A needle stick injury from a blood draw may seem like something that should rarely happen, and if it does should be a relatively minor injury. However, these injuries can have significant consequences on your life – from your ability to work, to doing every day activities, and overall having a constant and aching pain that never goes away.
What causes injuries from needle sticks?
A major injury you can suffer from a blood draw is radial or ulnar nerve damage. The radial nerve runs from your armpit to your hand, and controls muscles in your forearm, hand, and wrist. It also lets you feel sensations in those parts of the body. If this nerve is damaged from a needle piercing it, this can affect your ability to use your arm. This is because you may now experience weakness, numbness, and pain in that arm. Depending on the severity of the injury, time and surgery may help with this injury. However you may be stuck with a permanent, long term injury and disability that will not improve over time.
What is the Ulnar Nerve?
The ulnar nerve also runs from your armpit to your hand. It controls and lets you feel sensation in the muscles of your forearm, hand, and some fingers. Just as with a radial nerve injury, if the ulnar nerve is pierced during a blood draw this could result in numbness, weakness, and pain in your forearm and hand. It can also result in difficulty using the affected arm to do everyday tasks. In more severe cases you may not be able to use the affected arm at all to do some activities.
While it is devastating to suffer a severe radial or ulnar nerve injury in either arm, if the arm is your dominant one the affects on your life will be more drastic. You will essentially have to learn how to use your nondominant arm and hand for everyday tasks. This can also put increased stress on your unaffected arm increasing the risk of suffering various wear and tear injuries to it in the future. This includes nerve entrapment, or pinching injuries in the arm or wrist, or a sore shoulder or elbow (i.e. “tennis elbow”).
The injury you suffer may not be limited to your arm though. When you suffer nerve damage from a blood draw/needle stick, this can lead to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), otherwise known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). If you do suffer a CRPS injury following a blood draw, it will be classified as a CRPS type II injury because needle stick injuries usually involve some kind of puncture injury to a nerve. CRPS type II injuries involve a distinct injury to the nerves. It is also a chronic injury meaning the symptoms have lasted 6 months or longer.
What are the symptoms of CRPS?
What are the symptoms of CRPS? It can result in feelings of intense burning and other forms of pain; hyperesthesia (when light to moderate stimuli causes significant pain), allodynia (when non-painful stimuli, such as light touch, can be very painful), skin discoloration, changes in temperature, and swelling. It can also result in pain and other symptoms spreading to other parts of your party since it affects your central and peripheral nervous system. Therefore, your disability and limitation from the needle stick injury you suffered may not be limited to the arm you had the blood draw.
CRPS ranges in severity and may improve over time. However, if the affected limb becomes cold and pale, or undergoes skin and nail changes as well as muscle spasms and tightening, the condition is often irreversible.
In addition to the limitations you will have with the arm that suffered nerve damage, you may have to permanently treat with a pain management doctor to do your best to control and deal with the pain you have in the affected arm. This could result in mounting medical bills in the future depending on the extent of the treatment.
The Thistle Law Firm is experienced at handling nerve damage and CRPS claims following blood draws, plasma donations, and needle sticks. If you believe you may have suffered such an injury following a blood draw or plasma donation due to another’s negligence, the attorneys at The Thistle Law Firm are here to take your call at 215-568-6800.