Ouch!
Broken bones never lead to a humerus time, but unfortunately, fractures are fairly common—especially when it comes two on-the-job injuries. As a workers’ compensation lawyer serving Atlanta, a lot of cases come through my door involving fractures. Today, I want to go over some of the details about broken bones:
What Are Fractures?
The basic science behind fractures is relatively simple. If an object strikes your bone, and the force of that object is stronger than the bone itself, a fracture will occur.
Common Types
While there are many different kinds of fractures, these are some of the most common:
Comminuted – When your bone shatters into a few, or many, pieces.
Compressed – When the bone is crushed
Depressed – Downward pressed bone
Spiral – When the bone is twisted until it snaps
Impacted – When the tips of broken bones push into each other
How Do Fractures Heal?
Our ability to naturally heal fractures is a nice example of how amazing our bodies are. From break to fully recovery, this is how the process works:
Fracture Occurs – Of course, you know all about that part now
Inflammation – Once the bone is broken in two, it bleeds out hematoma, which is rich in cells that can grow new bone. The hematoma fills the space between the two pieces of original bone and get to work.
Repair – After a while, the hematoma forms enough cartilage for the two pieces of bone to mend together. The new conjoining cartilage is pretty soft at this point.
Repair Part 2 – After a while, that soft cartilage will form into a harder callous. Now, the bone will be strongly mended, but it will be a little misshaped due to the extra new bone holding it together.
Remolding – Over time, that oddly-shaped bone will slowly form back into something that looks just like the original did before it was fractured. This could take months, or even years.
Did you know that most people suffer from two fractures during their lifespans? That’s a whole lot of broken bones! And chances are, many of them were preventable, and occurred at work. If you need the advice of a worker’s comp lawyer in Atlanta because of an on-the-job broken bone, call me and I’ll be happy to give you a complementary consultation.
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