New York Blindness Injury

Some injuries have more of an impact on your life than others. A loss of sight impacts your life profoundly, affecting every aspect of your everyday life. Injuries causing blindness can happen as a result of a traumatic brain injury or any type of accident that causes a head injury. A car accident, a slip and fall, or an accident in the workplace can lead to a partial or complete loss of sight. Legal blindness is present when a person has less than 20/200 corrected vision. If your eyesight has been damaged due the negligence of another person it is important to speak with a New York Blindness Lawyer from Stephen Bilkis and Associates for advice and guidance. You may be entitled to compensation for your significant loss, including reimbursement for medical expenses, pain and suffering and loss of income.

There are many types of accidents that result in injuries that lead to blindness. Construction accidents involving chemicals sometimes lead to blindness. For example, when chemicals are spilled or splashed and come in contact with a worker's eye, the chemicals may burn the eye, resulting in a loss of sight. This type of workplace accident could be avoided with proper training and proper use of safety equipment. A head injury may also lead to blindness. Head injuries most often occur in falls. However, traumatic injuries to the head also happen in car accidents. Extremely bright lights that sometime accompany explosions can result in blindness, as well as foreign objects piercing the eye. These types of injuries can lead to damage to the brain's occipital cortex, retinal detachment, lacerations, and corneal abrasion, resulting in permanent or temporary blindness. Whether the accident was a car accident, trip and fall accident, construction accident, or any other type of accident, in most cases the accident was due to the negligence and could have been avoided.

There are six injuries that can happen to the eye: retinal detachment, cataracts, glaucoma, lacerations, abrasions and oculomotor injuries. Some of these injuries are more severe than others. A corneal abrasion for instance can cause temporary blindness, but victims may regain their eyesight. For injuries such as this the time frame for improvement is thought to be three months. In more severe cases however the loss of eye sight is permanent.

Retinal detachment sometimes occurs when accident victims experience a blow to the head or an object entering the eye. Surgery will be necessary to reattach the retina, or permanent blindness can result. Burns to the eye are common from ultraviolet or other bright light that refracts into the eye. If the eye is burned, there is no modality to correct the damage. Oculomotor injuries as well as cataract and glaucoma can occur during a work place accident. Interestingly, cataracts and glaucoma are usually thought of as a disease; however they also can be caused by a traumatic injury.

By making a personal injury claim against the person responsible for the accident that lead to your blindness, you may be able to recover compensation. For example, the defendant may be ordered to pay for medical expenses including expenses related to emergency room treatment, your hospital stay, surgery, visits to your doctors, and medications. In addition to the medical expenses associated with your care immediately following the accident, you may also incur substantial expenses associated with adjusting to life without sight. A person who loses sight would have to purchase and be trained on tools such as special computer programs, a service dog, a cane, magnifiers, glasses, large format or Braille books, and other tactile systems. A personal injury lawsuit may also result in you receiving compensation for the wages he or she lost, as well as for loss of future earning capacity as a result of the accident and loss of sight. Losing one's sight is a physically, emotionally and psychologically painful experience. Therefore, you may also receive substantial compensation for pain and suffering.

If you or a loved one was injured in an accident that left you partially or completely blind, you should contact an experienced attorney who understands both the legal issues associated with personal injury cases as well as the medical implications of blindness. Stephen Bilkis and Associates is experienced in handling personal injury cases stemming from auto, truck, motorcycle, boat, and construction accidents. Contact us at 800.696.9529 to schedule a free, no obligation consultation regarding your case.