Many car crash injuries are immediate and obvious. A person with a spinal cord injury may not be able to exit their vehicle. Those with fractures may experience intense pain if they put weight on a fractured leg or try to lift with a broken arm.
People with immediate symptoms generally understand that they must inform emergency responders about the need for medical care. Others may initially overlook injuries and may then have a more challenging process ahead when they need compensation for their medical expenses and lost wages.
People who are aware of easy-to-overlook invisible injuries may take the appropriate step of seeing a doctor after a crash even though they don’t notice instant injury symptoms. What invisible conditions often begin with a car crash?
1. Traumatic brain injuries
The term “invisible injury” is often used specifically to describe a traumatic brain injury. Inflammation or bleeding inside the skull that puts pressure on the brain can cause permanent structural changes to the brain. Brain injury symptoms often take days or weeks to develop. Diagnostic delays can lead to a worse long-term prognosis and create complications when seeking compensation from the driver at fault for the crash.
2. Internal bleeding
Blunt-force trauma from contact with the steering column or internal injuries in the chest and abdomen from the safety restraints keeping someone in a vehicle can cause bleeding in the chest or abdomen. Internal bleeding can cause a variety of medical complications and can even endanger people’s lives if left untreated for too long. People may go several days before they realize they need medical care if a car crash causes internal bleeding.
3. Stable traumatic injuries
People can injure their bodies seriously but still use the affected body parts. A simple fracture might leave the bone perfectly aligned, but intense exercise or mild secondary trauma could later push the bone out of alignment and worsen the injury days later.
People can also sustain partial spinal cord injuries that pinch or incompletely tear the spinal cord. They may not recognize the seriousness of their condition because they can still use their lower extremities. They are at risk of the injury worsening and possibly causing permanent paralysis.
The more serious the injuries sustained by other people and the worse the damage to the vehicle, the more likely people are to have sustained serious injuries that may not be immediately obvious. Seeing a doctor for immediate diagnosis after a motor vehicle collision can help people protect their health and their right to hold the driver at fault for a crash accountable for the financial consequences of their injuries.