General

After a crash, what you can’t see can hurt you

In the aftermath of a car accident, it is easy to look around you and be overwhelmed by what you see. Your car might be totaled; you and other victims may be cut, burned and bleeding; emergency workers can be arriving on the scene to take your statements.

But for many people, the things they cannot see wind up being the most painful. This is because there are many types of serious injuries suffered in a collision that are either difficult to identify or slow to develop. If you have recently been involved in an accident, we encourage you to keep your eye out for some of these seemingly invisible injuries.

• Whiplash, or neck and back pain: Many accident victims suffer these types of injuries because they are thrown forward or backward with considerable force. Your head, neck and back are all going to respond to a collision, and if you strike something in your car or the response is extreme, you can be left in considerable pain that gets worse over time.
• Emotional distress: Surviving a serious accident is a traumatic event. This can catch people off guard and they may be surprised to learn days, weeks, months and years after an accident that they are suffering from conditions like depression, anxiety or other psychological injuries.
• Concussions: Brain injuries are particularly troubling. However, you might not realize that your brain has suffered some damage until you start experiencing symptoms like headaches, nausea and sleepiness.
• Chronic pain: Injuries aren’t necessarily localized to one area or body part. In some cases, people continue to feel pain all throughout their body after an accident.

These are all injuries that are not necessarily easy to see, but they can all be very serious. This is why it is so important that you not ignore or minimize your injuries after an accident. They have the potential to be much more painful and disruptive than you might expect.

Getting medical attention sooner, rather than later, can help you get the diagnosis and treatment you need to recover from an accident. Speaking with an attorney will also be critical if you decide to file a personal injury claim.

Tue Aug 28, 7:21pm