Los Angeles Femur Fracture Traumatic Injury Attorney – Steers & Associates

Your femur is the long bone that runs along the length of your thigh. It's the strongest and largest bone in your body, and it takes considerable trauma and force to fracture it. Femur fractures are terribly painful. According to the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, automobile accidents are the number one cause of fractured femurs. Falls from heights are second. If the trauma of the accident was sufficient to fracture a driver's or passenger's femur, it's likely that he or she suffered other serious injuries too, and you will be rushed to a Los Angeles Trauma Center.

The femoral shaft is the long and straight part of the femur. Femoral shaft fractures usually consist of cracks, full breaks or crushes. The femur can be fractured in one or more of three areas:

• At the head of the bone close to the pelvis where it might be called a hip fracture
• In any direction at the straight shaft of the bone
• At the lower end of the bone by the knee where it might be called a knee fracture

Due to the force of any impact necessary to fracture a femur, the damage to muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves and blood vessels can be more problematic than the fracture itself. If the fracture is open with bone coming out of the skin, the risk of serious infection increases exponentially.

A femur fracture can cause death as a result of uncontrollable bleeding, blood clots, infection or pneumonia. As per the American Physical Therapy Association, only about 25 percent of those people who suffer a femur fracture improve to the same activity level that they were at before the fracture.

How a femur fracture is treated depends on the severity of the fracture and where it's located. A fracture without any displacement might be treated conservatively with a cast and rest. The majority of femur shaft fracture treatment involves implantation of a metal rod inside of the femur. It's secured by screws from the outside of the bone on each end. The procedure has an extremely high success rate. Should the fracture be located below the hip or above the knee, metal plates and screws are usually used to attach the bones.

Significant pain, bruising and tenderness can last for weeks after any femur fracture. Assuming that the fracture was surgically repaired, expect a recovery period targeted at maximum medical improvement within six months. Physical therapy will be a major component of recovery. Depending on the surgeon's orders, it could start as early as the day after surgery. Patients will eventually begin walking on crutches or with the aid of a walker until they regain sufficient mobility. Any femur fracture is serious. You're likely to miss months of work, and the medical bills will be staggering. If you have been in an accident and suffered a femur fracture as a result of the carelessness and negligence of somebody else, call us as soon as possible for a free consultation and case evaluation. That fracture is likely to affect you for the rest of your life, and we want you to be fully compensated for it.