The immediate injuries that you suffer in your car accident can take quite a toll on your life, leaving you with newfound limitations, extensive pain and suffering, and overwhelming emotional turmoil. While you might be able to get a handle on these injuries by seeking prompt medical care and following your doctor’s treatment recommendations, there’s a chance that you may have hidden accident injuries that don’t present themselves until much later.
You need to be aware of these injuries so that you can properly treat them and include them as part of your personal injury lawsuit that you file against the driver who harmed you. But what types of injuries are we talking about? Let’s take a closer look at some of these hidden injuries so that you know what to be on the lookout for.
Common hidden car accident injuries
A car accident can wreak havoc on your body and mind. As a result, some of the damage you face won’t present itself immediately. Here are some injuries that might take a while to show up:
- Whiplash: Your whole body might ache after being involved in an accident, but whiplash is more than just a bruise or overexerted muscle. This injury occurs when your head moves forward and then backward quickly in a whip-like motion. This can damage nerves, fracture vertebrae, and even dislocate portions of your neck.
- Concussion: This traumatic brain injury, caused by a blow to the head, is often suffered in a car accident when your head hits the steering wheel, dashboard, windshield, or window. Even though you won’t lose consciousness with a concussion, you can still experience severe symptoms, including headaches, nausea, confusion, dizziness, fatigue, and short-term memory loss. Don’t’ make the mistake of chalking these symptoms up to the stress of the event.
- Back injuries: The sudden impact of your car accident can cause a herniated disc, which is the rupturing of the soft gel-like cushion between your vertebrae. This can cause extensive pain due to nerve inflammation that can linger for a significant period of time. In addition to pain, you might experience numbness, loss of feeling, and loss of muscle control. Although less severe, you could also suffer back muscle sprains and strains that can take a while to heal.
- Severe traumatic brain injury: Brain damage doesn’t always show right away, and it doesn’t always result in physical limitations like many people think. Many traumatic brain injury sufferers experience periods of forgetfulness, irritation, personality change, and bouts of anger. Since traumatic brain injuries can’t be diagnosed without medical treatment, you should be on the lookout for these symptoms so that you can seek out medical care when needed.
- Internal injuries: The impact of your collision can cause extensive internal damage, including harm to your organs. Yet, you probably won’t know that unless you start experiencing symptoms, including swelling of your abdomen and the seemingly sudden onset of a high fever. If you see these signs, then seek immediate medical care. Otherwise, you could end up with a life-threatening condition like sepsis.
Your body and mind can be ravaged by a car accident. To recover from your injuries as fully as possible, you need compensation and closure, both of which can be obtained through a successful personal injury lawsuit. So, if you want to find the best path forward toward the outcome you want and deserve, then now is the time to start building your case.