In the immediate aftermath of a car accident, adrenaline and cortisol levels spike. These stress hormones help people get through traumatic experiences so they aren’t hampered from life-saving actions by pain. High adrenaline helps people accomplish what they need to do to survive an accident, but it may also mask pain during the hours following the accident. Additionally, some car accident injuries do not develop noticeable symptoms until inflammation and internal bleeding cause pain and interfere with bodily functions.
After a car accident, it’s essential to go to a hospital or other healthcare provider for a complete medical evaluation for early detection of car accident injuries with delayed symptoms.
What to Do to Protect Yourself After a Car Accident
By using your phone safely after an accident, you can take steps to protect yourself physically and financially. First, call 911 to report the accident and request emergency services. Then, take photos of the vehicles and the accident scene, including anything relevant to the cause of the accident, like an intersection, signs, and skid marks. Add the contact names of any nearby eyewitnesses to the accident.
After the police clear you to leave the scene, always go directly to a hospital or urgent care center and ask for a full medical examination to identify any injuries with delayed symptom onset. By going directly to a doctor, you can begin treatment for injuries early enough to prevent complications or a worsened condition. This also ensures that you have documented evidence that the injury occurred in the accident to help make a compelling case for your compensation later in a car accident claim or lawsuit.
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Symptoms of Car Accident Injuries With Delayed Onset
If you are able to walk away after a car accident, you may feel so relieved by your narrow escape that you decline an ambulance transport to a hospital so you can go home. Many car accident victims think that a few bumps and bruises aren’t serious injuries and they just wish to be with their families and shake it off on their own. As a car accident victim, you may not notice pain, stiffness, and other signs of an injury immediately after the accident because symptoms of some injuries worsen over time or become noticeable as adrenaline recedes from the body. During the hours and days following a car accident, watch for symptoms such as the following:
- Headaches that worsen in intensity
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Memory problems, confusion, or loss of focus
- Speech problems
- Problems with balance and coordination
- Pain in the back or neck
- Stiffness
- Loss of range of motion
- Tingling or numbness in the extremities
- Abdominal pain, swelling, or bloating
Any of these symptoms could indicate a serious underlying injury requiring immediate medical attention.
What Types of Car Accident Injuries Have Delayed Symptom Onset
The stress hormones released into the body during an accident block pain signals, but in the hours and days after an accident, an injury victim may begin to notice pain, stiffness, swelling, headaches, and other indications of trauma. Common car accident injuries with delayed symptom onset include the following:
- Whiplash: whiplash occurs during a collision when a vehicle occupant’s body is propelled forward by crash force and then snapped back against the seat cushion, overextending the internal structures of the neck and causing damage.
- Back injuries: lower lumbar injuries, fractured vertebrae, herniated discs, and soft-tissue injuries in the back are common car accident injuries with delayed symptom onset. As inflammation and bruising develop during the hours after the accident, it presses on the nerves, causing pain signals to reach the brain.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): traumatic brain injuries range from mild concussions to serious trauma with life-altering consequences. Some brain injuries begin showing symptoms hours after an accident as bleeding, bruising, and/or swelling inside the skull puts pressure on the brain.
- Abdominal injuries: the crash force of an accident can cause serious abdominal injuries with organ damage, even in those wearing seatbelts. While a seatbelt saves a motorist’s life in a serious crash, the pressure of the belt itself can cause damage to the intestines and other internal organs. Delayed symptoms like increasing tenderness, swelling, bloating, or blood in the urine or feces indicate an abdominal injury requiring immediate medical attention.
Not only are delayed-symptom injuries dangerous because the accident victim doesn’t receive the immediate care they need to minimize the harm, but they also give insurance companies cause to dispute compensation claims later.
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Why Do Insurance Companies Dispute or Deny Injury Claims After Delayed Symptom Onset?
Insurance companies are privately owned in the United States and exist to make profits. Their profits depend on taking in more money in their client’s monthly premiums than they pay out on claims. An insurance company assigns an adjuster to every case. An insurance adjuster’s job is to find ways to lower or deny an accident victim’s claim. When a motorist fails to seek medical attention soon after an accident, insurance adjusters commonly dispute the claim by stating that the injury could have happened some other way and not from the accident. The fact that the accident victim didn’t seem to need medical attention after the accident backs up their assertion. It often takes testimony from medical experts to prove that an injury with delayed symptoms occurred in an accident.
Insurance companies use other common tactics against accident victims as well, such as seeking medical authorization to examine an injury report and then combing through the injury victim’s entire medical history to find a pre-existing condition or previous injury they can blame for the pain and other symptoms. They may call on a recorded line and use the accident victim’s words against them later.
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How Can a Car Accident Attorney Help A Delayed Injury Claim?
Insurance companies are not on your side, despite their compassionate ads. It’s always best to hire a South Jersey car accident attorney and then direct the insurance adjuster to your lawyer. An experienced car accident lawyer will protect your rights and argue assertively for your best interests throughout the process of gathering evidence, building a compelling case, and negotiating with the insurance company to obtain the largest payout for your car accident compensation. Contact Grungo Law in South Jersey for the experienced representation you need for the best possible outcome in your accident case even if you experienced delayed injuries.
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