So you’ve recently been in minor car accidents in Columbus. You move your neck around, check for any blood in the rearview mirror, and walk out of the vehicle when you’ve recovered from the jarring hit of the other driver. You’re alright, with some minor aches and pains in your neck, lower back, and across your chest from the seatbelt constraint.
You’re a strong person who rarely complains. You’re not going to do it right now, and all you want to do is get home and take some painkillers and sleep it off. You finally make it home after exchanging information with the other driver and giving the police officer your version of events of how the other driver hit you, take some painkillers and go to sleep.
The next morning, you’re in excruciating pain. Your neck hurts, your back hurts, and your chest hurts. You pack your belongings and head to the emergency room, surprised at how much pain you’re in and how immobilized you’ve become.
When you arrive, speak with the triage nurse, then wait in the exam room to speak with a doctor, you’re left wondering what went wrong. What might it be that I have? How could I be in so much pain after minor car accidents in Columbus?
The Truth Behind Minor Car Accidents in Columbus; Insights from a Columbus Car Accident Lawyer:
Unfortunately, the physics of car accidents are such that even a slow-moving accident (20 MPH or less) can cause serious injuries to your body and brain. You might have a variety of injuries depending on how you were hit, and some of the more frequent ones might go misdiagnosed for months because you just live with the pain.
The following are some examples of serious injuries that are frequently overlooked by doctors. If you are experiencing pain in your neck, back, chest, or other areas that have been directly impacted, you should visit a doctor right away.
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Whiplash:
Whiplash is most common in rear-end incidents, where the driver’s or passenger’s neck jerks back and forth like a whip. Symptoms may include dizziness, vision problems, neck and shoulder pain, pain spreading from the neck into the shoulder blades, arms, and fingers, headaches beginning at the base of the skull, and others.
Depending on the severity of minor car accidents in Georgia, the damage may recover in a few weeks with over-the-counter medicine or may continue much longer, necessitating physical therapy or surgery.
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Disc Herniation:
Whiplash leads to another very common injury known as disc herniation. Due to the extreme force and direction of the force snapping your back and neck in a rear-end collision, the most likely areas for disc damage are your cervical and lumbar spine. The thoracic area is frequently unaffected because moving discs in that area requires tremendous force.
However, your cervical and lumbar discs could easily be moved (or herniated) out of place and compress the spinal cord, causing tingling in your fingers or toes, pain down your leg, headaches, and a variety of other symptoms.
Disc herniation can be highly expensive to treat by conservative techniques or surgery under car accident law. After physical therapy, a course of steroid injections is usually administered. Injections frequently fail, and the spine specialist will recommend a rhizotomy (burning of the nerve endings causing the pain). If that fails to provide long-term relief, spine surgery is usually used.
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Pain in Chest and Ribs:
Victims of minor car accidents in Columbus frequently suffer from various symptoms, including bruised or broken ribs, which are very painful. The ribs are not the strongest component of your body and are readily broken. There isn’t much you can do about it but let yourself recover.
Often, the pain is so excruciating that you don’t realize you have back pain until your ribs have healed, which can take months. That is why it is critical to see your doctor as soon as possible after minor car accidents in Columbus to receive a full-body workup if you are experiencing pain in multiple areas. If your injuries go untreated for a few months after your accident, the insurance adjuster may refuse to help when you demand money for treatment.
Contact Us in Case of Minor Car Accidents in Columbus:
Since insurance firms know you don’t know what to do, they prey on accident victims who don’t have lawyers. They use your lack of understanding to determine how much you should be paid. That’s where we come in. We’ve worked with a wide range of car accidents.
If you suffered from a minor car accident in Columbus or any other sort of injury, don’t wait until it’s too late to get help. You are entitled to cash compensation for your losses, injuries, and pain and suffering. Contact our Columbus car accident attorneys today as we provide a free case evaluation.
