Always Seek Medical Care After an Auto Accident

After you’ve been in an auto accident, you might feel completely fine. But are you really? In any car accident, there is a ton of force involved when a vehicle is something or hits something else. Even small fender benders can exert enough force to really cause injury. However, many people simply walk away and do nothing after an auto accident because they didn’t see or feel any major damage to their bodies.

Nevertheless, it is still recommended that you seek medical help any time after the auto accident – even if you don’t feel any pain. It’s important that you understand why it’s important to monitor your injuries so that you can protect your health and legal rights.

The Adrenaline Rush

Car accidents can really get your body’s adrenaline pumping. That’s because of all the exciting events that occur when you get in an auto accident. Your heart starts to race as you are in shock to what has just happened. You can’t believe what’s happened and you have no clue what to do next. You might be shaking and scared, unsure of how to proceed.

Car accidents create a level of excitement that makes your body generate endorphins and adrenaline, making you feel energized and void of pain. But just because you feel fine now doesn’t mean you are really fine.

The symptoms might just be masked by all the excitement. Once you’ve calmed down, you’ll start feeling the pain. That can be a few hours to even a few days.

The Possibility of Soft Tissue Injuries

Soft tissue injuries are fairly common after auto accidents. This type of injury happens when your muscles, tendons, and ligaments become damaged. Since car accidents can generate a lot of force (even small ones at low-speeds), both passengers and drivers can get thrown around the car, causing stress to the joints and other vulnerable places on an individual’s body.

One of the most common soft tissue injuries is known as “whiplash.” This sort of injury relates to damaged neck muscles because of the forceful back and forth motion of the head. This often happens in the event of a collision, which can result in swelling, pain and reduced mobility.

However, symptoms of whiplash don’t often start showing immediately. In fact, it can take a few days or weeks to start presenting itself in a person who has just been in an accident.

Plus, soft tissue doesn’t come up in X-rays, which makes it even harder for a doctor to diagnose and document for insurance purposes. However, it’s still recommended that you get medical treatment right after you’ve been in an accident – even before you start to feel any discomfort or pain.

Think of it as preventative measures so that the doctor can ensure that everything is okay. Plus, your doctor visit can be documented and send to your claim’s adjuster.

Concussions Are Common After Car Accidents

Another common injury after car accidents is a concussion. Although your brain is very well protected inside your skull thanks to its hardness and all of the fluid inside, you can still suffer from a concussion after being violently shaken in a car at impact. Your brain can strike the inside of the skull with a lot of force and cause you to suffer from a concussion, which can be very serious.

Oftentimes, symptoms of a concussion are readily apparent in individuals. While some symptoms like loss of consciousness and disorientation are more obvious, others are hard to diagnose because they’re so subtle.

Concussion symptoms include dizziness, blurry vision, headaches, feeling foggy, not being able to remember new information, no energy and abnormal sleep patterns like sleeping more than usual. These symptoms don’t materialize right after a car accident, so if you do have any of these days later after the incident, you must seek medical attention!

Why You Should See A Doctor No Matter What

You only get one body in this life, so making sure it’s healthy is key to living a long life. If you get in an accident, you don’t know how your body was affected by the force and trauma, especially if you’re not in immediate pain or suffer from visible injuries. It’s a good idea to still see a doctor despite feeling just fine. Your doctor will be able to conduct certain tests for common car accident symptoms.

If nothing is found in the initial visit, your doctor will still ask you to come back after a few days or weeks to ensure that you are fine. They’ll give you advice as to what kind of red flags you’ll want to watch out for in case your symptoms start to manifest.

Seeing a doctor immediately after is also helpful if you plan on filing a claim after your car accident so that you are compensated if you do suffer from a serious injury. You need to do so in a reasonable amount of time because if you wait too long, the insurance adjuster will try and argue that you must have not been that hurt if you waited so long to see a doctor.

Do Not Sign Anything

After the car accident, the other driver’s insurance might call you. They might ask that you sign a release to any claims you might have, or they might even offer you some money to motivate you to sign. You don’t want to sign anything until you’ve been seen and evaluated by a doctor.

It’s also recommended to wait a while to see if any symptoms do finally start to manifest. If you do sign, you won’t be able to try to claim anything if it turns out you are injured as a result of the traffic accident.