Chronic Neck Pain After Car Accident
It’s pretty common for insurance companies to settle up for simply car accidents quickly, and if no injuries are apparent, money for medical bills aren’t included in the settlement. Unfortunately, neck pain from whiplash can set in long after the accident, leaving accident victims with treatment and therapy bills for chronic neck pain.
Whiplash occurs when the head is suddenly jerked backwards, forwards, or to the side so violently that it can damage the muscles and connective tissues that support the head. Whiplash occurs most often in rear-end collisions and may remain an invisible injury for some time. Moreover, the complications from this type of injury may not surface until weeks or months later. In fact, of the millions of accident victims who go to the emergency room after a crash, some 90 percent are released after being evaluated.
According to researchers, nearly 70 percent of accident victims say they are experiencing chronic pain in one more areas of their bodies. Yet these same people, who deserve it the most, are the least likely to file lawsuits to recover damages for lost wages, medical bills, therapy costs, and pain and suffering. Sometimes they don’t try to recover damages because they don’t know that the neck pain is related to their accident, or they erroneously believe that they can’t try to recover damages because they didn’t immediately file a lawsuit.
Symptoms of Whiplash
Whiplash can affect you differently than it does someone else, so you may experience a variety of symptoms, including:
- Headaches
- Neck pain
- Stiff neck
- Dizziness and balance issues
- Back pain
- Problems concentrating or focusing
- Memory issues
The course of treatment for whiplash injury can include muscle relaxing medications, neck immobilization, physical therapy, massage therapy, and where the tendon or muscle damage is severe, surgery. Often, whiplash patients are referred to specialists for treatment instead of a general practitioner. Still, even with treatment, some people will continue to suffer neck pain for years.
Whiplash and other soft tissue injuries can seem innocent at first, but as time goes on the symptoms and pain of these injuries can continue and even make it easier to hurt those same tissues again. If you believe you may have suffered whiplash or other soft tissue damage in an auto accident, even if you were seen by a physician and discharged, you should speak to an attorney.
Your attorney can explain your rights regarding motor vehicle accident injuries, and tell you if you are eligible to collect damages for your injuries as well as recovery for lost wages, medical costs, therapy bills, and other losses.
Have You Been Injured in a Car Accident? Call Us Today!
If you’ve been injured in a car accident or lost a loved one in a fatal crash, you need a dedicated team of attorneys and legal professionals fighting for your rights. Our attorneys have a long and proven record of helping the victims of car accidents get the compensation they deserve.
Call us today if you or a loved one were injured in a:
- Commercial bus accident
- School bus accident
- Pedestrian accident
- Bicycle accident
- Truck accident
- Motorcycle accident
- Commercial vehicle accident
- Semi-truck accident
We’ll fight insurance companies, negligent operators, and reckless drivers to get you the maximum compensation you deserve.