If you were bitten by another person’s dog, there is a chance that there was a good amount of pain and even blood involved in the incident. Fear would be your main motivator in such instances, but despite everything you did to avoid it, you may have sustained the kind of injury that required amputation. Thousands of Americans lose an arm, foot, hand, finger, toe, or leg this way, each as a result of the viciousness of an inadequately restrained animal.

When Does Amputation Become Unavoidable?

• The bite may have been so bad that it rendered reattachment of the particular limb impossible. Either the nerves, the bones, or both are badly damaged, and this is enough to put reattachment out of the question.
• The bite site may have gotten infected, and the problem is now so severe that amputation is the only way to save your life. When faced with those options, you would eventually choose amputation.

When you Lose a Digit or a Limb

If someone else owns the dog that attacked you so violently that it cost you a limb, finger, or toe, you need to be able to protect yourself using what the law allows you. The first order of business is to figure out the lost income and medical bills brought on by this incident. These are losses someone should compensate you for, and that someone is the dog’s owner. When negotiation for fair recovery, the following things bear keeping in mind.

• Medical Costs: This is everything you pay a doctor or hospital, and includes appointments and surgeries.
• Need for Pain Management: This covers the regular medications availed in such cases, as well as any alternative treatments you may undergo in order to recuperate.
• Need for Assistive Devices or Prosthetics: Under this, you have all sorts of medical equipment that is required to treat and rehabilitate a dog attack amputee, including wheelchairs, adjustable beds, and artificial limbs.
• Therapy: This can include physical therapy, psychological therapy, and occupational therapy.
• Ability to Work: This relates to whether you can hold a job, and if so, whether your earning power would be diminished in any way or measure.
• Need for Assistance at Home: You might require a nurse or some other caregiving professional to help you at home, and this need could extend well into the future. In other words, the amputation may have deprived you of the ability to look after yourself without help from another person.
• Refitting your Vehicle: The new change may require adding special modifications in your car, such as specialized knobs, and ramps.
• Emotional Suffering: Losing a body part would be traumatic for anyone. Even if it is just a toe, you would have to live with the feeling of not being completely whole, and that is essentially a form of suffering.

All of these things would need to be considered before you set out to seek legal compensation with the help of a dog attack lawyer. After figuring out the clear range within which your losses fall, you can file a lawsuit charging the owner of the dog that caused you this suffering. If the latter are eager to keep the matter out of the courtroom, you then have the option to seek a favorable dog bite settlement.

Thing to Do after you Sustain a Dog Bite

• Seek Medical Attention: When you have been injured by a dog, your primary focus should be on making sure you regain your health and composure. After the dog stops attacking, call for medical assistance right away, and in the time that they arrive, make sure you do not lose too much blood. Staunch the bleeding and keep it that way until you get to the hospital. Once there, submit yourself completely to certified medical care, and make sure you keep all the receipts and prescriptions safely.
• Collect Information: This is important to any case you may file down the road. If you had the presence of mind to take pictures of the injury or wound at the beginning of your ordeal, back these up online. If someone else happened to take pictures, have them send those to you. Once you are sufficiently healed and rested, track down any witnesses to the incident and get a good idea of exactly what each of them saw.
• Make No Assumptions: There is no saying that the dog was healthy; so get yourself the right shots after consulting with the doctor. There is no sense in venturing near the place where you were bitten, because the same thing could happen again. Be careful in every step you take, right up until the point where you achieve a court award, which forces the dog owner to decently compensate your losses.