Seeing a Doctor Right After an Auto Accident

In the chaos of a car accident, it’s easy to put your own health to the side if you don’t have any obvious injuries. You may be concerned about your vehicle, talking to the police, and ensuring that you reach out to your insurance company in time. However, seeing a doctor after a crash should still be one of your top priorities. Your health is essential, and it’s possible that the crash left you with injuries that aren’t yet visible. Seeing a doctor right away allows you to start treatment and prove that any injuries you’ve suffered are a result of the accident.

Working with an experienced personal injury attorney can help you get your recovery on track. Call Gardner Law Group at 228-436-6555 to set up a consultation with our team now.

Immediate Medical Attention Should Be a Top Priority

Even if you aren’t obviously injured or in pain, getting checked out by a doctor must be one of your top priorities after a crash. Your car can be repaired or replaced—but if you suffer a catastrophic injury, you may only have hours or days to get the treatment you need.

You may wonder why you need to get checked out if you aren’t in pain. You won’t really know the extent of your pain until the adrenaline from the crash wears off. Adrenaline serves to get you into fight-or-flight mode when you are in danger, and part of the adrenaline response is blocking your pain receptors. This allows you to get away or get through a fight before your body gives out. This response happens in a crash, and as a result, your body could be hiding your pain from you until the crash is over.

Many severe internal injuries are not immediately visible. Unfortunately, these are often the same injuries that can become fatal without proper treatment.

You May Have Hidden Injuries

Hidden injuries can wreak havoc on your health and leaving them unattended could lead to irreversible damage. Auto accidents put the body through an enormous amount of stress and force that, frankly, the body was not designed to endure. It should come as no surprise, then, that even a minor crash could leave you injured. Some injuries that may appear in the days after a crash include:

Whiplash

Concussions and other types of traumatic brain injuries

Blunt force trauma

Organ damage

Internal bleeding

Damage to the muscles, tendons, and ligaments
Spinal cord injuries

Doctors know what to look for after a car accident, so they can run the necessary tests to rule out serious or possibly fatal injuries. Many injuries’ prognoses are heavily dependent on how quickly treatment is started. For example, consider traumatic brain injuries. The brain is very good at healing itself from an array of injuries, but only when given the proper rest and medical treatments. If you wait days or weeks to address the symptoms that have been irritating you, you have missed valuable healing time.

Protecting Your Personal Injury Claim

Not only is prompt medical care important for your physical health, it is a crucial component of your personal injury claim. The other party’s insurance company may realize that they are at fault, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to come to you with a fair settlement offer. You’re going to have to prove your injuries and losses before they begin negotiating in good faith.

Proving the extent of your injuries is a big part of getting the compensation you deserve after a crash. Timely medical care links the accident to your injuries and provides medical documentation of the injuries’ severity, likely causes, and treatment plans.

If you wait too long to seek treatment, you may have inadvertently allowed your injuries to get worse. The insurance company may argue that they shouldn’t have to pay more simply because you did not go to the doctor in time. They may even claim that the delay indicates that something else caused your injuries.

Get the Legal Assistance You Deserve with Gardner Law Group

Getting the compensation you are owed after an accident can be a challenge. The team at Gardner Law Group is committed to helping you get what you deserve. Call our Biloxi office at 228-436-6555, call our Pascagoula office at 228-762-6555, or send us a message online to set up a consultation.