotchy, shiny, or otherwise different from the surrounding skin.
- Swelling and temperature changes: Problems involving blood vessels and the nervous system may cause swelling or noticeable differences in skin temperature.
- Movement problems: Stiffness, weakness, tremors, or reduced mobility can make ordinary activities much harder.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke recognizes two forms of the condition. CRPS Type I develops without confirmed nerve damage, while CRPS Type II occurs when there is an identified nerve injury. Either can interfere with work, sleep, movement, and day-to-day independence.
Accidents and Injuries That May Lead to CRPS
CRPS can develop even when the original injury didn’t seem especially unusual. Someone might hurt an arm or leg in a motor vehicle collision, get treatment, and expect to feel a little better each week. But the pain doesn’t follow that path. It sticks around, becomes more intense, or starts to feel out of proportion to the injury that caused it.
Events associated with a personal injury case may include:
- Car accidents: Fractures, crush injuries, surgery, or other trauma from car crashes may precede the development of CRPS.
- Slip and falls: A wrist, ankle, or other limb injury from a slip and fall accident can sometimes be followed by persistent nerve-related pain.
- Bicycle accidents: Direct trauma to an arm or leg may lead to significant injuries and a difficult recovery.
- Trucking accidents: Serious motor vehicle accidents can involve fractures, nerve injury, surgery, and extended rehabilitation.
- Medical injuries: In some situations, CRPS symptoms may arise following a surgical procedure or another medical injury.
Developing CRPS after an accident doesn’t automatically establish legal responsibility. The underlying event still matters. Evidence must show whether another person or business was legally responsible for the injury that led to the condition.
Treatment and Medical Evidence Can Matter to Your Claim
There isn’t one treatment plan that works for everyone with CRPS. NINDS notes that treatment is generally more effective when started early and identifies rehabilitation and physical therapy as important parts of care. Occupational therapy may also help people adapt to work and everyday activities.
Treatment for CRPS can look very different from one person to the next. Medication, nerve blocks, physical therapy, and other pain management treatments may all be considered. When symptoms remain severe, doctors may also discuss options such as spinal cord stimulation. Those decisions belong between you and your healthcare providers.
A Riverside CRPS lawyer can use your treatment records to help show how the condition has affected your life beyond the diagnosis itself.
Medical expenses, missed work, trouble getting around, and the possibility of future care can all become important when evaluating the losses connected to your injury.
Talk to a Riverside Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Lawyer
Living with CRPS can be frustrating in ways that aren’t always visible to other people. You may look fine to someone across the room while dealing with severe pain, skin sensitivity, limited movement, and another round of medical appointments. That experience deserves to be taken seriously.
Sweet James handles personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis and offers free consultations. Our legal team can review the accident, medical history, treatment records, and insurance issues to help you understand what options may be available.
If CRPS developed after an accident caused by someone else, speak with a Riverside complex regional pain syndrome attorney at Sweet James. Contact us today for a free consultation and tell us what you’ve been dealing with.
