Being involved in a car crash can impact your day. You’ll probably never make it to the grocery store or to an important work meeting like you planned to because someone else wasn’t being careful. And you will have to explain to your family why you didn’t bring home groceries or tell your co-workers why you were absent. Thankfully, when death or life-threatening injuries aren’t a result of the crash, you can take steps recover and return to your normal life.
Amidst all the chaos that can result from the accident and necessary follow-up with your car insurance company, you owe it to yourself to go see a doctor. You might feel and look unharmed. However, many car accident victims don’t feel symptoms of common injuries right away. It’s also possible that a victim might not know if they will qualify to receive medical damages and may be hesitant to see a doctor because of the costs involved.
Delayed injuries
To encourage you to have a professional evaluate your well-being after an accident, it’s worth consider the following delayed injuries:
- Whiplash-related injuries: When your neck moves quickly back and forth during a crash, a typical result of rear-end collisions, what you go through is also known as whiplash. While there is a chance the whip-like motions only created minor neck or back pain, not learning the root of the pain and how to treat it can lead to a lengthened recovery or cause symptoms to worsen or reoccur.
- Soft-tissue injuries: If you experience faint soreness on body parts that banged around in the accident or any sort of headache or lightheadedness, then you shouldn’t hesitate to get a professional opinion on what you might be experiencing. This is because it’s possible that you are suffering from internal bleeding.
- Mental health decline: Another form of internal injury that accident victims may suffer from are mental health conditions. Given the traumatic experience victims go through, it’s not uncommon for someone involved in an accident to have post-traumatic stress disorder. Feeling intense stress or anxiety while driving can also be a reality for victims.
Medical damages
Maybe you went to the doctor’s office and already found out the accident didn’t severely impact your health. It’s important to leave the guess work up to an expert and not to write off new symptoms you may experience days, weeks or months after the crash. It’s also worth seeing a doctor, because if you didn’t cause the crash, then you might be able to collect what you need to pay for accident-related medical bills and expenses by filing a claim or lawsuit.
