Today’s cars are designed to absorb the energy that is produced by the impact of a crash, but people are still killed and injured in accidents every day in the United States. There is only so much energy the car can absorb, and when a crash happens at high speeds, your body will end up absorbing some of the impact. This is especially true if you are not wearing a seatbelt.
In a mild accident, you may walk away from a wreck with a few bumps and bruises and a couple of days of soreness. In serious accidents that involve more car crash force, the damage can be severe or even lethal.
Keep scrolling to learn what happens to your body broken down part by part and always keep in mind that you can contact an attorney for a car accident for more information about getting help to recover. A personal injury lawyer can answer your questions if the conditions were caused by any type of accident or by someone else’s negligence.
6 After-Effects of Car Accidents
During a car accident, any bone can break and any organ can be damaged. These are six of the most common types of injuries car accident victims suffer.
Whiplash and Soft Tissue Damage
Whiplash is the most common type of soft tissue injury car accident victims face, and it is caused when your neck is hyperextended by the force of a crash. Some other types of soft tissue damage include bruises, strains, stiffness, and sprains. These injuries happen when the force of a car accident violently jolts your body. They can cause a great deal of pain, swelling, and stiffness, and they may also be difficult to prove.
Spinal Damage
Spinal cord damage can cause some of the most serious car accident injuries, including disc rupture or herniation, neuropathy, spinal fractures, and spondylolisthesis, a condition that causes your lower vertebrae to slip onto the vertebrae below it. Any of these conditions can cause intense pain, numbness and tingling in your extremities, weakness, or even paralysis.
Cardiac, Lung, and Rib Damage
The rib damage that can lead to lung and heart damage is where car accidents really start to get scary. Broken ribs are common in car accidents, and the faster you’re driving, the more ribs you’ll break. Your ribs are there to protect your heart and lungs. Once they’re broken, you could end up with some serious damage, including blood loss and death. Even worse, your broken ribs can damage your heart and lungs by bruising or puncturing them. Your lungs may even collapse.
Bruised or Broken Collarbone
If you’re wearing your seat belt and the crash has enough force, chances are you’ll end up with a broken collarbone. If you’re lucky, maybe it’ll just be bruised, which is also not pleasant. This is, of course, better than what will happen to you if you aren’t wearing your seat belt. Drivers tend to fracture their right collarbone while passengers tend to fracture their left collarbone.
Organ Bruises and Ruptures
Be sure to wear your seatbelt properly, otherwise you might end up with bruised and ruptured organs. This happens because there aren’t any ribs in the way to help absorb the impact. Instead, the impact will cause the seatbelt to be driven into your stomach, where it can seriously damage your organs. This can result in a perforated bowel and stomach acid and other waste products being released into your abdomen. It can also cause internal bleeding.
Pelvic Fractures
A pelvic fracture is one of the most painful injuries you can get in a car accident, and one out of every five people who break their hip won’t survive the next year. This kind of accident damage requires surgery to fix it. This will involve a pin or screws being used to hold your pelvis together, and the hardware in itself is painful. Pelvic fractures often happen as a result of side-impact crashes.
There are instances that you may feel pain in some parts of your body after an accident, you can check Health Report Live if you want remedy from it. Any of these injuries will result in medical costs, and some may keep you out of work for a long time. If the car accident you were injured in was caused by another driver’s negligence, you may want to visit this website to understand the full process of an auto accident claim. You may be able to be compensated for the damages that are related to your injury.