Suffering from a whiplash injury from a car accident, you will more than likely become painfully aware of a few differences in the quality of your life. To begin with you’ll certainly notice pain with even the slightest neck movements. Almost all whiplash injuries to the neck/spine are followed by pain to the person suffering from this type of injury along with other whiplash symptoms that can keep you from going on with your normal routine. It’s an unfortunate fact that not all folks who suffer a whiplash injury recover completely from the car accident collision. Quite often, many people suffer pain along with other symptoms for the remainder of their lives, and I can provide validation to this as I have represented NC and VA car accident victims with whiplash injuries many times, and some folks are unfortunate to suffer whiplash injuries in a crash, and have suffered a prior accident years before that was mostly healed. Until the new crash makes it come back or get wore.
The textbook definition of “whiplash” is the tearing of the ligaments or muscles in the neck/spine due to a whip-like motion from when the head moves one way and then quickly and suddenly moves another way, which causes a sharp pull on all those muscles. To be certain, whiplash is a very painful condition that aften goes away over time with the proper treatment, therapy and care (unless there is also a bulging or herniated neck disc too). However, for quite a few victims, whiplash recovery may take as long as a year or two. Generally speaking, most recover in a few months, but a large minority (15-20%) of those suffering from whiplash pain end up having symptoms for the rest of their natural born lives.
Standard medical treatment for whiplash may include a cocktail of prescription drugs such as painkillers,muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory medications along with physical therapy and possible care from a chiropractor or physical therapist. In fact, some whiplash victims require surgery in order to repair the muscles and ligaments damaged by injury. Quite often, physicians encounter problems diagnosing a whiplash injury since the damage might not show up on the X-ray image. If you are experiencing pain as a result of a car accident, it can be whiplash and your doctor should order a battery of tests to diagnose if a whiplash injury has occurred. This may later involve an MRI of the neck, called the cervical spine.
If you take into consideration the fact that whiplash is difficult to identify, and that up to 20% of the victims may never recover from it, then you can be sure that it will affect the quality of your life. In addition to the pain you are likely to suffer, other whiplash injury symptoms may include: difficulty concentrating, dizziness, as well as stiffness in the neck and shoulders. It’s true that some of these symptoms might seem like minor inconveniences, what is not taken into consideration is that they may become difficult to bear over a long period of time.
If you’ve been in a car accident in Carolina, VA or beyond, and have a suspicion that you might have a whiplash injury or your doctor has diagnosed you with whiplash, you may be wondering if there’s something you can do, especially if your car accident was caused by the carelessness, negligence, or recklessness of another person. Rick Shapiro is an attorney with our 5 attorney firm that has been assisting car accident victims suffering from the pain of a whiplash injury. If you would like a free consultation with any of our attorneys, please contact us so we can evaluate whether your claim meets our criteria.
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