In the immediate aftermath of your accident, many of your injuries are readily apparent. That’s why it’s critical that you seek prompt medical attention to ensure that your wounds are properly treated, and you can stem any damage that they might continue to cause. But just because you sought treatment for your initial injuries doesn’t mean that you’re out of the woods.
In fact, there are several car accident injuries that don’t present themselves for days, weeks, or even months after your wreck. To incorporate these injuries into your personal injury claim and recoup the damages that you’re owed for them, you need to be on the lookout for these hidden injuries and seek out medical care when their symptoms arise.
Hidden accident injuries you should be aware of
Believe it or not, there are several accident injuries that can sneak up on you when you don’t expect them. Here are some of them and the symptoms that you need to watch out for as time progresses:
- Whiplash: Caused by a sudden movement of the head and neck in a jerking fashion, whiplash can appear anywhere from 24 hours to days after your accident. You might experience stiffness and pain in your neck, loss of movement in your neck, headaches, and numbness and pain in your shoulders and arms.
- Traumatic brain injury: If your head struck the dashboard or another part of your vehicle during your accident, there’s a chance that you suffered a traumatic brain injury. It can take days, weeks or even months to show signs of your injury, so you’ll want to be aware of the symptoms, which may include headaches, blurred vision, personality changes, irritability, balance issues and even vomiting. Your family members might be able to help you identify these symptoms, as many traumatic brain injury sufferers struggle to identify them on their own.
- Back injuries: You’re probably going to experience back pain after your accident. You might chalk that pain up to a sprain or strain, but there’s a real possibility that you’ve herniated a disc. These discs serve as cushions between your vertebrae, so a ruptured disc can cause a lot of friction along your spine that’s very painful. Since this pain typically doesn’t appear for a few days, you’ll want to seek out additional treatment once you do start experiencing that pain.
- Internal damage: Internal injuries are difficult to detect until they’ve advanced to the point that they’re causing significant symptoms, such as excruciating abdominal pain. It can take some time for the damage to advance to this point, too, making it hard to catch early on.
- Emotional and mental trauma: Remember, your accident isn’t just going to cause physical injuries. It’s also going to result in extensive emotional and psychological harm. The true extent of the mental toll taken on you won’t be readily recognizable, though, so you’ll want to keep tabs on your mental health so that you can seek out further treatment if needed. After all, mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder are common in those who have been involved in a serious car accident.
Are you ready to pursue the damages you need to offset the losses caused to you in your car accident?
If so, now is the time to get to work. Developing your personal injury case is going to take time and legal knowhow, so you should be sure to learn as much as you can about the process and what you can do to develop the aggressive personal injury case you need to be successful.
