5 Most Common Injuries From Car Accidents
Injuries from car accidents in New York City can be serious but subtle. While damage to a vehicle may be immediately evident, symptoms from car accident injuries can take time to develop or be masked by adrenaline. It may be several hours or days before you start showing symptoms. It’s vital to seek qualified medical care from experienced car accident doctors near you. Here are some of the most common car accident injuries.
1. Broken Bones
While the skeleton is built to absorb pressure, the impact of an auto collision can subject it to more stress than it can withstand. Broken bones (bone fractures) are common after a car accident because your body may strike interior parts of the vehicle.
While seatbelts are extremely effective at saving lives and essential safety equipment for all vehicle occupants, they may be responsible for fractured ribs because of the speed at which it stops your body from flying out of the vehicle. Fortunately, broken bones are much less serious than other injuries from auto accidents and usually heal completely with time.
2. Traumatic Brain Injuries
Hitting your head against something inside the motor vehicle can result in a traumatic brain injury. The mildest of these is a concussion, and while it usually resolves completely, you may have symptoms of headaches and memory problems for a long time thereafter. If the TBI is more serious, the damage may have a permanent effect on your brain function. It’s important to properly diagnose this injury by a qualified medical provider.
3. Internal Bleeding
Damage to the internal organs of the body from a car accident can cause them to bleed. Without an open wound, this bleeding can be difficult to detect. Nevertheless, prolonged bleeding can result in a medical emergency and possible death, so it should be evaluated and treated as soon as possible.
4. Whiplash
The force of a collision can cause your head to jerk violently back and forth. The sudden, uncontrollable motion can damage the muscles and ligaments in your neck, causing them to stretch too far. The injury that follows is called whiplash because the head and neck motion that causes it resembles the cracking of a whip. Rarely, whiplash can cause permanent injury, but usually, symptoms resolve after a few days or a few weeks after an auto accident.
5. Spinal Injuries
Spinal injuries from a car accident may involve musculoskeletal structures, bone fractures, or the spinal cord itself. If there is damage directly to the spinal cord, it can cause permanent paralysis or neurological dysfunction. Musculoskeletal accident-related injuries may affect the spinal cord indirectly. For example, they can cause spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the space that the vertebrae provide for the spinal cord, which can put it under pressure.
If a vertebra slips out of place due to spondylolisthesis or material from ruptured disk leaks out, it can put pressure on either the spinal cord or the peripheral nerve roots. This can cause patients to have symptoms of severe pain, numbness, or tingling in other areas of their body, such as the arms and legs. Depending on the level of the spine at which the injury occurs, symptoms can radiate to either the upper or lower extremities.
Help for Common Car Accident Injuries
Serious injuries from auto accidents need medical attention right away. Contact us to schedule an appointment with an experienced accident injury doctor in Brooklyn, NY, at Metro Healthcare Partners. Our multidisciplinary team of physicians, includes orthopedists, neurologists, pain management specialists, chiropractors, physical therapy, primary care, and more. We accept most insurance plans, including workers’ compensation, medical liens, PIP (personal injury protection), and no-fault insurance. Call us today and get on your way to recovery!