Are You Having Pain After An Auto Accident?

Wichita injury attorneys who will fight for you

If you have been in a car wreck, and the force of a vehicle weighing several tons hits you, painful injuries are common. The wreck itself was quick, but you could feel the effects in your body for days, weeks, months, or even longer.

You definitely don’t want to tough it out or ignore your pain.  That can be costly.  You may lose your opportunity to get paid for your injuries. Get evaluated by a doctor as soon as possible, or even better, get to the emergency room for prompt treatment and documentation of your injuries. Insurance adjusters literally count the number of hours from the time of your wreck until you seek treatment and use that gap in time as an argument to devalue your case.  You never know when minor pain may have lifelong consequences later. Call our car accident injury attorneys about your legal options and get advice on how to protect yourself and maximize your case value.

What Kind of Pain Is Normal After an Auto Accident?

After being jolted, tossed and turned, and having your body moved abruptly, or struck by a headrest, seatbelt, airbag, or parts of the car, pain can be all over.  Even with no known impact of the body with anything during a collision, just the quick abrupt abnormal motion the body goes through at time of impact can cause pain. The most common wrecks are neck injuries like whiplash. These commonly include all parts of the upper torso of the body including the shoulders, upper back and you may experience headaches.  When a car wreck occurs, the head moves, and the violent forward and backward motion of the head can hyperextend the neck. When your neck is sore, the common label is whiplash.  Whiplash can be short term in some cases, but it can also lead to long term severe complications and even permanent damage.

Back pain also is another common result of a wreck. Since people in a car are in a seated position, the force of impact goes through the car and into the back while the spine is bent. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the back get pulled, stretch or tear, leading to sprains, strains, low back pain and muscle spasms.

If you get evaluated by an emergency room physician or your family doctor, the doctor doesn’t know what happened to your body, as they weren’t there at the wreck.  They can’t feel your pain or know what you are experiencing.  They use medical judgment to determine if you need x-rays, CT scans or other medical tests.  Medical science is not exact.  They try to label or diagnose the injury based on seeing you for just a few minutes.  Neck pain or back pain may be their impression, but they really don’t know what exactly is causing the pain.  X-rays are often normal.  X-rays mainly show if damage has been done to your bones.  Only when you get treatment like medications, or physical therapy, do they know if you are going to get better.  When treatment doesn’t get you back to normal, eventually, they may order an MRI.  This test is really the best test to determine if there is damage to the soft tissues of your body.  You diagnosis may change later after the doctors learn more from the additional medical tests.

What Is the Risk of Delayed Pain After an Auto Accident?

Not all the effects of an auto accident injury are always felt right after the wreck. When you’re in a car wreck, your body’s acute injury stress response is to release adrenaline and noradrenaline. This changes your perception of pain. It takes time for inflammation to set in and when inflammation surfaces, this leads to additional delayed pain. It is possible that you may not feel your back or neck pain for days or even weeks after the car wreck.  With the initial injury, you start compensating for your initial pain and holding your body differently, or using other body parts to compensate and then you start hurting somewhere else.  Sometimes you are concerned about your worst pain and this masks pain to another body part or you ignore the less painful area.

It is important to let your doctor know about all parts of the body that have been affected, not just the most painful body parts. Pain is the body’s warning system letting you know that you have an injury. If you fail to mention the pain, it doesn’t get documented.  If the more painful area improves with treatment, and the less painful area gets worse, there may be difficulties in proving the less painful area is connected to the wreck. If the medical documentation in the initial records after the car accident don’t reflect you are hurting to a certain area or body part, an insurance company might argue that you’re symptoms are due to the wreck or that something happened in the intervening time to cause them. This creates a possible defense for the insurance company and can hurt your case.

After a wreck, you need to see a doctor right away after a car crash and tell the doctor about all your symptoms, even minor pain or discomfort. You’re protecting yourself and your case when you’re giving a medical professional all the information they need to diagnose, treat and document your injuries. Talking with an injury lawyer after your wreck will help give you advice to protect yourself and your case.  Remember that insurance adjusters value your case by carefully reviewing your medical records line by line.  If they don’t see in those medical records that you were reporting pain to a certain body  part in the days after a wreck, they will try to challenge that body part’s injuries if you get later treatment. 

How Does Pain Affect Car Accident Compensation?

There are several ways your pain can affect the value of your car accident injury claim. First, your claim should cover the full cost of your medical expenses, which includes emergency room visits, doctor’s visits, pain medication, treatment like physical therapy to help you manage pain, surgery, and diagnostic testing. Chronic pain can result in the need for medication for the rest of your life, and this ongoing future medical expense can be substantial when factoring in your life expectancy.

Second, you have a  right to be compensated for pain and suffering after a car wreck. This is an abstract term for compensation that is intended to compensate you to “make you whole” and pay you for what you have gone through. There’s no set formula for pain and suffering awards in Kansas. If a jury has to calculate an amount for pain and suffering, they have to get evidence to prove what you have been through.  Your credibility determines if a jury believes you when discussing how you suffered and determines how much they want to compensate you for what you have been through.  If a jury doesn’t believe you, juries are not forced to pay much for your pain and suffering.  Our injury lawyers work hard to  prepare you and to put on evidence to convince the jury your injuries are real and deserve compensation.

If your pain affects your ability to work, then that needs be taken into account for your lost wages and possible lost earning capacity. If your pain affects how you interact with your family or friends, this is important information for a jury to know.  You should be compensated for every effect the pain caused by the auto accident has had on your quality of life. Kansas law provides that you get compensated for what you have lost, including how the pain has changed your life.

Contact a Wichita Car Accident Injury Lawyer to Be Fully Compensated for Your Losses

You have suffered due to the car wreck, and you shouldn’t get hurt again by the insurance adjuster when they undervalue your case. An experienced car accident injury lawyer at Pistotnik Law can help you build a case to pursue full value for your pain and suffering and other damages due to the car accident. We will investigate, negotiate, and pursue full compensation on your behalf while you focus on healing.

It definitely helps to get legal advice shortly after the wreck.  There are steps to take to prove both fault and injuries from a wreck.  Your delay in following those steps could make a large difference in the value of your case. Schedule your free consultation with a Wichita car accident injury attorney now.