At the time of a car accident, the occupants in the car experience the force of the impact. That force puts stress on specific parts of the body. By seeking immediate medical attention, an accident victim can alert doctors to the chances that some injury might become more apparent in the future.
What are some examples of what could amount to a late-appearing injury?
Suppose a man being treated for heart problems gets into a minor accident. He is not severely injured, but his chest does hit the steering wheel. His chest looks bruised. Could he have injured his heart?
Picture the action of the head and neck of a driver that must stop suddenly, trying very hard to prevent an accident. That same driver is apt to injure his or her soft tissues in the neck. In other words, that driver may have suffered a whiplash injury. The symptoms from such injuries do not show up right away. Those symptoms make their appearance several weeks or months after the accident. That is why it is important to consult with a Car Accident Lawyer in Cambridge to get a competent opinion on how much you can claim in damages.
Why and how a brain injury might appear rather late?
A driver’s head might hit a cushioned steering wheel. It would not develop any open wounds. Still, the brain might have hit the skull. Furthermore, the driver might have a mild ear ache, caused by an infection. That infection would have an effect on the driver’s brain.
Still, that effect would not show up right away. Over the next few weeks and months that person with the hidden injury could start to have headaches, or could complain about nausea or blurry vision. Those might be viewed as minor problems.
That would allow the latent injury to worsen. As a result, the victim might complain about dizziness, lack of energy or strange sleeping patterns. Those would be symptoms of a late-appearing medical problem. Those symptoms should let doctors know that the patient/victim has not yet fully recovered from the injury that was so slow to manifest itself.
Someone with a personal injury claim should not settle with the insurance company until all those involved in the accident have recovered from their injuries. Realize that any unexplained condition could suggest the absence of a full recovery. No unexplained condition should go unrecorded, if the patient was recently involved in a car accident. Ideally, the treating physician has been told that the patient being treated has experienced the impact caused by a collision. Most lawyers advice that you should never skip the preliminary medical care and attention so that there is no reason for the defendant to say that he or she wasn’t hurt to see a doctor.
