Injuries that a car accident can cause – symptoms and recovery for Whiplash

By: Remy | Posted: 15th May 2008

Car accidents may sometimes result in more injuries than scratches here and there or even broken bones. In many auto injury cases, car accidents cause injuries which tear ligaments and muscles apart from bones. How exactly do you find out about these injuries? What are the symptoms? Well, keep reading to find out about one some of the most common of injuries and the symptoms. Also find out how to receive help recovering from these injuries.



One of the most common of such injuries is called Whiplash. Whiplash is a general term used to describe any injury of neck caused by a sudden jerk. A sudden jerk may be caused by a car accident or while playing or while a fight etc. During such jerks, the first layer of the neck, a layer of fine tissue, may bear the first brunt. Thus, in case of a jerk strong enough or the movement of neck beyond its limit, the tissues get torn. The term Whiplash was first introduced in 1928 and is now also commonly used in place of Soft Tissue Cervical Hyperextension injury and Flexion-Extension injury.



Symptoms of Whiplash may appear immediately or may take up to a few hours to surface. In many cases, the later the injury develops, the less likely the damage. Some symptoms of Whiplash include Neck pain, swelling in the neck, tenderness on the back of your neck, spasms or cramps in the neck muscles, difficulty in moving your neck, pain shooting from your neck into your shoulder or arm.



Whiplash can be caused at speeds of as low as 15Mph speed irrespective of the fact whether you are wearing the seat belt or not.

But what should you do if you develop any such symptom? Well, if you are at home or away from immediate medical attention, you should use an ice pack. Place some ice in a hand towel and apply it to the back of your neck or the area of pain for 20 minutes every hour. Also, try not to move the neck around much and relax as much as possible.



What should you do if the pain is excruciating? Well, although the time to call and see a doctor is best right after the injury, even if at home and it does not get cured with ice packs, you should seek medical attention immediately. If the doctor is unavailable the accident site, then you should call 911 for an immediate transfer to a nearby emergency department. The neck should always be braced while transporting a patient suffering from backlash so that head movement during transfer to a hospital does not aggravate the existing condition.



What precautions can you take against a possible whiplash injury caused because of a car accident? Well, there's little that you can do to avoid an accident, but then you must wear your seatbelt at all times and ensure that the headrest is properly adjusted to your height. The headrest should be aligned in such a way that the tips of your ear and the mid of the head rest are in straight line.



If you have been in a car accident and need a wichita car accident attorney , or just would like to know more of your rights as a victim of a car accident, then feel free to visit wichita personal injury trial attorney . We have over 100 years of combined experience representing seriously injured plaintiffs. We specialize in personal injury cases in Wichita.
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Tags: bones, scratches, neck pain, car accidents, cramps, tissues, medical attention, seat belt, ligaments, brunt, neck muscles, car accident, jerks, whiplash, hand towel