If you’ve been in a car or truck accident and think you’ve suffered a whiplash injury or soft tissue damage? Protect your recovery and call us for a free consultation on your injury case.
“Wow, he pitched that ball so fast, it gave me whiplash!”
Everyone has heard the term “whiplash”. It’s commonality in our daily lives has taken the real meaning out of it and people do not tend to take the actual diagnosis of whiplash very seriously. It is used for a broad description of neck, shoulder and spine injuries, but actually it is a medically specific term that only applies to an acceleration/deceleration injury. A person in a vehicle who is hit from behind by another vehicle is susceptible to this type of injury. What can make a whiplash injury particularly debilitating is the fact that the skull is never perfectly balanced on the spine for more than a split second, so when the unsuspecting person’s head is thrown forward and then snaps back, there is invariably a twisting injury involved as well which causes injury to the small joints in the spine. It strains and stretches, and can even tear, the ligaments in the neck and increases the possibility of disc prolapse (or what is commonly referred to as a herniated disc).
The dangerous part of whiplash injuries is that there is rarely any immediate pain. Soft tissue trauma isn’t usually noticed immediately after an accident, with most victims starting to feel symptoms within 6-12 hours and reaching maximum discomfort and lack of mobility within 24 hours of the wreck. The immediate phase of whiplash can last a few weeks to a few months and manifest itself by stiffness, soreness, headaches, loss of mobility and loss of coordinatorion. The next phase can last from a few months up to two years. This phase is generally reflected by a milder daily discomfort or pain, but intermittent flair ups that are as bad or worse than right after the initial accident. These flair ups can be caused by stress, exercise, or seemingly happen for no reason at all. That makes it all the more important to seek immediate medical treatment following an accident, even if you don’t immediately feel pain. So many of my clients who are victims of rear-end car accidents refuse treatment at the accident scene only to end up in the emergency room the very next day!
In the next article, we will discuss injuries to the neck, shoulders and jaw that go along with whiplash and the effect they can have on your daily life. We will also talk about treatments and long term effects. In the meantime, if you’ve been involved in any type of injury accident in Tennessee, whether car, truck or motorcycle, call us for your free consultation. You need to ensure that you aren’t paying out of your pocket in a few years for injuries caused by the accident which, by their nature, were not noticable until a few days or weeks after your wreck. We have experience in accident cases and alot of satisfied former clients as well.
Keep an eye on our site for updates on your rights when you’ve been injuried. We have a very informative, and free, book on personal injury that you can request through our site as well. Stay tuned for more!