Offshore work is dangerous. Workers on boats and oil rigs deal with heavy machinery, falling tools, broken equipment, dangerous chemicals, and toxic materials. When something goes wrong, accidents can happen quickly on a vessel or drilling rig.
These accidents can cause very serious injuries, such as head injuries, brain injuries, broken bones, spinal cord damage, long-term pain, eye injuries, and chemical burns. Many offshore workers suffer life-changing harm because these jobs take place in remote areas on open water. In those settings, poor safety practices, equipment failures, bad communication, or employer carelessness can all play a big role in causing accidents.
Offshore accidents often cause very serious injuries. Workers may need emergency treatment right away and ongoing medical care for years. Some oil rig workers are forced to stop working much earlier than they planned because of their injuries.
Along with the physical pain, many injured workers also face major financial stress from medical bills and lost income.
If you or someone in your family was seriously hurt on a boat or oil rig, you may have the right to file a claim under the Jones Act or general maritime law. These laws are designed to protect offshore workers who are injured on the job.
You should not have to stand up to a large company and its lawyers by yourself. A Houston catastrophic industrial injury attorney can review your case, explain your rights, and help you seek money for your medical care, lost wages, and other losses. Call Parks Law today and learn what steps you can take next.
Offshore Injuries Are Often Catastrophic
Working in the maritime and oil and gas industries is already dangerous. But when someone is careless, those dangers can turn into life-changing disasters.
Injuries on offshore boats, rigs, and platforms are often very serious. Many workers need major surgery, long periods of rehab, and may be left with permanent disabilities.
Fully understanding how serious the injuries are is the first step in seeking the full amount of money needed to pay for long-term medical care and lost income in the future.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Head injuries happen often offshore. They are usually caused by falls, slipping on wet or oily decks, or being hit by moving machinery or falling tools.
A traumatic brain injury can be mild, like a concussion, or very serious, such as a deep injury that damages the brain.
Long-Term Impact of Traumatic Brain Injuries
- Cognitive deficits are long-term issues with memory, focus, problem-solving, and talking to other people.
- Very bad mood swings, always being angry, depressed, or anxious, which makes it hard to get along with other people.
- Loss of coordination, dizziness, headaches that won’t go away, and, in severe cases, seizures or paralysis.
- People who have had a severe TBI often need help all the time, therapy, and big changes to their homes.
Severe Crush and Amputation Injuries
Working around heavy equipment like winches, mooring lines, large pipes, and cranes is very dangerous. There is a real risk of getting caught in or crushed between moving parts.
These accidents can be so serious that a worker may need an amputation right away, or they may suffer severe damage to their arms or legs that cannot be fully repaired.
Long-Term Impacts of Crush Injuries and Amputations
- Multiple Surgeries: People who have crush injuries often need many surgeries to fix the damage, as well as bone grafts and a lot of physical therapy over the years.
- Costs of prosthetics: If you lose a limb, you’ll need several prosthetic devices over your lifetime, each costing tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus the cost of fitting and maintenance.
- Phantom Limb Pain: People who have had limbs amputated often have long-lasting, severe pain that feels like it comes from the missing limb. This pain needs special treatment.
- Psychological Trauma: Living with disfigurement, limited movement, and the life changes that come with them can be very hard emotionally and mentally.
Mental Anguish and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
There are a lot of things that can happen at sea that can really mess with your mind and emotions, like explosions, fires, sinking boats, or seeing a coworker die.
PTSD is a real injury. The Jones Act and general maritime law say that workers can get paid for PTSD just like they can for physical injuries.
Long-Term Effects of PTSD
- Flashbacks and nightmares can make you feel like you are reliving the traumatic event. This can make it hard to sleep, concentrate, or handle daily tasks.
- You may also start avoiding people, places, or things that remind you of what happened. Over time, this can make you feel isolated and may even make it hard to return to work.
- Being on edge all the time, getting angry easily, and having trouble focusing.
- Using drugs or alcohol to deal with crippling anxiety, which leads to another disorder that needs expensive dual diagnosis treatment.
Your Right to Compensation
When someone gets hurt at sea, they usually have to prove who was at fault in order to get money. This could mean filing a Jones Act claim or some other type of claim for maritime injury against the at-fault parties.
Houston catastrophic industrial injury attorneys gather key evidence to build a strong case. They review maintenance records, safety reports, and statements from crew members and platform workers.
This information helps show how the accident happened and whether the company failed to follow safety rules.
After an oil rig accident or other offshore injury, workers often lose pay and may not be able to return to work for a long time. They may also need ongoing medical care. All of this can cause serious financial stress.
That is why it is important to get medical help right away and then speak with an experienced offshore injury lawyer about your rights. Offshore oil and gas work is dangerous, and injured workers may be entitled to fair compensation to help them recover from life-changing injuries.
Contact Parks Law Today
The Houston catastrophic industrial injury attorneys at Parks Law offer a free consultation. They can explain your rights in simple terms and help you decide whether taking legal action can protect your future.
A catastrophic offshore injury means you may have costs for many years, sometimes 20, 40, or even 60 years into the future. Your claim needs to include those long-term expenses.
This can cover future medical treatment, the income you can no longer earn, special equipment you may need, and money for your physical pain and emotional suffering.
At Parks Law, we handle serious offshore injury cases in federal court and work to hold the employer or vessel owner fully responsible. We focus on proving the full extent of their fault so we can pursue the highest amount of compensation allowed.
We also work with experts like economists, life care planners, and medical professionals to figure out the real, long-term cost of your injury. Our goal is to seek a settlement or court award that gives you the financial support you need for your lifetime recovery.
If you or a loved one suffered a catastrophic industrial injury, do not wait to get legal help. You deserve clear answers and strong representation during this difficult time.
Call a Houston catastrophic industrial injury attorney at Parks Law today at (713) 979-3500 or fill out our online form to schedule a free consultation and find out how we can help protect your future.