Reasons To Immediately Seek Medical Treatment After a Car Wreck

Some car accidents are so severe and violent that people suffer serious injuries and are taken from the scene of the accident via ambulance and EMS. But sometimes, after an accident, some people do not believe they are seriously injured. Some people just think they are banged up a little bit and try to “shake it off” or “walk it off” and not seek medical treatment. This would be a mistake for many reasons. Although it is possible that after a crash a sore neck or sore shoulder might resolve itself without too much fuss, often it doesn’t go away. Here are some reasons why you should seek medical treatment right away after a crash.

Reasons to Seek Immediate Medical Treatment

There are both health reasons and practical reasons to seek treatment right away after an automobile collision. Here are the main reasons:

● Your health: The main reason and most important reason to get checked over if you have pain after a car accident is to make sure that you will be ok. There have been many instances of people having minor symptoms after a crash that eventually became serious health conditions. And these serious health problems could have been caught if the person saw a doctor right after the crash. Sometimes people will not know that they have torn muscles, broken ribs, or serious closed head trauma such as concussions or other Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). The sooner a diagnosis is made and a treatment plan is implemented, the sooner you will get better and be able to move on with your life. It’s never fun to be in pain all the time, especially when a doctor can do something for you to stop it.

● Proving the injury: Seeing a doctor or visiting the emergency room right after a car or truck crash will officially establish that you have been injured. Unless there are medical records and an actual diagnosis from a medical professional, then it is merely your word that you were injured in the accident. Most insurance adjusters won’t take your word that you suffered an injury. If anything, the adjuster would probably only offer a token amount of money to settle your case. But with an established injury and medical records showing a lot of treatment, then no one could argue that you weren’t injured.

● Helping your lawsuit: As mentioned above, without medical records showing a diagnosis and treatment, it will be difficult for your car accident attorney to argue that you are entitled to a lot of compensation for your injuries. The insurance adjuster (nor the jury if the case would go to trial) merely take your word for it. Actually, if the case does not settle and goes to a jury trial, then a medical professional has to testify regarding the initial diagnosis, the extent of the injuries, the treatment plan, and whether the injury was directly caused by the collision. None of this could happen if the injured plaintiff fails to seek medical treatment after a crash.

Robert BatesRobert is a Kingsport trial lawyer who handles car, truck and motorcycle wreck cases across the Tri-Cities. Every client gets his cell number.