Paralysis is much more common than a lot of people assume. According to the Christopher Reeve Foundation, about 5.4 million people suffer from it in the United States.
To get a better grasp of what that means, it indicates that one person out of every 50 is paralyzed. It’s also more than the entire population of Los Angeles, which is right under 4 million people.
Now, there are many reasons for these injuries, but studies have shown that car accidents are the number one cause. They were responsible for 390,856 injuries during the span of the study, the highest total. The next highest was the “unknown” category, with 382,344, though that also included people who simply did not respond. Some of them may also have been hurt in car accidents.
Other common reasons included doing physical work (313,498), falls (166,745), being victimized by violence, like an assault or a shooting (90,254), and sports-related injuries (54,807).
It’s also important to note that this study provides percentages, but it does not give an accurate picture of overall numbers. There were just 1.4 million responses that were provided. They’ve been broken down, but, since researchers claimed the total number of those who are paralyzed is about 4 million higher than that, there are a lot of missing responses.
Even so, the percentages can show you just how common car accident spinal cord injuries are. The results can be nothing short of catastrophic, changing a person’s life forever. When this happens, it’s important for those who are hurt to know if they have a right to financial compensation.
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