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Accidents are a physical and emotional shock to the body, causing a rush of adrenaline, cortisol, and other stress hormones. While these play an important role in helping accident victims get through the trauma of the moment, they can also temporarily mask symptoms of injuries, leaving the injury victim unaware that they’ve been injured. In addition, some injuries develop symptoms during the hours or even days after the crash, due to internal bleeding or inflammation. There are five common car accident injuries that can have serious impacts on the injury victim’s future, despite the fact that they have delayed symptoms onset.
Whiplash is one of the most common car accident injuries with delayed symptom onset. Whiplash can occur in any car accident—even low-impact accidents—but it’s most common after rear-end collisions. Whiplash occurs when a collision causes the neck to snap suddenly back and forth under the weight of the head, stretching and overextending the internal structures of the neck.
An accident victim may not notice the damage caused by whiplash immediately after the accident. Once inflammation begins, it causes pain, stiffness, and nerve problems that cause headaches, numbness or tingling in the arms, and even changes in mood, personality, and concentration.
Back injuries occur in many car accidents, even those that happen at low speeds. A 100-pound person becomes a 3,000-pound force in a collision at only 30 miles per hour. While a seatbelt inarguably saves lives, the force of the body as it’s propelled forward and then snapped back against the seatbelt can cause injuries to the vertebrae and soft tissue in the back. Lower lumbar injuries, herniated discs, and fractures are common.
After an accident, an injury victim may notice achiness in their back and assume that it will pass. Instead, as inflammation sets in, the pain and stiffness worsen and become debilitating.
Head injuries and traumatic brain injuries result from blunt force trauma or the violent jarring or shaking that occurs in a car accident. When the brain bumps against the bony inner surface of the skull it can cause serious injury; however, the injury victim may not have immediate symptoms. Over the hours and days following a car accident, bleeding, bruising, and swelling inside the brain damage delicate brain tissue, including the nerve cells needed for bodily functions. Symptoms like headache, dizziness, confusion, and memory problems after a car accident are signs of a potentially critical brain injury that may worsen without prompt medical intervention.
As a motorist’s body is thrust forward against the seatbelt, airbag, and other internal structures inside a vehicle during a collision, injuries to the abdomen and thoracic region can occur. A car accident victim may not know they’ve been injured until swelling, bruising, tenderness, and/or blood in the urine or feces appear. Internal organ damage in car accidents often has delayed symptom presentation.
Depending on the nature and severity of a back injury with spinal cord involvement, the injury victim may be unaware of the serious injury they’ve suffered until hours after the accident. Shards of bone from a fractured vertebra may shift and damage the spinal cord. In many cases, inflammation from damaged spinal structures causes inflammation, bruising, and bleeding that compresses the spinal cord with symptoms worsening over the days following the accident.
After an accident, you may feel like you’ve had a narrow escape and just want to go home and recover from the trauma; however, a car accident victim should always go to a hospital after a car accident or seek a thorough medical exam at an urgent care center, doctor’s office, or another medical facility as soon as possible. Not only does this ensure prompt medical treatment for serious injuries, but it also documents evidence that the injury occurred in the car accident which is essential for recovering compensation for medical expenses, income loss, and pain and suffering.
Insurance companies commonly dispute injury claims when the injury has delayed symptom onset, particularly if the injury victim wasn’t promptly diagnosed after the accident. Call the New Haven car accident lawyers at Weber & Rubano for help with your car accident claim and your attorney will form a personalized strategy for the best possible outcome in your case.