When you are riding in a car, your knees are bent and vulnerable to injury in an accident. A car crash puts drivers and passengers at risk for serious knee injuries, including a severed patellar tendon.
If someone else caused your car accident and your patellar tendon was severed or torn in the crash, you deserve compensation. At Max Meyers Law, our legal team fights for the rights of car crash victims in Washington. Call today for a free consultation with a personal injury attorney.
Tears of the Patellar Tendon
Since your kneecap, or patella, is frequently in motion, multiple tendons hold your kneecap in place and help it to do its job. Even a small tear in a patellar tendon can impair your ability to walk, sit, or stand.
Direct impact to the front of the knee and lacerations are common causes of complete tears of the patellar tendon. You can experience either a partial or complete tear of your patellar tendon from a car accident.
Partial Tendon Tears
If your tendon gets stretched too far in the wreck, you might have several small partial tears. However, your tendon will still be in one piece and connect the kneecap to the shinbone.
A Complete Tendon Tear
When you have a complete tear, the tendon separates or severs from the kneecap, usually at the point where it attaches. Often, a piece of bone will break off with the tendon.
How a Car Accident Can Sever the Patellar Tendon
There are multiple ways a person can sustain significant damage to the patellar tendon in a crash, including:
- The driver’s knees hit the dashboard, steering wheel, or another hard object;
- The passenger’s knees hit the dashboard, a structural component of the back of the seat in front of them, or another hard object;
- A car or another object collides with the driver’s or front passenger’s knees;
- In a T-bone accident, something strikes the driver or a passenger at the level of the knees; or
- A sharp or jagged object or piece of wreckage cuts a driver’s or passenger’s knees deeply enough to slice all the way through the patellar tendon.
Surprisingly, knee injuries are not always noticeable right away. Whenever you have been in a significant wreck, you should get a thorough medical examination and workup to look for injuries that you have not yet detected.
Available Compensation for a Torn Patellar Tendon
Complete tears of the patellar tendon usually require surgery to re-attach the tendon to the kneecap or shinbone. It is common to have to wear a cast or knee immobilizer for several weeks. You might have to use crutches for a while. A course of physical therapy is standard after most surgical repairs of the knee.
Getting back on your feet after these extensive, painful medical interventions can take a long time. Some people are never the same after a severed patellar tendon. If someone else caused the crash and your knee injury, you deserve compensation for your losses.
We can help you file a personal injury claim to recover damages.
Medical Bills
You deserve compensation for your medical bills and expenses. This includes the money you have paid for ambulance transport, emergency room treatment, doctor visits, surgery, stays in the hospital or surgical center, prescription pain pills, physical therapy, and mobility equipment like crutches.
If you require long-term medical care or ongoing treatment expense, we will request compensation for those costs, too.
Lost Income and Decreased Earning Capacity
You have the right to compensation for the income you lost during your recuperation from the injury and treatments. You can also request money for a decreased earning capacity if your lingering problems from the wreck decrease the number of hours you can work or force you to take a lower-paying job.
Mobility Limitations, Disability, and Disfigurement
A severed knee tendon can cause serious mobility limitations, including difficulty walking, sitting for long periods of time, bending or straightening the legs. If these problems are permanent, you might no longer be able to earn a living to support your family. We will fight for compensation to pay for your mobility limitations and disability.
If you have to live with significant, noticeable scars from the accident, we will seek damages for disfigurement, too.
Pain and Suffering
You can recover compensation for the pain and suffering you endured from the time of the crash onward. Some people experience chronic pain for years after this type of injury.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
If the long-term consequences of your injuries prevent you from doing things you used to enjoy doing, like climbing or hiking, we will help you request damages to pay for your loss.
Loss of Consortium
Loss of consortium addresses the damage to your relationship with your spouse or significant other as a result of your injuries from the wreck.
How to Prove Your Case
We will have to prove that someone else’s negligence caused or contributed to the accident that injured your knee. Once we obtain the evidence we need, we will file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company. Then, we negotiate until the insurer offers you fair compensation for your losses.
Evidence That Proves Your Injury and Damages
We will use your medical records to link the patellar tendon tear to the crash. The sooner you seek medical attention after the wreck, the easier it is for us to connect your knee injury to the collision. If you had a knee injury in the past, we might have to work with a medical expert to show that your injury is not the result of past damage.
We will gather your employer’s information to prove the amount of income you lost while you were out of work recuperating. We can also use vocational experts to establish the effect the injury has on your ability to work and earn a living.
Get Help From a Car Accident Lawyer Today
If you sustained a knee injury from a car accident that was not your fault, call Max Meyers Law at 425-399-7000. We will answer your questions about liability and compensation, and we will not charge you for the consultation.