Common Car Accident Injuries that Might Go Undetected

Some people walk away from car accidents unscathed. Others suffer horrific or even fatal injuries. Sometimes, however, you might suffer an injury and not even know it, for a variety of reasons.

Adrenaline and shock can conceal pain, for example, leading you to believe you’re not even injured. Even without factoring in adrenaline, some injuries take hours or days to display symptoms. Early diagnosis can protect your claim and avoid life-changing complications.

Why hidden injuries happen after a crash

It’s obvious why injuries happen after a crash. It’s not so obvious why they are often hidden. One culprit is adrenaline. Adrenaline masks pain. The function of this is that it sometimes allows you to flee even when seriously injured. Pain emerges only after adrenaline wears off.

Other injuries, such as internal injuries, might hurt at the moment of the crash and immediately subside. If the injury was external you would know from the bleeding that you were injured. Internal bleeding, however, can easily go unnoticed until you start experiencing symptoms of blood loss. Swelling and inflammation are two other examples of bodily reactions that often wait to reveal themselves.

Even a doctor might miss subtle signs of injury without advanced medical imaging equipment.

Head and brain injuries you might not notice right away

Head injuries are notorious for failing to reveal their true nature immediately. Symptoms such as memory loss, confusion, or dizziness might appear days later. Mild traumatic brain injuries might cause long-term cognitive issues that you might not notice for months. You might also suffer a stroke that you never connect to the accident, triggered by a torn artery in your neck after impact (although rare, this condition is very serious).

Neck injuries

Soft tissue and nerve injuries might generate symptoms only after hours or days have passed.

• Whiplash, for example, might feel like simple muscle soreness at first. Meanwhile, undiagnosed neck fractures (from a truck accident, for example) can remain hidden without CT or MRI scans.
• Numbness, tingling, or weakness in your hands or arms might turn out to be late-breaking symptoms of nerve damage.
• Neck pain might radiate down to your shoulders and upper back over time.

Seeking immediate medical attention will increase the odds that your doctor will immediately detect these injuries.

Lower back pain and spinal injuries

Lower back pain and spinal cord injuries can lead to various symptoms.

• Herniated discs and spinal strain are both notorious for their frequent lack of immediate pain. Shooting pain, tingling, or muscle weakness can still develop later.
• Difficulty in standing or walking is a symptom that might emerge days after a crash.

The last way you should handle delayed-onset symptoms is by ignoring them. Untreated injuries can turn into chronic mobility and pain problems that will disrupt every aspect of your life.

Internal injuries without visible signs

Some types of internal injuries can threaten your life, such as:

• Internal bleeding or organ damage that causes only vague discomfort at first.
• Injuries in the abdominal area may cause swelling or tenderness that emerges slowly.
• Never ignore symptoms such as dizziness, pale skin, or shortness of breath. They may turn out to be more than just “nerves.”

The harsh reality is that the risk of life-threatening complications multiplies if you ignore subtle signs of deceptively serious injuries.

How defendants and insurance companies can use failure to seek prompt medical treatment (or follow doctor’s orders) against you

If you have suffered any kind of impact, or even suspect that you may have suffered a car accident injury, you need to seek medical help as soon as possible. Delay can cause serious problems for both medical and legal reasons.

Medical records as compelling evidence

When you seek medical attention, your healthcare provider generates a medical record. Contemporaneous treatment records are often persuasive evidence and may be admissible, but they can be challenged and usually require expert testimony to prove medical causation.

“Failure to mitigate damages” is a common defense

Some injuries become irreversible without prompt treatment. You wouldn’t want an otherwise temporary back injury to turn into a lifetime of chronic pain, for example. If this happened because your initial lack of pain duped you into believing that you didn’t need to go to the hospital, and if your failure to seek medical treatment is what caused the worsening of your medical condition, the defendant could plead “failure to mitigate damages.”

Under the failure to mitigate damages defense the defendant or their insurance company argues that they should not have to pay for the full extent to which your condition worsened because you didn’t take care of it the way you should have. In the foregoing instance you might qualify for compensation for temporary back injury, not lifelong chronic pain.

A successful “failure to mitigate damages” defense could not only leave you unable to pay for chronic pain control, it might also leave you without compensation for any diminished earning capacity you might experience as a result of your injury. This could prove devastating years down the road.

Pre-existing injuries and causation

Insurance disputes are harder to resolve if you fail to document your injuries as early as possible. No matter how negligent the defendant may have been, that won’t matter if the defendant’s negligence is not what caused your injuries. Suppose you suffer a car accident and seek damages for a head injury.

If you didn’t seek medical treatment until two days after the accident, the insurance company could argue that, for all they know, you could have been hit in the head by a baseball the day after the accident. In other words, they could argue that the accident is not what caused your head injury.

Don’t wait—start fighting for your health and your claim today

The sooner you begin pursuing your claim, the better your chances of eventual victory. Crandall & Pera Law, LLC is a personal injury law firm with offices in Ohio and Kentucky. Contact us today to schedule a free initial consultation so that we can explore your options together.