Fairfax & Loudoun Personal Injury Lawyer - Spinal Cord Injuries

Loudoun County Breast Cancer Survivor Wins Neuropathy Disability Case

Danielle Landau — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:34:00 GMT

A combination of disabling conditions can be sufficient to prove a Social Security Disability claim. The disabled worker does not need to have one medical diagnosis only; we have won Federal disability cases where the claimant has several permanent injuries or chronic problems that prevent them from working. Recently, a Lovettsville client complained of nerve damage in her legs, feet and hands as a result of her chemotherapy treatments. She is a survivor of breast cancer who was experiencing knee pain, shooting pains in her legs, and was unable to perform any tasks requiring kneeling or standing.

Her treating doctor explained that due to her impairments, the claimant was limited to lifting only 10-pounds occasionally in her 8-hour day. She had become limited in feeling and grasping. The worker's doctor wrote that this middle-aged woman would not likely recover from her symptoms. As a result of her chemotherapy she sustained chronic peripheral neuropathy. (Peripheral neuropathy is “a problem with the functioning of the nerves outside the spinal cord.”)

The Government hired a medical consultant to examine and question the disabled worker and then give evidence against her in Court. However, the Government's doctor’s physical assessments were given little to no weight in the decision because they did not properly recognize the treating Doctor’s consultative examination, treatments or the full effects of ALL of the claimant’s injuries.

Doug Landau represented the claimant, explaining her disease, neurological problems and resulting problems. In the winning decision, the Judge wrote, “ After considering the evidence of record, the [Social Security Administration] finds that the claimant’s medically determinable impairments could reasonably be expected to produce the alleged symptoms, and that the claimant’s statements concerning the intensity, persistence, and limiting effects of these symptoms are generally credible”. While Landau has helped disabled workers who cannot work because of a crash, major accident or debilitating disease (like Multiple Sclerosis, Hepatitis, AIDS, etc.), the ABRAMS LANDAU team has also been able to assist people with SEVERAL disabling conditions to win their Social Security Disability cases.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Danielle Landau

Substance P: Neck and back pain when the damaged disc is not pressing on a nerve.

Doug Landau — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:15:00 GMT

At a medico-legal program, I participated in the discussion of back and neck pain after an accident. When there is a herniated disc that presses on the spinal cord or nerve root, one can actually see the anatomical cause of the pain on an MRI film. When the disc material or fragment that has escaped from the disc (the “jelly from the doughnut”) is not pressing on the spinal cord or nerve root, there is often pain as well. Evidence tends to suggest that “Substance P” (for "Prostaglandin") escapes from the disc into the root canal. There is no actual, mechanical, anatomical impingement. However, the Substance P may irritate the nerve root and cause localized pain.

When there is a chemical cause of back or neck pain, then surgery may not be the best solution. Some clients have found relief through epidural injections. I have accompanied clients to their appointments and observed these procedures, which are performed under local anaesthesia, with the patient awake. The doctor looks at an x-ray machine that shows the medicine being injected into the back or neck, near the site of the pain so that relief can be had. Because pills are not swallowed, the stomach (and complications from upset) are bypassed and the medicine is injected directly to the spot where the doctor believes the greatest relief of symptoms will be achieved. Recent medical studies have shown that cervical epidural injections can lead to pain relief significant enough to prevent patients from having to undergo surgery. Other researchers have also concluded that lumbar injections reduce the need for lumbar surgical decompression. Investigations into the biochemistry of disc degeneration and herniation indicate that intraspinal inflammation is a major cause of radicular pain. A neurotoxic, inflammatory mediator is contained within the disc nucleus and is released after annular injury. In other words, just like the fibrous, touch car tire that may get a small tear in the fibers may leak, the disc's annular fibers can tear and the material inside can leak into the spinal canal, irritating and inflaming the spinal cord. This can happen even where the bulging or herniated disc is not physically touching the large spinal cord nerve bundle. For more, go to Pain Physician.Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Doug Landau

So many ways to say "Herniated Disc"

Doug Landau — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:42:50 GMT

Helping clients who suffer from herniated discs is complicated by the fact that doctors use different terms to describe the same vertebral injury. A herniated disc usually consists of a painful rupture of the fibrocartilage of the disc between spinal vertebrae. In other words, the disc or "cushion" between the hard, bony vertebra tears and disc material from the inside leaks out.

Many injured victims find out in the weeks and months after a car crash that there are discs in their backs or necks that have become herniated discs. We have seen doctors use all of the following phrases to describe this condition:

Ruptured intervertebral disc,
Slipped disc,
Herniated disc,
Protruding disc,
Extruded disc,
Disc prolapse,
Disc prolapse
Herniated nucleus pulposus ("HNP")

The two best analogies we use to explain this injury is that "the jelly has come out of the donut," and "the toothpaste has come out of the tube, has then hardened and fragments broken off." Bottom line: make sure your doctor explains to you what has happened to your spine and what can be done to treat it so that it does not get worse.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Doug Landau