Recovering Compensation for Opportunistic Diseases Following Injuries
Seizing on opportunity when it presents itself, is a good thing generally in life. Unfortunately, your body, and disease, feel the same way. That’s why what are known as opportunistic diseases, can be a real problem for accident victims.
What are Opportunistic Diseases?
Opportunistic diseases are diseases or illnesses that come from, thrive off of, or take advantage of, some underlying condition or injury that you sustain.
As a simple example, imagine someone who has a compromised immune system, and then develops, and dies from, the flu. While the flu is normally and very often very survivable, that flu took advantage of that person’s compromised immune system, and because of that, was allowed to grow and flourish and eventually become deadly.
Disease Post-Accident and Injury
Many people aren’t aware that physical injury, including injuries that happen in accidents, often trigger other, opportunistic diseases.
Sometimes, the opportunity comes from a physical breakdown. Imagine someone who has suffered a burn in an accident. The burn causes a breakdown in the skin, which reduces and weakens the skin’s normal barrier against bacteria and viruses.
In other situations, the body fighting the injury itself, can lower immune system response, leading to opportunistic disease. That’s why so many people who are in hospitals recovering from injuries, often find themselves developing infections or influenza.
Even bed sores or decubitus ulcers, usually associated with nursing home neglect, can be opportunistic. Patients recovering from injury who are immobile for extended periods of time can develop decubitus ulcers, and the resulting infections.
Opportunistic disease happens from spinal cord injuries. Patients with spinal cord injury often develop what is known as spinal cord induced immune deficiency syndrome, which can lead to anything from influenza to deadly infection in the body.
Arthritis is also an opportunistic disease, in orthopedic injuries. When the ligaments or tendons in our joints are injured, that causes areas of those joints to rub together and wear down. Over the years, it can lead to early onset arthritis.
There is even evidence that people in accidents are more susceptible to heart attacks and cardiac events–even years after the accident itself.
Can You be Compensated for Opportunistic Disease?
As an injury victim, you can get compensation for opportunistic disease. The problem comes in that opportunistic disease doesn’t often happen immediately after an accident. Sometimes it can be relatively quick–an infection post-accident can manifest in just a matter of days. But other things, like long term arthritis, may not develop for many years.
That means that in the event a victim has an injury and there is the possibility of opportunistic disease, it is vital that medical experts tell a jury about what the victim can expect down the road, and that any award for future medical expenses, account for opportunistic disease.
Get the compensation you need, now and in the future, after your accident. Let us help explain what the law allows you to ask for in your injury case. Call our Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. today at 617-275-4200.
Source:
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5029284/
