New York MCL Injury

An MCL injury attorney in New York is an advocate and a resource for you as you are suffering from the consequences of being hurt in a serious accident. An MCL injury, also known as a Medial Collateral Ligament injury, can be severe and can make it difficult for you to walk.

Depending on the seriousness of your MCL injury, your life may never be the same again. Located on the inner part of the knee, the medial collateral ligament is outside of the joint itself. Since ligaments add strength and stability to the joint and keep the bones together, damaging the MCL in an accident can present serious problems. Whether you notice it right away or the pain gets worse over time, you desperately need medical attention.

The MCL officially connects the shin bone or your tibia to the bottom of the thigh bone. Many people who sustain an MCL injury in an accident will be diagnosed with an MCL sprain. Ligament injuries may either stretch a ligament or tear it entirely.

Most commonly, knee injuries diagnosed as an MCL are due to a direct blow to the knee. MCL injuries are categorized into three different groupings: grade 1, 2 and 3. The least severe injury is classified as Grade 1. With this injury, the ligament is not torn but is stretched. With a Grade 2 MCL injury, the patient's ligament has been partially torn. This often causes instability in the knee joint.

A grade 3 MCL injury is very problematic for a patient diagnosed with it because the ligament is completely torn. Treatment could be invasive and severe. An MCL injury lawyer in New York will need to help a person who has been diagnosed with this injury recover compensation by filing a lawsuit if the accident was caused by someone else's negligence.

Common symptoms of an MCL injury include swelling of knee joint, a popping when the injury happens, a feeling that the knee is going to give out when weight is put on it, catching or locking in the knee joint and pain and tenderness along the inner part of the knee.

If the knee has stability issues, this typically indicates that the person has suffered a grade 2 or grade 3 injury. A physician will be able to tell whether or not you have an MCL injury by thoroughly examining the knee. The doctor will likely bend the knee and add pressure on the outside of it to tell whether or not the inner knee is loose, which is an indication of a severe MCL injury.

Your New York MCL injury attorney will help you connect the severity of the injury you have received with the possibility for compensation in the future. The doctor may order imaging tests before officially diagnosing a knee injury. The X-ray gives the doctor an image of the knees’ bones and this will likely be used to rule out other knee problems.

Your physician may also have an MRI scan done to produce images of the body. You would lie down on a table and the technician would position your knee in order to go through the MRI.

MCL injuries are often treated immediately using crutches, applying ice and elevating your knee. However, physical rehabilitation and surgery may be required and these can be extremely difficult for a patient who has already had to go through the overwhelming situation of being diagnosed with a severe knee injury affecting their MCL. Schedule a consultation directly with the lawyer who you can trust if you have already gotten yourself in this difficult situation.