Getting involved in a car accident can lead to minor injuries, serious injuries, and even fatalities. Neck injuries are common in car accidents, with victims suffering from pain or more severe symptoms. While some can be treated easily, others result in life-long pain or disability.
Seeking medical care immediately allows doctors to perform comprehensive tests to help you know the extent of your injuries. Treatment also gives you the documentation and proof you need to sue for personal injury and related damages. Let’s look at the most common neck injuries in car accidents.
Whiplash
Whiplash is common in auto accidents but is often ignored or mistreated. It happens due to sudden head movements when a vehicle stops abruptly during an accident or when the occupants are thrown around.
It can result in damage to the connective and surrounding tissues or torn ligaments. If not treated immediately and properly, it can cause chronic pain that severely impacts the victim’s quality of life. Such chronic pain gives you grounds to sue for pain and suffering and for the costs of regular treatments.
Herniated or Slipped Discs
Your neck has seven bones that make up the cervical vertebrae and are part of the spinal column. Intervertebral disks sit between them and are filled with fluid that absorbs shock to protect them.
If the forces are strong enough during a car accident, and depending on other factors, these discs may bulge, herniate, rupture, or slip. Slippage is especially serious because it can cause the discs to compress the nerves that make up the spinal cord.
Disc injuries result in pain in the arms and neck, or numbness in the affected area due to the squeezing and pinching of nerves. The victim can also experience localized pain or radiating pain throughout their body depending on the nature and severity of the disk injuries.
These injuries typically occur in side-impact car accidents, meaning someone else may be at fault.
Neck Fractures
Neck fractures are the most severe neck injuries in a car accident. A broken neck, a fractured cervical spine, or a neck fracture is so serious that it requires immediate emergency medical care.
It occurs when at least one cervical vertebra has a crack or breaks. The severity of neck fractures stems from the fact that the affected vertebrae can damage the spinal cord nerves, leading to a spinal cord injury. Such an injury can cause paralysis and even death if the victim does not receive emergency treatment immediately.
Recovering from neck and spinal cord injuries is a long and difficult process, requiring the services of multiple specialists in different fields. Because of how long and expensive this process is, the victim can sue for medical costs, rehabilitation expenses, pain and suffering, loss of work, and other damages.
Muscle Spasms
If you are involved in a car accident, you may experience muscle spasms and tingling sensations in your arms, back, and shoulders. These spasms occur because neck muscles can be overstretched or tense up too much during the accident. Both can cause inflammation and swelling, affecting surrounding nerves and causing cramps and spasms.
In some cases, muscle spasms are a symptom of a slipped disk or soft tissue damage. Also, you may experience muscle spasms, cramps, and pain a few days after the accident.
Neck Strains and Sprains
Although both are similar and have similar symptoms, they are different. Neck strains affect the facet joint, related tissues, and tendons. The facet joint stabilizes the neck and head and helps both move freely.
Sprains, on the other hand, result from torn ligaments, the soft tissues connecting bones. Sprains can result in muscle spasms, reduced mobility, and pain when moving the upper neck or head. If a sprain or strain puts you out of a job, impacts your finances or requires extensive rehabilitation, you can hire a personal injury attorney to help you recover damages.
Neck injuries can occur in minor and serious car accidents, and present very differently depending on the type. However, the result is often pain, extensive treatment, and the victim’s diminished quality of life. If you are involved in a car accident that leads to neck and other injuries, you are within your rights to sue for compensation. You can do so with the help of our attorneys at the law offices of Payam Y. Poursalimi.
You can visit the following locations to discuss your case with our auto accident attorneys:
- Beverly Hills – 8383 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 830, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
- Los Angeles – 212 East Pico Blvd, Suite #4, Los Angeles, CA 90015
- Tulare – 100 E. Cross, Suite #122, Tulare, CA 93274
- Hanford – 13400 Hanford Armona Rd, Suite #B
You can also call now for a free consultation at (877) 729-2652 or (323) 782-9927.
