What is a Soft Tissue Injury?

One of the most common types of injuries, soft tissue injuries can occur from many different causes and affect every different part of your body. Soft tissues can range from slightly irritating to debilitatingly painful, which may result in the inability to work. If you suffered a soft tissue injury because of somebody else’s negligence, you may be entitled to compensation that can help pay medical expenses and recover money lost from being unable to work. The Cambridge personal injury attorneys at Altman & Altman LLP can help you get started on a claim today.

Soft tissue injuries can be caused by slip and falls, car collisions, falls from heights, being struck by objects or more subtle factors such as a safety harness that is too tightly secured to the body. The most common indicators of a soft tissue injury are bruises, sprains and strains, which can happen throughout the body with varying levels of resulting pain and longevity.

Bruises (also known as contusions) are a discoloration of the skin that occurs due to tissues and connective muscle fibers beneath the skin being damaged following some type of acute trauma, such as a collision with an object at a high speed or a sudden, intense pressure occurring from an object pressed against your body (such as a seatbelt against your shoulder during a car accident).

Bruises cause the skin to become discolored as a result of internal bleeding, as your blood pools in the part of the body that was damaged.

Strains occur in muscles and tendons and results usually as a result of over-exertion. They normally occur in the feet, backs of the legs or in the back, but can also occur in the arms, shoulders, neck or any part of the body that is used for mechanical motion. Strains can result in serious pain and result in immobility of the strained muscle or tendon.

Sprains involve the damaging or complete tearing of a ligament, which are the fibrous connective structures that hold together muscles and joints. Sprains can range from Grade 1 (not serious, mobility unaffected for the most part), to Grade 3 (which requires surgery to repair the damage). Areas of the body that involve significant motion are the most likely to suffer sprains, such as the knees, wrists and ankles.

As with all possible personal injury claims, the way in which you were injured is crucial to whether or not you may receive compensation to help pay for things like medical expenses – such as pain medication, hospital bills or restorative therapy following an injury – or recovering some money from being unable to work as a result of your injury.

The key to such claims is being able to prove that your injury was preventable or otherwise caused by the negligence of another person or third party. For example, if you slipped and fell on a wet staircase inside an office building, the building owner may be liable for not maintaining a safe premises. If you suffered a serious deep bone bruise that affected your ability to work in a car accident where the other driver was proven to be under the influence of alcohol, they may be held liable for the accident and any subsequent damages incurred to you.

While soft tissue damage is not as potentially devastating as other injuries, they can happen anywhere and at any time. Some of these soft tissue injuries can require surgery to correct, such as a particularly bad sprain, which can leave you out of work for weeks and affect your mobility and ability to collect a paycheck for much longer than that, on top of the expensive medical bills you will receive as a result.

The personal injury attorneys at Altman & Altman LLP have advocated on behalf of injured clients for over 50 years, and we can help with your case too. Contact us online or call for a free consultation to go over the details of your case today at 617.492.3000 or toll-free at 800.481.6199. We are available 24/7.