How Long After a Car Accident Can Injury Symptoms Appear?

Unfortunately, visible and noticeable injury symptoms don’t always manifest immediately after an auto accident.

According to medical professionals, it’s important to get treatment by professional medical staff and remain vigilant. This is because pain can be delayed for weeks after an injury, and many symptoms are hidden from casual observation – such as the symptoms of internal injuries.

Subtle Symptoms of Hidden Injuries

Your injuries don’t always generate immediate pain and symptoms. One of the major reasons this is true is the flight-or-fight response. After experiencing extreme stress, the body triggers the production of adrenaline and endorphins that relieve pain after a traumatic event. However, people also experience pain differently, and some just don’t feel or notice the pain from an injury right away. The symptoms of delayed injuries can be subtle and include the following:

• Unusual sleeping patterns like sleeping too much or not enough
• Changes in normal behavior or your personality
• Headaches
• Back or neck pain
• Excessive fatigue
• Pains in the abdominal area
• Blood in urine or stool
• Numbness or tingling in hands, feet, fingers, or toes

The important thing for people to know is that showing no immediate symptoms after an accident doesn’t mean you’re out of danger. You might feel fine because of your adrenaline cocktail, but it’s important to continue monitoring your health for several weeks after an accident.

Concussion symptoms include fuzzy thinking, difficulty remembering, an inability to focus, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and changes in your sleep pattern.

There are symptoms that many car accident injury victims ignore that indicate serious health problems. These include:

• Headaches are common after a car accident because the head usually gets jerked around. Most minor headaches are harmless, but they could indicate more severe injuries like traumatic brain injuries. Bleeding, bruising, and swelling in the brain don’t get noticed, but the damage can generate some of the most devastating symptoms in time.
• Shoulder and Neck Pain. Shoulder and neck pain could indicate whiplash, a relatively common accident injury caused by damage to soft tissues of the shoulder and neck. The pain and stiffness might not show up for days or weeks. However, the pain could also indicate a spinal injury, which can be extremely dangerous and debilitating.
• Back Pain. Back pain can indicate various kinds of damage to the spinal cord, discs, and small spine bones. For example, back pain can indicate herniated discs, whiplash, a pinched nerve, or more serious spinal damage. You need x rays to pinpoint possible spinal damage.
• Numbness and Tingling in Extremities. Numbness or tingling can indicate numerous problems like whiplash and damage to the spinal nervous system. For example, about 20% of rear-ended people in an accident develop some form of whiplash.
• Pain in the Abdomen. Abdominal pain is often considered a stomach upset, but it could indicate internal bleeding. Symptoms that develop later include dizziness, fainting, and deep purple bruises. Internal bleeding can go undetected for hours or days, and it’s a life-threatening condition.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD for short, is a mental disorder that develops after experiencing a traumatic event. The symptoms are just as debilitating and real as physical injuries, and they commonly affect military and law enforcement personnel. PTSD can be subtle at first, but it can gradually affect everything you do as a person.
• Behavioral Changes. Behavioral changes after an accident can affect your entire life. For example, you might withdraw socially, get no pleasure from favorite activities, develop memory problems or lose your ability to hear and see properly. These changes can come as the result of a traumatic brain injury or emotional damage caused by the stress of the accident.

Getting the Help and Expertise You Need

After a motor vehicle accident, you need sound advice about whether to pursue a personal injury lawsuit and even get the medical treatment you might need. You can get legal help from a car accident lawyer and financial advice for handling everyday problems. In addition, if another entity is responsible for your injuries, a law firm can help you get the compensation you deserve as an out-of-court settlement or even a jury verdict.

As we said, even mild concussions can generate long-term consequences that can affect your life tenfold. After a car accident, get immediate medical attention and a copy of your medical record. Remember that each state has its statute of limitations regarding personal injury claims, so discuss matters with your attorney as soon as possible after the event. The benefits of working with specialized PI lawyers after a vehicular accident are tremendous.

Armed with your medical files, a police report, witness testimonies, and accident reconstruction records, your lawyer can begin settlement negotiations or take your case to trial. Either way, they will do everything in their power to win and help you recover.

Author: Kerry L. Tucker

Early in his journalism career, Kerry L. Tucker had a revelation: there were not enough experts reporting on law issues. Legal matters are part of daily life. Yet, there seems to be a general aversion towards them. One of the main reasons for this is that the convoluted legal language is difficult for many people to follow. Therefore, he decided to change how the law is perceived by the public. Throughout his career, he met with many people who shared their personal stories with him. Some of these hit him harder. One of the cases that stayed with him and influenced his future career development was a car accident case involving a child. From then on, he decided to zero in on car accident lawsuits.