Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day 2022 takes place on Friday 13th May.The theme of this year’s Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day (SCIAD) is everyday challenges, bringing awareness to the additional effort, organisation, cost and support that people with SCI must overcome to do things that able-bodied people do, and take for granted, every day.What is SCIAD?SCIAD is an annual event run by leading spinal injury charity, Spinal Injuries Association (SIA) together with charity partners Aspire, Back Up and Spinal Research. Spinal cord injury often occurs as a result of a traumatic, devastating accident or event, but its impact is lifelong and felt by those it affects in multiple ways, both large and small, every day.Spinal injury charities such as SIA support people with spinal cord injury, and their family and carers, with whatever challenges they are facing. SIA is calling on us all to become more aware of those challenges, and those who live with spinal cord injury to join them in recognising the challenges they have overcome and celebrate their ‘small wins’ this Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day.Helping our clients with spinal cord injury (SCI)Helping our severely injured clients overcome everyday challenges is at the heart of what we do at Boyes Turner. We understand the challenges that our clients face. A ‘small win’ has often required a huge amount of effort to achieve. Unlike the challenges, the personal wins are not seen every day.Compensation claims take time, but where the SCI was the result of a road accident, a work injury such as a fall from an unguarded height, or other negligently caused circumstance, our specialist personal injury team can often secure fully funded rehabilitation and other therapeutic treatment straight away. This early intervention gives our clients the best chance of physical and psychological recovery through our coordinated approach to rehabilitation and enables us to support them and their family at each step of the way.Permanent disability from SCI can also be caused by medical negligence, such as delayed diagnosis and treatment of cauda equina symptoms, delayed or negligent surgery, or poor handling of a suspected spinal injury during emergency or surgical care. As soon as responsibility for the injury is accepted, whether by the NHS or the defendant driver or employer’s insurer, we obtain substantial interim payments to start making our client’s life easier straight away.Some of the everyday challenges that we can ease or overcome for our clients include:Access to timely, appropriate, coordinated rehabilitation, with input from medical specialists, case managers and therapists.Reliable, ongoing care and support which meets the needs and lifestyle of the individual, when and how it is needed most, including support with participating in leisure activities, getting out and about and socialising or on holidays.Adapted accommodation to overcome the challenges caused by doorways, stairs, or tiny, inaccessible bathrooms and kitchens, so that home is a comfortable place that works for you.Specialist aids, equipment and assistive technology.Adapted vehicles, wheelchairs and help with transport.Educational and vocational support to facilitate learning or working.We understand that money doesn’t remove the challenges caused by an SCI injury, but we know from our clients’ experiences that compensation helps by easing the financial worry and increased costs of living with a disability. Where compensation is available, our SCI-injured clients benefit from support which makes their lives more manageable by improving their health and wellbeing, mobility and independence, participation and social interaction, and peace of mind.If you have suffered a spinal cord injury and would like to find out more about making a claim, you can talk to one of our specialist personal injury or medical negligence solicitors, free and confidentially, by contacting us here.
