It’s More than Road Rash; It’s a Debilitating Disability
Imagine the scenario in the emergency room after a motorcycle rider is thrown from his bike. The ER doctor comes with the good news: no broken bones. There’s no traumatic brain injury, no spinal cord damage, and all the x-rays look fine. It sounds like a miracle, because we know that TBI and spinal cord damage at highways speeds is almost inevitable.
But as the nurse starts to cut away at the clothing, a different story appears. Large portions of skin have been scraped away completely. Dirt, oil, gravel, and asphalt are deeply embedded in the skin. It’s cleaned, and treated for triage, but over the coming weeks the rider is in and out of the hospital for surgeries, skin grafts, and wound treatment.
Months later, he still can’t work. Years later, the scars are more than superficial.
When people hear “road rash” they think of the skinned-up knee you get when you fell while running down the street as a kid. Maybe even something a bit more severe like falling off a bicycle and having cuts and bruises. The Car Crash Captain, from offices in Richardson, Texas, explores why trauma surgeons know better when they hear about an incoming motorcycle accident victim with severe road rash.
It’s More than a Scraped Knee
Have you ever been outside, usually in the summer, and later that day your skin was red and sore? You got a first-degree burn – a sunburn. Road rash has a similar scale when it comes to severity from superficial to life threatening.
First-Degree Road Rash – The mildest form of road rash really only affects the outermost layer of skin. This is what you suffer when you fall off your bicycle, or go down on one knee on the carpet. The skin is red, maybe bruised, a little scraped. Most of the time there’s no deep breaks, and often very little blood. Home treatment is the answer with antibiotic ointment and a bandage. Rarely does it scar.
Second-Degree Road Rash – When the tears go deeper than just the skin and dig into the sub-layers. Second-degree road rash has visibly broken skin, swelling, and often a lot of bleeding. Wounds are likely embedded with dirt and gravel, and they feel hot to the touch. Pail level is severe due to exposed nerve endings in deeper layers of skin. Treatment requires professional cleaning and care or scarring and risk of infection are severe.
Third-Degree Road Rash – In almost any motorcycle wreck where the rider has exposed skin, he or she will experience the worst type of abrasion. Multiple layers are skin are shredded, muscle and fat tissues are damaged, and in severe cases bone can be exposed. It’s often not as painful as second-degree because the nerves have been completely destroyed – this isn’t a good thing because complete healing is impossible. Treatment requires intense medical attention, infection is likely and hospitalization is required. Surgical debridement (removing dead, infected, and damaged tissues) is followed by extensive skin grafting. Permanent disfigurement is inevitable.
For a rider that is hit on the highway, they will almost certainly suffer third-degree road rash. If treatment isn’t soon, this “scrape on the knee” can be fatal.
How’s it look in real life? Suppose a construction worker suffers extensive road rash on his dominant arm. After being out of work for months, the skin has healed, but the nerve damage is persistent. Simply gripping his tools sends shooting pain through his entire arm making it impossible to continue his career. No broken bones and a “miraculous survival” have changed his life forever.
Road Rash Complications Create Ongoing Problems
The big issues with road rash, though, aren’t the injuries themselves. At least not initially. And that’s because roads are filthy. They’re covered in tiny shreds of tire rubber, gasoline, oil, animal waste, chemicals, metal fragments, dirt, gravel, and asphalt. You don’t have to be a doctor to know that any of those embedded under the skin is going to create lasting problems.
Even properly treated wounds can become infected. And infections can lead to much worse and more painful complications that cause extended hospital stays.
And that’s just the beginning. Surgeries are required to repair damaged tissues. When skin and muscle have been shredded away from the body, the doctors can’t just stitch it shut. Skin grafts (and sometimes muscle grafts) are necessary. The doctors have to take tissues from other areas of the body, or from a donor corpse, and re-create and re-build the damaged areas. Almost certainly the victim has multiple surgeries – every one of them risking infection and complications. When they’re finally done, they have intense and permanent scarring. Not cosmetic blemishes, scars that make it difficult to function. Restricted movement, chronic pain, and limited mobility.
The result is a motorcycle road rash victim that can hardly turn his or her head without intense pain. Even with physical therapy, the pain and reduced movement might linger for years or even a lifetime.
Or it’s a welder that has road rash across both hands. The skin heals unevenly and is now extremely sensitive to heat, and chronic pain means that career is over.
Or it’s the athlete that has third-degree road rash to one leg. Surgery after surgery make it structurally sound, but it will never function optimally again. Running competitively is no longer possible; an entire identity stripped away.
Insurance Companies Undervalue Road Rash Injuries
It’s “just an abrasion,” right? That’s what the insurance company sees. They hear “road rash” and they think of skinned knees and a little bit of pain as the skin grows back. They don’t think of:
- Surgeries
- Skin grafts
- Lost wages
- Future treatment
- Physical therapy
- Permanent disfigurement
- Chronic pain
And they offer a settlement that might cover the hospital bills for now, but they’re not going to be close to adequate to cover future treatment, rehabilitation, and mental anguish that comes with an identity that has been completely stripped as the skin and flesh were torn from the body.
The broken bones show up on an x-ray; the long-term impact of scarring from motorcycle accident road rash doesn’t.
Herbert Law Group Knows the True Costs
Surgeries, pain, and permanent limitations need to be compensated. How do you put a value on them? If you’ve never been in a Texas motorcycle wreck before, you probably haven’t done a deep dive into this.
And you shouldn’t have to.
Herbert Law Group already has. We know how compensation works. We know what negotiation tactics are most effective. And we know how to show those insurance companies that their settlement offer is way too low for the injuries, pain, and suffering that you’ve sustained.
We’ll make sure you find justice. But first, we need to know what happened. Whether your wreck occurred in Dallas, Frisco, DeSoto, Arlington, or anywhere in the area around the DFW Metroplex we’re on your side. So, give us a call at 214-414-3808 and we’ll have a free conversation on how to get started. No time for a call right now? Fill out the contact form, and we’ll reach out to you.