How Can Permanent Nerve Damage Affect Both Workers Compensation and Social Security Disability Claims?

How Can Permanent Nerve Damage Affect Both Workers Compensation and Social Security Disability Claims?

Some injuries heal-Others do not.

Permanent nerve damage is different from a simple sprain, strain, or broken bone that eventually returns to normal. When a nerve is permanently damaged, the effects may last for years—or for the rest of a person’s life. That can make nerve damage an important issue in both Alabama Workers’ Compensation claims and Social Security Disability claims.

What Is Permanent Nerve Damage?

Nerves carry signals between the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body. When a nerve is injured, compressed, stretched, cut, or irritated, a person may experience:

• burning pain;
• numbness;
• tingling;
• weakness;
• loss of grip strength;
• loss of balance;
• reduced coordination;
• hypersensitivity;
• shooting pain; or
• difficulty using the affected body part.

Sometimes these symptoms improve, sometimes they become permanent.

How Work Injuries Can Cause Nerve Damage

Permanent nerve damage may result from many types of workplace injuries, including:

• herniated discs pressing on nerve roots;
• neck or back surgery;
• crush injuries;
• severe cuts or lacerations;
• carpal tunnel syndrome;
• cubital tunnel syndrome;
• shoulder, arm, hand, leg, or foot injuries;
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS);
• failed back surgery syndrome; or
• scar tissue after surgery, including epidural fibrosis.

A worker may initially believe they suffered “just” a back injury, hand injury, or foot injury. Over time, however, nerve damage may become the real reason the injury does not resolve.

Nerve Damage Often Affects Function

The most important question is not simply “What is the diagnosis?”  The better question is “What can the worker still do?”

Permanent nerve damage may affect a worker’s ability to:

• stand;
• walk;
• sit;
• lift;
• grip;
• handle objects;
• use tools;
• type;
• climb;
• balance;
• concentrate; or
• perform tasks repeatedly throughout a workday.

That is why nerve damage can become so important in both workers’ compensation and disability claims.

Recommended Reading: Why your Permanent Restrictions Matter more than your Diagnosis

Nerve Damage and Scheduled Injuries

Under Alabama Workers’ Compensation law, injuries to certain body parts—such as the hand, arm, foot, or leg—are often treated as scheduled injuries, but nerve damage can complicate that analysis.  For example, a hand injury may seem limited to the hand. But if the injury causes chronic nerve pain, loss of grip strength, hypersensitivity, medication side effects, or CRPS, the effects may extend beyond the scheduled member and affect the body as a whole.

Likewise, a foot injury with nerve damage may alter a worker’s gait, affect balance, and eventually contribute to hip, knee, or back problems.

In those situations, the claim may involve far more than the original injured body part.

Recommended Reading: Can a Scheduled Injury Become a Whole-Body Injury Under Alabama Workers’ Compensation Law?

Chronic Pain and CRPS

Some nerve injuries lead to chronic pain conditions.  One of the most serious is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, commonly called CRPS or RSD.

CRPS can develop after trauma, surgery, or even an injury that initially appears minor. It may cause burning pain, swelling, skin color changes, temperature changes, sensitivity to touch, stiffness, weakness, and loss of function.

For workers’ compensation purposes, CRPS can transform what looked like a limited injury into a case involving the entire body’s ability to function.

For Social Security Disability purposes, CRPS may affect standing, walking, use of the hands, concentration, medication side effects, and reliable attendance.

Recommended Reading: Can Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Affect Workers’ Compensation and Social Security Disability Claims?

Nerve Damage After Back or Neck Injuries

Herniated discs frequently cause nerve-related symptoms.  A cervical disc injury may cause pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness into the shoulder, arm, hand, or fingers.  A lumbar disc injury may cause pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness into the hip, leg, foot, or toes.

Even after surgery, some workers continue to experience nerve pain or develop conditions such as epidural fibrosis, which involves scar tissue near a nerve root. When that happens, the problem may no longer be simply the disc injury. The long-term nerve symptoms may become the primary functional limitation.

Recommended Reading: Herniated Discs, Workers’ Compensation, and Social Security Disability Benefits

Recommended Reading: How Epidural Fibrosis can Affect your claim

Medical Documentation Is Critical

Nerve damage claims often depend heavily on medical documentation.  Important evidence may include:

• EMG or nerve conduction studies;
• MRI findings;
• surgical records;
• pain management records;
• neurology records;
• physical therapy records;
• Functional Capacity Evaluations;
• grip-strength testing;
• gait observations;
• medication records;
• and consistent complaints of numbness, tingling, burning pain, or weakness.

Because nerve symptoms may not always be visible, consistent reporting to doctors is extremely important.

If numbness, weakness, burning pain, balance problems, or medication side effects are not documented, they may be much harder to prove later.

Recommended Reading: Why Your Grip Strength Matters in Workers’ Compensation and Social Security Disability Claims

Recommended Reading: What Is a Functional Capacity Evaluation?

Permanent nerve damage can change the entire direction of a case.  What begins as a back injury, hand injury, foot injury, or surgical complication may become a long-term neurological condition affecting pain, strength, sensation, balance, endurance, and work capacity.

At Powell & Denny, we have represented injured and disabled workers throughout Alabama for more than 30 years. We understand that serious claims are rarely decided by a diagnosis alone. They are decided by how the injury affects the person’s ability to function, work, and earn a living.

If you have questions about an Alabama Workers’ Compensation claim, or a claim for Social Security Disability benefits, don’t hesitate to contact the experienced attorneys at Powell and Denny today a free consultation; remember. Virtual appointments are available through Zoom so you can meet with one of the attorneys of Powell and Denny from wherever you live, and remember-there is no fee unless you win.

Powell & Denny: We Work When You Can’t.

Offices in Birmingham, Alabama and Huntsville, AL