After a car accident, the body experiences profound physiological responses that help keep you safe. The sudden surge of adrenaline and endorphins masks intense pain, allowing you to escape dangerous situations. However, in the 21st century, where very few of us are chased by predators, we simply take pain medication and move on from traumatic events. Unfortunately, ignoring the impact of a crash because you don’t feel immediate pain can be exceedingly dangerous.
Many car accident injuries have delayed symptoms that only manifest when you have calmed down, making them easy to dismiss as minor aches and pains. As San Diego car accident attorneys, we often work with accident victims who assumed they were fine, only to experience the effects of the accident days or even weeks later. In these cases, the victim may seek medical attention only when symptoms become unbearable, which can adversely affect their insurance claims.
How Long After a Car Accident Does Whiplash Show Up?
Whiplash is the most common injury sustained in rear-end collisions, but it’s also the most underestimated. Accident victims suffer whiplash injuries when the force of the impact makes the head whip forward and backward quickly. The rapid motion stretches and tears neck ligaments and muscles, which can be extremely painful. Soft tissue injuries don’t show up on standard X-rays, so many assume that their stiff neck is a minor inconvenience.
In reality, untreated whiplash can develop into chronic neck pain, persistent headaches, and numbness that radiates into the arms. Whiplash often presents delayed injury symptoms that can take 24-48 hours to manifest. Many victims don’t realize the severity of the damage until the symptoms become unbearable. At this stage, they may not even link the pain to the accident. Yet, delayed symptoms can cause some issues when filing a compensation claim.
Can You Get a Concussion Without Hitting Your Head?
A common misconception that surrounds traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) is that they only occur if you hit your head against a steering wheel, dashboard, or window. However, the force of rapid acceleration or deceleration in a collision can cause the brain to slam against the inside of the skull. Even low-speed impacts can still lead to TBIs such as concussions and contusions because the brain is jolted violently and rebounds off the hard bone.
Among the most frequent and unrecognized car accident injuries is brain injuries due to their invisibility externally. TBIs are difficult to diagnose using standard scans since bleeding, bruising, and tissue damage can not show up on the conventional scans which are normally done in emergency departments. Brain fog, light sensitivity, fatigue and irritability are some of the early warning signs of TBIs. Unless a TBI is followed up, there is a risk that the victim may experience a second impact syndrome (apparently uncommon but potentially fatal condition whereby a second head injury is sustained before the first wound has even healed, prompting the brain to swell very rapidly).
What Are the indications of internal bleeding following a car crash?
Internal bleeding is a dangerous injury as it cannot be seen on the outside. Uncontrolled bleeding in the body may result in death in a few hours. Steering wheel, airbag and seatbelt blunt force can harm internal organs that are not covered by the rib cage, such as liver and kidneys. In contrast to the pain that is localized and immediate to the cut on the surface of the skin, in the case of internal hemorrhaging, the pain may not necessarily be as such.
The internal bleeding victims of an accident might experience a sense of lightheadedness, deep bruising in the abdomen or coldness in their legs and arms. Most of these symptoms are overlooked as shock and most of them prefer to sleep instead of attending to the hospital. Bleeding can cause internal organ failure, hemorrhagic shock and sepsis. Emergency doctors are trained to seek in nuances, and there is no excuse to postpone visits to the hospital.
What Is the Reason Back Pain is exacerbated by a car accident?
The spine is a complicated system consisting of vertebra, nerves, muscles, tendons and the crucial spinal column. The violent forces of a car accident are likely to have disastrous effects on the spinal system. Though a fractured vertebra can often be detected on an emergency room visit, such injuries as herniated discs or cord impingements may not seem to be an emergency.
The victims of accidents are often not concerned with back pain and often ignore it and use non-prescription analgesics, which merely cover up the problem. When the herniated disc or impingement is neglected then it may squeeze or even permanently damage the spinal cord. What begins as irritating pain may soon develop into serious spinal disorders, which need surgery and physical treatment. Back pain should be addressed as soon as possible among victims so as to prevent chronic issues.
What Are Soft Tissue Injuries More Gravitas Than It Seems?
Injuries to the soft tissues include injury to the muscle, tendons and ligaments. Although insurance companies are inclined to consider them minor, the fact remains that tissue damage may have long-lasting effects. Soft tissue may be highly stretched or torn in vehicle collisions causing severe inflammation and limited range of motion. Whiplash is a type of soft tissue injury, yet can be any part of the body.
The risk associated with soft-tissue injuries is that they get more serious over time. The soft tissue damage is more prone to deterioration as victims do not realize it and therefore proceed to move and strain the affected part. The scar tissue may develop in the wrong way, and no matter how much physical therapy is done by professionals and how well the diagnosis, scar tissue will result in a person experiencing chronic pain and stiffness throughout his/her life. Following a crash, do not ignore any kind of pain claiming that it is normal since it may well be the result of major damage.
What to Do After a Car Accident When You Do Not Feel injured?
In case of an accident, it is not always straightforward to obtain an injury diagnosis. In other instances physicians overlook the concerns of victims and they end up with complications which are fatal. Should there be a doctor who tells you that you are in good health, we suggest that he/she should be told in your report that he/she is not willing to do further tests. The paper trail that this record leaves behind makes it clear to lawyers and insurers that your injuries are related to the accident.
HHJ Trial Attorneys should be contacted in case of a car accident. Our niche is personal injury claims, assisting victims to navigate the court process on their own. The bureaucratic aspects of a personal injury can be taxing and emotionally draining, and therefore, do not attempt to do it on your own. Call us and have a free consultation to talk about your case and to come up with a plan to have you the compensation you need.
