Car Accidents
This page looks at degloving injuries and what settlement amounts victims can expect when the degloving injury is caused by the negligence of a third party. Most of the degloving injuries our lawyers see are in car, truck, and motorcycle accident cases.
A Degloving Injury Is a Catastrophic Injury
Degloving injuries are when the skin and tissue are torn off. It is named “degloving” because the skin is pulled off much like a glove is taken off the hand. These are awful injuries that are not just limited to the hand. We have seen degloving personal injury cases involving the foot, calf, and even genitals and head. The latter is almost always fatal.
Mechanism of a Degloving Injury
The mechanism of degloving injuries is described as “external forces shear the skin off the underlying tissues, usually in a tissue plane between the subcutaneous fat and deep fascia – – severe degloving injuries are classically associated with roller type machinery or where a vehicle rolls over a limb.”
Surgery is Usually the Best Option
This injury requires major surgery. Irreplaceable quality of the skin has been lost and the challenge of reconstructing both osseous and soft tissue architecture. Blood vessels and muscles are stripped away. Often, the victim’s life is in jeopardy because the blood supply is depleted which also increases the risk of tissue necrosis.
The reason why the thigh almost always survives a degloving injury is that the thigh has an excellent blood supply. In contrast, the blood supply to the tibia is terrible and many of these cases led to amputations.
Infections can also kill you if the injury is not quickly treated.
In a degloving situation is the skin damaged or is it the tissue beneath that’s damaged? When you deglove the skin, the skin and the tissue can both can be damaged.
- Degloving repair success story
Degloving Personal Injury Cases
A degloving injury is usually caused by one of three things:
- Pedestrian/Motor vehicle accidents. The typical car accident degloving case comes from a tire running over the victim, usually a pedestrian accident but these injuries also occur in regular collisions where the tire of the other vehicle gets into the other vehicle’s interior. Usually, to get the degloving effect, the speed of the tire is slow but we a great deal of force. But there are many other types of MVA related degloving injuries, including motorcycle accidents and bicycle crashes.
- Industrial or farming accidents. The biggest culprits here are high-speed rollers, press machines, and conveyor belts. (You also see a lot of brachial plexus injuries with these machines as well.) Often, these are workers’ compensation cases. But there are also a large number of defective product industrial accident degloving cases because, quite often, these injuries are foreseeable, but the manufacturer failed to install a safety feature that would have protected the worker from the injury. So many of these cases are both workers’ compensation claims and civil personal injury case.
- Jewelry that catches on an object. Usually, these are ring degloving cases that are typically less severe — usually, a single finger which is still awful but more manageable — and less likely to result in a civil injury claim.
Degloving injuries can be caused by a variety of other types of accidents and circumstances, although these are the most common.
Settlements and Verdicts in Degloving Injury Cases
Below are verdicts and settlements in degloving injury cases in recent years. Keep in mind, these results do not predict trial or settlement amounts in future cases, and cases that seem aligned might not be because of the zillions of variables that go into how insurance companies, lawyers, and ultimately juries determine the appropriate compensation payouts for these claims.
Why do you not see more verdicts in these cases? Insurance companies are not foolish enough to let these cases go to trial. Many defendants require confidential settlements so that lawyers like us cannot report the settlement amounts to the world. So the universe of degloving injury settlements our lawyers can show you is somewhat small.
- 2024, Wisconsin: $250,000: A 15-year-old female passenger suffered personal injuries when the utility terrain vehicle (UTV) in which she was riding rolled over on its side. The girl suffered a degloving with amputation injury to the tip of her right-hand index finger requiring debridement of right index distal phalanx fracture. This award seems awful low, that could have been the policy limits.
- 2024, New York: $1.38 Million. The plaintiff was crushed underneath a farm tractor. He suffered a crushed chest wall with left hemopneumothorax, right pneumothorax and respiratory dysfunction, multiple rib fractures, left scapula and clavicle fractures, degloving of left hand, liver and spleen lacerations, left pubic ramus and right iliac fractures and multiple vertebrae fractures.
- 2023, Washington: $1.8 Million. The plaintiff alleged that she was struck by the defendant’s vehicle while she was walking in a crosswalk. She suffered a degloving injury in her upper right extremity, a fractured tibia and fibula, liver laceration, and moderate traumatic brain injury.
- 2021, California: $1.25 Million. A 16-year-old boy was involved in a single-vehicle collision after being cut off. He suffered a degloving left hand injury, a scalp laceration, acute anemia from blood loss, and a concussion. The boy was left with compartment syndrome. He alleged negligence against the driver that cut him off. The boy claimed he negligently operated his vehicle. This case settled for $1,250,000.
- 2020, Florida: $1 Million. A 61-year-old pedestrian was struck. He suffered a degloving injury that spanned from his right foot to his upper right buttocks. The man alleged negligence against the at-fault driver. He claimed he failed to yield to a pedestrian and pay attention to the road. This case settled for $1,000,000.
- 2020, Texas: $100,000. A minor hotel guest was bit in the genitals by another hotel guest’s dog in the hotel parking lot. He suffered a degloving groin injury. The boy’s mother alleged negligence against the hotel. She claimed they failed to maintain safe premises. This case settled for $100,000.
- 2020, Florida: $6.03 Million. A pedestrian was struck in a crosswalk. She suffered a degloving right leg injury, a traumatic brain injury, rib fractures, a clavicle fracture, and a skull fracture. She developed post-traumatic stress disorder and cognitive impairments. The woman alleged negligence against the at-fault driver. She claimed he drove while using his phone, made an illegal left turn, excessively sped, and failed to yield to a pedestrian. This case settled for $6,025,000.
- 2020, Florida: $969,459: A 48-year-old woman was involved in a chain-reaction collision. She suffered an ankle fracture, rib fractures, leg fractures, a head laceration, and a degloving injury. The woman alleged negligence against the two at-fault drivers. She claimed they negligently operated their vehicles. This case settled for $969,459.
- 2019, Pennsylvania: $42,500: A 12-year-old boy played on a fire pole at a trampoline park. His heel was sheered as he slid down. The boy suffered a heel degloving injury and laceration. He underwent surgical repairs. The boy’s parents alleged negligence against the trampoline park’s owners. They claimed its staff improperly maintained the pole, allowed defective conditions, failed to warn of hazard, and improperly cushioned the pole. This case settled for $42,500.
- 2019, California: $7.74 Million. A woman was T-boned. She suffered a degloving left hand injury, a C6 fracture, and a traumatic brain injury. The woman alleged negligence against the at-fault driver. She claimed he excessively sped, failed to yield the right-of-way, and ran a red light. The jury awarded $7.74 million.
- 2019, Colorado: $945,000. A cyclist was struck by a pickup truck near an on-ramp. He suffered a degloving leg injury with nerve damage and third-degree burns, facial nerve damage, a scapula fracture, and a peroneal nerve injury. The man spent 10 days in the hospital. He underwent a skin graft. The man alleged negligence against the at-fault driver and the company that constructed the roadway. He claimed she failed to yield to adjacent lane traffic and properly merge onto the roadway. The man also claimed the construction company failed to place bicycle crossing signs. He received $945,000.
- 2018, California: $41 Million. A U.S. Air Force captain was rear-ended on a motorcycle by a Southern California Gas Company truck. He suffered a degloving injury to his thigh, an ankle fracture, a broken leg, a femoral artery injury, and a femoral nerve transection. The jury awarded a compensation payout of $35 million in pain and suffering. The balance of the award was for past and future lost wages and medical bills. This case underscores the jury appeal of these claims.
- 2018, California: $687,084.67. This is a left-hand turn motorcycle accident case. A young man suffered a degloving injury and leg fractures. The defendant denied liability, disputed the nature and extent of the plaintiff’s damages, and contended the plaintiff was negligent.
- 2015, New York: $1.8 Million Settlement. An elderly female tourist from Germany is hit while standing on the sidewalk. The woman suffered multiple leg injuries, including a degloving injury to the ankle. She had an external fixation device placed and underwent several surgeries before returning to Germany.
- March 2014, Alabama: $4,000,000 Verdict: A construction worker was working as a temporary employee at a local farm. While attempting to build a fence, his clothes were caught in the drill. Before he had time to react, the skin on his genitals became pulled in as well. He ultimately suffered a horrific — there is no other way to describe it — degloving injury to his genitals. He blamed his employer on some level, of course. But his degloving injury lawyer also claimed that the manufacturer could have installed a safety guard on the equipment.
- September 2011, New York: $20,316,049 Verdict: A 59-year-old housekeeper was attempting to cross the street when she was struck by a bus. She was rushed to a local hospital where she was treated for injuries to her arm, buttocks, eye, foot, and head. She was initially treated for a degloving injury of the upper portion of her right arm. Unfortunately, the injuries proved more severe and she ultimately required an above elbow amputation, as well as a below-knee amputation to her left leg. She underwent a total of 20 operations and multiple skin grafts over three months of hospitalization as well as seven months of physical therapy and rehab. Just when things started to show slight improvement, her retinae detached, causing blindness of the eye. She hired a degloving lawyer and sued the bus driver, MTA, and New York City Transit Authority for negligence. Plaintiff claimed she had the pedestrian signal permitting her to cross the intersection. Defendants denied liability, arguing the credibility of Plaintiff’s video evidence of her crossing the street. Obviously, that was a big mistake.
- June 2011, New Jersey: $1,400,000 Settlement: A 53-year-old factory worker at a meat processing plant was cleaning the moving conveyor belt when her right arm became caught between the belt and drive gear. She suffered severe crush injuries in her arm, as well as a degloving injury, a dislocated elbow, and multiple fractures. Her injuries required multiple surgeries, but unfortunately, she is now permanently disabled with a loss of strength and sensation in her right arm. She hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit against the machine’s manufacturer and her employer for negligence. Plaintiff claimed the design of the machine was defective and lacked an appropriate warning. She also claimed her employer was negligent in improperly instructing her to clean the machine while it was running. The manufacturer claimed employer was liable for Plaintiff’s injuries as their instructions were contrary to industry practice. The parties agreed to a settlement amount of $1,400,000.
- January 2011, New Jersey: $2,000,000 Verdict: A man and his friend visited a local restaurant for their regular poker night. During their almost five-hour stay, they consumed an assortment of alcohol, paid their tab, and left. The man rode as a passenger in his friend’s vehicle and after traveling for barely a mile, the driver missed a curve, flipped the car, and crashed into a tree. The impact was so severe, the jaws of life were used to extract them from the vehicle. They were taken by helicopter to Morristown Memorial Hospital. The passenger suffered a serious degloving injury to his calf, a punctured lung, and multiple fractures to his spine, tibia, and ankle. He required multiple surgeries as well as skin grafts from his thigh to his calf. The man sued both the driver and the restaurant for negligence. Plaintiff claimed Defendant Driver was negligent in operating the vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. They eventually settled before trial for $100,000 and the matter proceeded against the restaurant only. Plaintiff claimed Defendant Restaurant failed to recognize the visible signs of intoxication in his friend. Defendant Restaurant denied allegations claiming the Defendant Driver was 100% liable for Plaintiff’s injuries. A Morris County jury awarded the Plaintiff $2,000,000. We do not have dram shop laws in Maryland, regrettably so this verdict against the restaurant would be dismissed before getting to a jury.
- November 2004, North Carolina: $2,300,000 Settlement: A woman was riding as a passenger in her friend’s vehicle when her side was broadsided by a tractor-trailer. The car flipped several times and she suffered severe injuries as a result of the crash. She was treated for a ghastly degloving injury to her right wrist, requiring multiple skin and muscle grafts to reconstruct what could be salvaged. She ultimately lost one and a half fingers and part of the mobility of her wrist. She sued the tractor-trailer driver for negligence. The parties agreed to a settlement amount $2,300,000.
Hiring a Degloving Injury Lawyer
Our degloving injury lawyers handle serious personal injury and wrongful death cases. If you have a claim and need a lawyer experienced in battling and defeating these insurance companies, call our law firm at 800-553-8082 or get a free case evaluation online.