Fluke 111: Darkman's Strength, Your Danger - the Perils of Loss of Sensation

In the 1990 film, Darkman, a scientist is the unwitting recipient of a morally and medically questionable rehabilitation that renders the nerve endings in his body unable to sense anything. And though the inability to feel pain may be useful to a rogue, vigilante superhero, it can have grave consequence in the real world for those who have lost sensation due to a spinal injury.

The loss of sensation is an corollary that often gets lost in the shuffle when reasoning about spinal injuries, partly because numbness is such an unmistakably grasped and dreadful thing to wrap one's head around. We all rely heavily on our ability to use our arms and legs, and the ability to do so can go a long way toward helping us to feel independent at the most basic biological level. When we see someone like Superman (Christopher Reeve), who represents the very definition of strong bodily presence, thoroughly lose his capacity to accomplish even the simplest of bodily tasks because of a fluke accident, it soldiery us to consider ourselves in a similar situation, and we are shaken to the core by the fragility of the human body.

Fluke 111

But while the degree of suffering and psychological trauma that numbness can cause is obvious, the impact of the loss of sensation is far more subtle. Take a moment to consider all the cues that you take from the sensory input gained by touch. Having trouble reasoning of anything? consider these examples, which only begin to scratch the face of sensory loss:

Touching a hot object: Sitting down on a metal bench in the middle of summer, or putting your hand on a hot stove could unmistakably burn the legs or hand that do not feel the heat.

Suffering a cut: If you work in a setting where sharp objects are ordinary or are walking straight through a parking lot where broken glass is on the ground, you could quite perhaps maintain a serious cut that would cause you to bleed without your knowledge or come to be infected because you did not know that the crisis had taken place.

Basic contact: as it can be risky to try to stand when your legs have "gone to sleep", being unable to feel can cause problems because you may struggle to determine an standard speed and pressure for a bodily action, and injury is likely if you continually misjudge the motions in the absence of the neurological hints that you are pressing too hard.

As you can probably imagine, the world that was once a known quantity and friendly place can come to be a risky and unforgiving obstacle procedure for someone who is still fully movable but unable to feel straight through the sense of touch. The nervous law exists to report helpful facts throughout the body, often for the express purpose of holding one safe, and when that breaks down, it poses a great threat to an individual's well-being.

If you have suffered loss of sensation due to a spinal injury caused by the negligent or reckless behavior of another, you may wish to speak with the Charles D. Hankey Law Office.

Darkman's Strength, Your Danger - the Perils of Loss of Sensation