There are many types of accidents that cause injuries that lead to blindness. This includes car accidents, workplace injuries, and side effects from certain medications. Going blind after an accident is devastating and completely life-altering. You may be unable to work, visit loved ones, or take care of yourself without assistance.

Discover how injuries can cause blindness and how the right catastrophic injury attorney can help you get compensation by reading on.

Injuries That Can Lead to Blindness

Eye injuries can result from a number of different physical and chemical traumas. They may cause temporary or permanent loss of how visual images are perceived in one or both eyes. Damage inflicted by injuries to the optic nerve, any part of the eye, or an area of the brain needed for vision can lead to blindness.

Physical trauma

The most common causes of eye trauma are blunt force and penetrative physical trauma. Blunt force trauma causes the eye to contract and expand suddenly, causing temporary or permanent blindness. Penetrative trauma is when an object enters the eye or part of your brain needed for sight. Physical trauma leads to injuries such as:

  • Corneal abrasions
  • Iris injuries
  • Hyphemas
  • Lacerations
  • Foreign objects in the eye
  • Traumatic brain injury resulting in blindness

This type of physical trauma is most likely in accidents involving cars, trucks, motorcycles, or bikes. It also happens due to fires, explosions, or being hit in the eye with a fist.

Chemical exposure and burns

Exposure to chemicals can also cause eye injuries that potentially lead to blindness. Some acid and alkali chemicals in everyday household cleaning products, including toilet bowl and oven cleaners, can damage the eye.

Household soap, sunscreen, and tear gas contain eye irritant ingredients that can cause chemical burns if they’re splashed into the eye. Chemical burns and exposure can also happen on the job and cause serious eye injury.

Defective drugs

Being prescribed the wrong medication or a dangerously defective drug can cause blindness in some patients. These medications cause vision loss from damage to the optic nerve or through optic neuropathy. These conditions can be painful to experience and cause permanent damage.

Type of Compensation Available

Depending on where your accident happened, you may be able to file a personal injury or workers’ comp claim and be compensated for your injury. If your injury was due to negligence from a health care provider, you may be eligible to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The type and amount of compensation you receive depend on the severity of your injuries and the facts of your case. Cases involving temporary or permanent vision loss may be deemed a catastrophic injury.

These injuries prevent you from working and result in physical disability. Both economic and non-economic compensation is available in these cases.

Economic damages

Economic damages, also called monetary damages, are the easily quantifiable losses that occurred as a result of your injury. They include your bills from emergency care and hospitalization, ongoing medical care and treatments, and other medical-related expenses, such as the cost of an adaptive equipment you may need after losing your vision. You’ll also be awarded damages for lost wages and any loss of your future earning capacity.

Pain and suffering

Non-economic damages are losses that are harder to quantify. These cover the physical and emotional pain and suffering you experience as a result of your accident and injury. Permanent and disabling injuries such as blindness often cause significant distress and disruption to victims’ lives, and they deserve to be fully compensated for all the ways their lives have been negatively impacted.

How Wagner Reese Can Help

If you or a loved one has experienced a loss of vision due to an injury, you may be feeling overwhelmed or unsure of which legal steps to take. Hiring a skilled personal injury attorney can help. Consider Wagner Reese. Our Indiana catastrophic injury lawyers are experienced in handling emotionally difficult and complicated cases.

We treat our clients with compassion and use our deep understanding of the law to your advantage. We fight on your behalf to make sure you’re receiving the maximum compensation you deserve and need after a catastrophic injury. Contact us today for a free consultation of your case.