Broken wrists can happen from a variety of sources. They medically are referred to as a fractured wrist. Whether it be from sports, or a personal injury accident, this injury is quite common. As a Boston broken wrist injury lawyer, I have handled many of these cases over the years.
Here are the medical names for wrist fractures:
- Colles’ fracture
- Smith’s fracture
- Scaphoid fracture
- Barton’s fracture
- Chauffeur’s fracture
- Greenstick fracture
- Fracture of the ulnar styloid
Broken wrists can occur from some of the following types of personal injury accidents:
- Car accidents
- Workers’ compensation accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Truck accident cases
- Nursing home abuse cases
- Pedestrian accidents
- Slip and fall accidents
- Snow and ice accidents
- Construction accidents
- Dog bites and attacks
- MBTA accident cases
- Daycare center accidents cases
- Elevator and escalator accident cases
Wrist Fracture Information
The wrist is made up of eight bones that connect to the two forearm bones (ulnar and radius). The most common wrist fracture is to the radius. Doctors call this a distal radius fracture.
Fractures to the wrist can be either displaced or non-displaced. If the broken bone is not displaced, that means the bone has not moved out of place. For displaced breaks, that means the bone has been moved out of place due to the break.
Wrist fractures can be comminuted, meaning the bone is shattered. Or, they can be open fractures which means the bone goes through the skin.
Depending on the extent of the break, it may be necessary for a doctor to only perform closed reduction, which means manually placing the bone into place without the need for surgery. For more serious breaks, surgery, oftentimes referred to as ORIF (open reduction, internal fixation) is necessary. This is when the doctor opens up the skin and fixes the broken wrist with hardware to repair the fracture.
For personal injury cases, if there is ORIF performed to the bone, that generally results in high settlement numbers. For closed reduction wrist fracture cases, the settlement numbers tend to be lower, but still can be substantial.
Local Broken Wrist Accident Lawyer
If you were the victim of negligence, and suffered a broken wrist, I encourage you to contact us here at the Earley Law Group Injury Lawyers for your free case review and consultation. We only get paid if your case settles.