What To Do If You Have Delayed Pain After A Car Accident

Being in a car accident, especially a minor one, can seem like a major inconvenience. Having to deal with police reports, the insurance companies, going to the doctor to make sure you aren’t injured, exchanging information with the other drivers and witnesses, renting another car, and waiting until your own car gets fixed, can be a pain. With any luck, your doctor will find that you have come through the incident with no delayed pain injuries.

But what if you start developing pain hours, days, or weeks after the accident? Delayed pain after accidents is more common than you may think. In fact, many people who walk away from the accident scene can develop intense pain just hours or days later. After being injured in a car accident your body releases endorphins, the natural pain killers that help reduce the perception of pain. Endorphins can stay in the body for days after an injury occurs, making it look like you didn’t receive any injuries at all. Endorphins are necessary to help us deal with pain but can make it difficult for us to realize just how badly we may have been hurt in an accident.

Common Car Accident Delayed Pain Injuries

Some of the most common types of delayed pain accident injuries include whiplash, contusions, muscle strains, etc. If you were in a car accident and develop the following types of delayed pain car accident soft tissue injuries, you should seek advice from a medical professional immediately.

Headaches – After a car accident, you may experience headache pain that is related to something as simple as stress, or as severe as whiplash, neck or brain injury, concussion, or even a blot clot.
Back Pain – Pain in the back, either lower or upper, can be an indication of whiplash, herniated disc(s), sprains, or other soft tissue injuries.
Neck and Shoulder Pain – This type of pain could be indicative of a spinal or disc injury, and may appear within hours or even days of the accident.
Abdominal Pain – This type of pain can be an indication of internal damage or hemorrhaging. If left unchecked, it can prove to be fatal. Seek medical attention immediately, even if it has been days since the accident happened.
Numbness, Tingling, & Other Strange Sensations – These types of sensations can be an indication of pinch nerves and/or herniated discs. Don’t let them go unchecked. If you don’t get it checked by a doctor, it can result in permanent injuries.
PTSD, Anxiety, or Depression – Emotional pain and suffering can result from post-accident stress, or it can be a result of brain injury caused by the accident. Brain injuries can cause emotional changes, including a change in personality, as well as head pain.

Just to be safe, it is recommended that car accident victims see a doctor to make sure they haven’t been injured. It is possible that you were injured and don’t even know it. A doctor who understands car accident injuries and the effects accidents can have on the human body will be able to determine how bad your injuries are and can make recommendations to minimize further complications and schedule you for follow-up treatment if necessary

What Symptoms Should I Look for After a Car Accident?

There are a number of symptoms after a car accident that can indicate the presence of serious injuries. It is important to make sure you get the treatment you need. If you have any concerns about your medical condition, you should see a doctor as soon as possible.

How do you know if you need treatment? It isn’t always easy to tell. While some symptoms after a car accident are obvious, others are more subtle. Additionally, with some types of injuries, symptoms may not begin to appear until days—or even weeks—after the accident.

10 Common Injury Symptoms After a Car Accident

The following are all common symptoms that you should look for after a car accident. Whether you immediately experience these symptoms after a car accident or they manifest once some time has passed, they could all be signs that you need treatment as a result of the collision:

1. Chest Pain

Chest pain is a common symptom that can be related to a variety of types of injuries. These include seatbelt syndrome (bruising and internal trauma caused by seatbelt restraint), bruised or fractured ribs, and lung damage, among others.

2. Difficulty Sleeping

Difficulty sleeping can also be symptomatic of several different types of car accident injuries. In many cases, difficulty sleeping can be associated with brain trauma, and in these scenarios prompt medical attention is required. Difficulty sleeping is also a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder for car accident victims.

3. Fatigue

When we get injured, our bodies go into overdrive to either try to fix the injury or prevent it from causing potentially-serious complications. This, in turn, leads to fatigue. Certain types of injuries (i.e., traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can cause fatigue as well.

4. Headaches

Headaches are a common symptom of concussions—and concussions are extremely common car accident injuries. Even if a driver’s or passenger’s head does not make contact with an object in the vehicle, the forces involved in a serious accident are more than enough to cause damage to the brain.

5. Joint Pain

Shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle injuries are all common in car accidents. In most cases, drivers and passengers who suffer these injuries will experience pain at the affected joint. Even if a joint does not appear to be displaced and there is no significant bruising, joint pain could still be a sign of a strain, sprain, tear, or fracture.

6. Limited Range of Motion

A limited range of motion can also be symptomatic of tissue and bone injuries in the joints, limbs, neck, or torso. While a limited range of motion is often accompanied by pain, this is not always the case. In many cases, car accident victims will not experience generalized pain but will experience sharp or shooting pain when they reach the limit of their range of motion.

7. Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is one of the most common symptoms after a car accident that drivers and passengers experience. This pain can be symptomatic of a wide range of injuries—and not just injuries in the back. If you are experiencing lower back pain after a car accident, you should not ignore it, but instead, see a doctor for a diagnosis as soon as possible.

8. Memory Loss

Memory loss can be a sign of a potentially serious brain injury. Even if you are only having trouble remembering a brief period of time (i.e., the moments leading up to your crash), any amount of memory loss is a sign that you should seek treatment promptly.

9. Neck Pain

Neck pain is an extremely common symptom as well. Like lower back pain, neck pain can be symptomatic of a variety of types of injuries, and it is a sign that you should see a doctor to learn more about your condition.

10. Swelling and Bruising

Swelling and bruising can also be indicative of potentially-serious injuries in various parts of the body. At joints and in the limbs, swelling and bruising are commonly indicative of fractures. In the chest and abdomen, swelling and bruising can be symptomatic of organ damage, internal bleeding, and other internal injuries.

These are just examples. Again, if you have any concerns about your health for any reason, you should see a doctor promptly. Injuries from car accidents can manifest in a variety of different ways; and, when in doubt, it is best to seek advice from a qualified medical professional.

Tinnitus After Car Accident: What You Need To Know

Tinnitus after a car accident requires immediate medical attention. It can be caused by the trauma of the car crash, physical impact, noise trauma or brain injury. Symptoms can include ringing or clicking sounds. An experienced lawyer can protect your legal rights to compensation and benefits.

What is tinnitus after a car accident?

Tinnitus after a car accident occurs when the noise or a physical trauma from a crash causes an injured person to hear ringing, buzzing, roaring or pulsating sounds when there is actually no sound present to be heard. It can also result in a car crash victim losing his or her hearing or from a traumatic brain injury.

What causes tinnitus after a car accident?

The trauma from a motor vehicle crash can affect the ability to hear. It could be either the sheer force of the impact or actual physical contact between a person’s body and an object. It could also be loud sounds, such as the noise from airbags being deployed. Additionally, the cause may be from injury to the neck, a TMJ injury, or a traumatic brain injury.

Symptoms

If you experience any of the following symptoms after a crash, seek immediate medical attention:

You hear ringing sounds that are not actually present
You hear clicking sounds that are not actually present
You hear humming sounds that are not actually present
You hear hissing sounds that are not actually present
You hear roaring sounds that are not actually present
You hear buzzing sounds that are not actually present
You hear pulsating sounds that are not actually present
Loss of hearing
Decreased hearing
Earache
Ear pain
Headache
Nasal congestion
Anxiety
Depression
Difficulty sleeping
Difficulty concentrating

Diagnosis of tinnitus after a car accident?

Your doctors will inquire about your symptoms (what they are and when they started) and then your doctor will conduct a physical examination, which will likely include an examination of your ears, nose, oral cavity, oral pharynx, and the cranial nerve function.

An audiogram, which is a hearing test, may be administered to evaluate your level of hearing in one or both ears.

In some cases, diagnostic imaging tests – such as MRIs and CT scans – may be used to assist in the diagnostic process.

Treatment

Treatment may include medication, possible surgery, retraining therapy and/or relief therapy.

What to do for tinnitus after a car accident?

If you have suffered tinnitus after a car accident, follow these steps:

Get treatment for this condition as soon as possible. When it comes to treating the ability to hear and related injuries, the sooner a person begins treatment, the better the chances are that they will make a good recovery. As a personal injury lawyer, I always advise people that the sooner they can get the necessary and appropriate medical care, the sooner they can get back on the road to good health.
Get a referral to an otolaryngologist (i.e., an ear, nose and throat doctor) whose specialty includes evaluating, diagnosing and caring for people suffering from this condition. You may need to be referred to an otologist or neurotologist, which is a board-certified otolaryngologist, and an audiologist. A doctor cannot help treat your condition until he or she knows what is causing your symptoms.
Early documentation of tinnitus after a car accident will make it easier for you to avoid future potential billing problems with your own insurance company or health care provider. Early medical documentation soon after your crash will establish a temporal connection to prove to a health insurance company or a No-Fault insurance company that your motor vehicle crash was the cause of your hearing condition. Documenting your symptoms early on can also help you to avoid many of the problems that arise when an insurance company later might try to deny a causal relationship and refuse to pay for medical treatment. Putting it another way, if there is a large gap of time that passes before your injuries are documented, then it is easier for your insurance company to question whether the motor vehicle crash you were involved in was the cause of your condition. Early treatment helps you get better faster, and early medical documentation creates the clear temporal causal relationship that insurance companies will be looking for when they are being asked to pay for necessary medical care.