Degloving Injuries and Your Legal Rights
Apr 6th, 2009 by Legal Staff
One of the most serious, painful, disfiguring, and disabling injuries a victim can suffer is called a “degloving injury.” In a degloving injury, the skin is peeled back as though one were peeling off a tight glove to expose the layers underneath. “Deglove” is defined as “to force off or peel back skin from a part of the body, especially a limb or appendage, as if removing a glove, sleeve, or mask.” A degloving victim can suffer serious physical injury, nerve damage, and horrendously disfiguring injuries, not to mention the unbearable pain, the mental anguish, and psychological injuries he or she experiences as result of his or her degloving injuries.
Although relatively unknown among the lay public, degloving injuries are common and occur in a number of situations in which someone else is legally responsible (“liable”) for your injuries. For example, pedestrians who are crossing the street when hit and dragged a distance by a careless (“negligent”) driver often suffer degloving injuries. Dog bite victims can suffer a degloving injury when the dog’s teeth and jaws clamp down on the victim’s arm or leg and rip off the skin or bite off the victim’s scalp. Degloving injuries can occur in traffic accidents, especially when sheet metal breaks off and digs into the driver or passenger, or an occupant is thrown out of the window of a vehicle.
Motorcyclists and bicyclists who are struck by a vehicle and have to lay their bike down can suffer degloving injuries from the contact with the road. Amusement park rides and escalators can cause degloving injuries to young children and other patrons whose hands get trapped between the ride or escalator and the stationary rail due to the opening between the ride or stairs and the rail being too wide. Airplane accidents and helicopter crashes cause some of the worst instances of degloving injuries.
There are three types of degloving injuries: (1) complete degloving in which the skin is actually removed from the limb (“anatomical” degloving); (2) concealed degloving in which the underlying attachment of the skin is torn away (“avulsed”) from the soft tissue, but there is no disruption in the skin itself; and (3) a combination of the anatomical and concealed types of degloving injuries.
Degloving injuries are most commonly seen in the four limbs, that is, the arms and legs. The scalp is also a common site of degloving injuries. Sometimes a person’s face is partly or entirely degloved, such as in a dog-mauling or sliding face first along the roadway, such as a pedestrian or bicyclist who has been struck. Face deglovements require intensive surgical and reconstruction intervention (plastic surgery) over a substantial period of time to repair. However, with the recent success of several face transplants, there is reason to be optimistic that surgeons may soon be able to transplant a cadaver’s face onto a person whose face has been degloved as a matter of course.
Degloving injuries are also due to contact with extremely hot water. For example, when a person’s arm is held in hot or boiling water, or he or she is sprayed with extremely hot water in an accident, he or she will suffer deglove injuries, as the skin that is submerged or sprayed sloughs off to expose inner layers of tissue.
Our Law Firm has experience in diligently representing clients who have been in accidents resulting in degloving injuries. We understand the physical, financial, emotional, and psychological toll a degloving injury can take on the injured victim and his or her family. If you have suffered degloving injuries due to another person’s negligence, call now for a free legal consultation: 415.738.7672
