Broken Leg Compensation, Symptoms And Treatment

A broken leg can refer to any of the four bones in the leg: the femur, patella, tibia, or fibula. The femur is the long bone that runs the length of your thigh, and an injury here would be known as a femoral fracture. The patella is the kneecap, which would simply be referred to as a broken knee or a patella fracture. The tibia is on the front of the leg. It is the shin bone, and supports the weight of the body. This would be a tibia or shinbone fracture. A fracture to the fibula, the bone that runs alongside the tibia is simply a fibula fracture. However, all of these injuries can also be simply called a broken leg.

Causes of a broken leg

Broken legs are caused by a lot of different events. However, it does take much more force to break leg bones than other bones in the body. Therefore, the trauma that breaks a leg will be much more severe, including:

• Car accidents
• Sports injuries
• Falling from high places
• Lesser injuries if the bones are weakened by disease
• Stress fractures can be caused by overuse

Symptoms of a broken leg

Like any other broken bone, a broken leg can be identified by:

• Pain that is severe and continuing
• Swelling
• Deformity
• Bruising and discoloration
• Shortening, rotation, or the leg bending at the break rather than the knee or hip joint

Treatment for a broken leg

A broken leg is fairly simple to diagnose. If someone has broken their leg and cannot get to the hospital immediately, they should immobilize the leg, rest, and apply ice to reduce swelling. The broken leg is one of the most common bone fractures to require surgical procedures for repair. As always, the goal is to put the bones in their rightful places and keep them in place while they heal. However, with broken legs it is not easy to do this without surgery.

Surgery could involve a simple reset, pins, screws, or plates, or even a serious surgical procedure that puts the leg into traction to put the bones back into place. After the bones are set, a plaster cast will be applied to the leg to prevent damage while the bones heal. Fractures that happen in the middle of the femur or shinbone often require the use of a metal rod to keep the bones in place, which also requires surgery. Once the bones begin to heal, physical therapy will help to speed the healing process and regain strength and range of motion that was lost due to injury.

Compensation for a broken leg

Many people are unaware that they can claim compensation for a broken or fractured bone but help is at hand. Whether you have been injured at work, on the road, playing sport, in hospital, in the street, in a shop, an office, commercial or public building, at home, a friend's house or any kind of slip, trip or fall.

In addition to claiming compensation for you or a loved ones suffering, you may also be able to claim for medical expenses, lost wages and any other out of pocket expenses.  For an idea of what you could get see some typical compensation amounts.

Pinstripe make it easy for you to claim compensation. All you need to do is complete the simple online form opposite and the experienced and friendly claims team will handle it from there. It's that easy!