Usually, spinal cord injury symptoms are severe and every patient's prognosis is different. Some make a miraculous recovery within months; others need years of physical therapy and, still, make little to no progress.

The outcome depends on the nature of the injury, the quality of medical care someone receives, the degree to which they work at their own recovery by adopting a healthy lifestyle, psychological health, luck, and innumerable other factors.

A partial list of common spinal cord injury symptoms includes:

Varying degrees of paralysis, including tetraplegia/quadriplegia, and paraplegia;

Difficulty breathing; the need to be on a respirator;

Problems with bladder and bowel function;

Frequent infections, which is more likely to happen if a feeding or breathing tube was used;

Bedsores;

Chronic pain;

Headaches;

Changes in mood or personality;

Loss of libido or sexual function;

Loss of fertility;

Nerve pain;

Chronic muscle pain;

Pneumonia (more than half of cervical spinal cord injury survivors struggle with bouts of pneumonia).