When a person experiences a car accident, he or she may suffer injuries that do not cause immediate pain, often masking the severity of the accident and keeping the victim from seeking proper treatment. This is truly dangerous for the victim, even if the injuries are not terribly severe.
If you recently survived a car accident, you should definitely seek out a full medical examination from your preferred doctor or from a properly trained and licensed medical professional to identify any delayed pain injuries. This examination may just save your life or keep you from enduring weeks or months of unnecessary pain as you recover. Once you are well on your way to recovery, you can assess whether or not the injury requires a personal injury claim to cover your medical expenses and cover other losses from the accident such as income you lost because you could not work.
Abdominal injuries
If you experience any kind of abdominal pain after a car accident, you should go to an emergency care facility immediately. Do not wait until you are done with work. Abdominal injuries are often the most deadly, and the only kind of delayed pain injury that regularly kills its victims. Delayed abdominal pain after an accident may indicate either internal bleeding or organ damage, both of which are potentially lethal.
Internal bleeding poses obvious risks to the well being of the victim due to blood loss, just as most severe injuries do, but minor internal bleeding can also cause different complications. In some cases, if the site of internal bleeding does not receive proper treatment, then it may develop an infection, which can spread through the circulatory system to all parts of the body. This infection, once spread, will shut down the body and put it into sepsis.
Organ damage may also turn fatal if the organ fails completely. Once an organ fails, the other organs in your body will also fail, leading to a slow and painful death. Do not risk your life and safety by avoiding proper medical care, even if you don’t think that you need it.
Head and back injuries
A blow to the head or damage to the neck and back may not cause pain at first either. Should a victim receive a blow to the head, he or she may develop a minor brain injury, which can create physical symptoms like nausea and headaches, or may affect the temperament of the victim and make it very difficult to perform familiar tasks.
Similarly, injuries to the spine may cause pinched or severed nerves, which may not produce pain initially, but may later cause numbness, tingling or sharp and radiating pain throughout the body, especially in the arms, legs and extremities.
It is also possible to suffer severe whiplash or some other form of soft tissue damage and not feel pain for several hours afterwards. Of course, once whiplash does set in, the soreness in your muscles and the stiffness of the affected areas may make it nearly impossible to move.
Protect yourself with proper care
Seeking out professional medical care after a car accident may save you from an untimely death or may prevent you from suffering for weeks and months without reason. Take care of yourself and the ones who depend on you by seeking out proper medical attention as soon as you can and using the legal resources you have available to protect your rights and priorities.
