You’ve just been in a car accident and you’ve got some aches and pains. As the day progresses your back or neck starts to hurt and you lose some mobility. You decide to take a few days off work, rest and hope to get back to your daily routine.
Wrong! You should never ignore a back or neck pain after an accident. First off, your back pain could be an indication of a serious problem that requires treatment and secondly you might be entitled to compensation for the wages you lose as well as the medical bills you have to pay for your recovery.
Watch Out for Whiplash
Whiplash is a neck injury that you can suffer when your head is whipped forward and back during a rear-end auto accident. While some painful issues like bruising or muscle strains get better with time, there are more serious injuries that can occur that will get worse after some time. These include herniation, tearing or displacement of cervical discs which can result in direct pressure on your spinal nerves.
Think Beyond Your Spine
The most serious car accident injuries are the ones that affect your spine or neck. Muscles in your back can strain or tear, especially if you weren’t wearing your seatbelt. Symptoms include, besides the pain, a loss in range of motion. Torn and damaged muscles can be treated or reattached, but just ignoring it can result in permanent disability.
The Doctor Can’t Always Tell if There’s a Problem
If you went to a doctor immediately after your accident and were declared uninjured you still shouldn’t ignore pain. X-rays are great for finding bone damage, but whiplash injuries occur in the soft tissues and are difficult to spot without an expensive MRI or invasive tests. For this reason you need to keep your doctor informed if you are experiencing persistent pain.
You Need Documentation To Get Compensation
There is another person, besides your doctor, that you need to be in contact with during this time and that’s your local car accident lawyer. A car accident attorney’s job is to make sure that the insurance does what it’s supposed to and pays for your costs. In order to file a solid claim and win a lawsuit (if you’re forced to) you have to make sure that you’ve got everything carefully documented. If you want to be compensated for your medical bills, your pain and suffering and the time off work, you will need your medical records to confirm your injuries.
The best policy when you’re trying to deal with an accident is to be prepared ahead of time. Grab our number 1-800-INJURED (1-800-465-8733) and put it in your phone and we’ll be able to refer you to the local medical centers and lawyers in the area.