What Is a Catastrophic Injury?

While all injuries are serious, there are some that can be classified as “catastrophic.” These are injuries that take a long time to heal and often have lifelong consequences. Truly catastrophic Injuries have a life-altering impact on survivors and their families, requiring ongoing medical support while often impeding their ability to return to the same quality of life.

Examples of catastrophic injuries include the following:

• Acoustic Trauma: This refers to injuries that affect your ability to hear—often from prolonged exposure to loud noises. This can be broken into two separate forms of acoustic trauma. One form results from sudden exposure to excessively loud noise; the other is prolonged exposure that causes damage over a long period of time.
• Amputation: The loss of a limb is one of the most devastating injuries. In some cases, traumatic amputation will occur in the course of the accident itself; in others, surgical amputation will be necessary if the limb suffered severe damage. Limb loss can leave the victim unable to continue in their line of work and require prolonged rehabilitation.
• Burn Injuries: Burns are categorized according to the depth of damage to the skin. While first-degree burns affect only the outermost layer of skin (e.g. sunburns), second- and third-degree burns can be extremely painful and result in life-long scarring and disfigurement. Burns are physically damaging and leave survivors with emotional trauma.
• Loss of Vision: Explosions, accidents, and other serious incidents can cause loss of vision and eye injuries affecting any person in New Mexico. At least 2,000 eye injuries are sustained on the job every day. Workers can lose their vision due to blunt force trauma by a flying object, a fracture, chemical exposure, and lasers.
• Spinal Cord Injuries: Spinal cord injuries are classified as either “complete” or “incomplete” depending on how much loss of motor function a survivor loses. Depending on where the injury was sustained and how complete the injury, spinal cord injuries may result in permanent paralysis, making this one of the most catastrophic injuries.
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): There are two types of serious head injuries: closed and open. Closed head injuries may involve blunt form trauma, whereas open injuries involve a penetrating force. Regardless, TBI can lead to debilitating primary and secondary consequences. Severe TBI may require the need for around-the-clock care.

Although the types of catastrophic injuries may be different, all have a significant impact on a survivor's life. Seeking counsel from an experienced attorney is one of the most important steps you can take if you or a loved one were seriously injured. At Arnold & Itkin, we are prepared to help you seek the compensation that will pay for your medical needs and so much more. It all starts with a free consultation with our catastrophic injury firm in Albuquerque.

What Our New Mexico Catastrophic Injury Attorneys Have Accomplished

In legal terminology, the act of compensating someone for their losses is called “making them whole.” Under the law, a loss is a literal thing—a loss renders the plaintiff incomplete, robbed, or reduced, and compensation restores them. In some ways, a person can never truly be made whole after a catastrophic injury. But our New Mexico catastrophic injury lawyers have broken records and pushed the limits of plaintiffs' law in our attempts to restore our clients’ lives.

Our record-setting victories for catastrophic injury claims include:

• $8 billion verdict won for a victim of physical deformations due to defective drugs.
• $557 million verdict won for a young woman struck and catastrophically injured by Union Pacific train.
• $357 million settlement for a group of workers harmed in a massive workplace accident.
• $193 million settlement for workers grievously harmed by a pipeline explosion.
• $177.5 million settlement for multiple workers severely burned in an industrial fire.

Making someone whole means recovering their medical expenses, replacing their lost wages, and ensuring all future costs are covered. For catastrophic injury claims, it also means addressing non-economic damages: pain and suffering, loss of companionship, loss of enjoyment, and other dire costs incurred by serious injuries. That’s what our work has accomplished. These results represent lives changed for the better, after people experienced the worst injuries.

Recent Cases Filed by Our NM Serious Injury Lawyers

Plaintiffs turn to us for our case results and history of beating major defendants, but years of experience have taught us it’s not the only reason. People turn to us because we recognize what they’re going through as human beings. We take these cases personally because we see what insurance companies and corporations and defendant litigators don’t see: you’re a person. That’s what drives us to fight as hard as we can for your future.

Here are a few recent catastrophic injury cases we've filed in New Mexico:

• Representing Inspector Injured in Fall from Ladder at New Mexico Oil Site
• Cases Filed for 4 Clients Hurt in Truck Accidents
• Representing Injured 18-Wheeler Drivers
• Jones Act Claim Filed for Seaman Left Adrift in Hurricane

In every case we file, we focus on what matters most—the person at the heart of the accident. If you’ve suffered a serious and permanent injury, reach out to our catastrophic injury law firm in New Mexico today.

Non-Economic Damages for New Mexico Catastrophic Injury Claims

Injury claims offer plaintiffs a chance to recover the cost of their medical treatment, lost wages, and other dire financial losses from an accident. But catastrophic injury claims are on another scale; the effect of a serious accident isn’t measured in years, but decades. The accident changed the trajectory of your life; we want to help correct that.

So, our Albuquerque catastrophic injury lawyers fight for plaintiffs to recover non-economic damages—claims that, under the law, only apply to serious and long-term injuries. Non-economic damages are the law’s way of recognizing that your losses aren’t just about finances. With our years of experience handling catastrophic accident claims, we know that you’re facing a real shift in the way that you live—a shift that could be as painful as the injury itself.

Non-economic damages include claims for:

In many ways, catastrophic injuries are permanent losses akin to the loss of a family member. The only difference is that you’ve lost the life you might have had if you’d never been in an accident. Such accidents come with social and psychological costs, so our New Mexico serious injury lawyers do everything in their power to help the jury understand. Our record-setting results show just how effective we’ve been at doing exactly that.

Liable Parties in Catastrophic Personal Injury Lawsuits

In catastrophic injury cases, determining liability is crucial to securing the compensation needed for a lifetime of care and recovery. Several parties can be held legally responsible for causing serious harm, including individuals and companies. Manufacturers, property owners, employers, medical professionals, and others can be held responsible for failing to provide proper care or for engaging in conduct that places others at risk of experiencing serious injuries.

Companies can be held accountable for catastrophic injuries caused by:

• Negligence: Negligence is a common factor in many catastrophic injury cases. Employers and companies can be liable if they fail to provide a safe working environment, proper training, or adequate supervision. This includes industries such as oil and gas, manufacturing, construction, and healthcare, where the consequences of negligence can be particularly severe. Employees, customers, visitors, and consumers may be at risk.
• Unsafe Work Environments: Employers are responsible for ensuring that workplaces meet safety standards and regulations. This includes maintaining equipment, providing safety gear, and implementing comprehensive safety protocols. Companies that fail to address hazardous conditions or ignore safety violations can be held liable for resulting injuries. This applies across all sectors, from construction sites to industrial plants and even office settings.
• Oversight Failures: Oversight failures occur when companies do not adequately monitor and enforce safety measures or when they push employees to work under unsafe conditions. This can include overworking employees, neglecting regular equipment maintenance, or failing to conduct thorough safety inspections. Trucking companies, for example, may be liable if they force drivers to exceed legal driving hours or ignore vehicle maintenance needs.

Whether it's a construction company, a chemical plant owner, or any other party that has caused you harm, you deserve the opportunity to hold them accountable. Our Albuquerque catastrophic injury lawyers know how to investigate these cases and face off against the largest opponents in order to seek justice for our clients and their families. 

Contact Arnold & Itkin for a Free Consultation: (888) 493-1629

At Arnold & Itkin, we don’t back down because we’re not afraid of a fight. We meticulously investigate and prepare every catastrophic injury case we handle as though it were going to trial. We take every step it takes to secure the best possible outcome for every client. Why? Because we know we’re dealing with people’s lives, and our New Mexico injury lawyers believe that our clients deserve the chance at the brightest futures. If you or a loved one has sustained a catastrophic injury that you feel is the fault of a third party, we encourage you to contact our New Mexico serious injury law firm as soon as possible. We have recovered billions of dollars on behalf of our clients, and we are ready to help you.

Do not hesitate to contact us today for a free consultation. Our Albuquerque catastrophic injury attorneys are here to help.