Auto Injury Recovery – Leesburg and Loudoun County
People get injured in auto accidents every single day. Sadly, many aren’t even aware that they have an auto injury until after they’ve settled the case.
Whiplash has become a dirty word in many circles. This is because the insurance industry has worked diligently to create a negative connotation to the word whiplash. The auto insurance carriers would have you believe that whiplash injuries are exaggerated or completely imaginary. Whiplash they argue is nothing more than a method to extract money from the insurance carrier. The insurance companies have coined a word for this concept. It’s called litigation neurosis. Simply put, this means “if the victim wasn’t involved in a lawsuit they wouldn’t have any pain at all.”
The problem is that just isn’t true. Not one word of it. The insurance companies know that whiplash isn’t a figment of the imagination because they read the same peer-reviewed journals as everyone else. Whiplash or if you really hate that word, cervical sprain is the most common injury suffered in a motor vehicle accident. This page of the Fink Family Wellness of Leesburg website is devoted to explaining how auto injuries occur and what you should do if you are unfortunate enough to be an auto accident victim so that you don’t end up with a lifetime of chronic pain.
Auto Injuries and How They Happen
There are a wide variety of auto accidents. When a vehicle is a crumpled mass of steel and plastic, no one doubts that the occupants, if they are still alive, are injured. There’s no need to cover that. It is the most common auto accident, the low speed, humble fender bender, that needs explanation.
Anatomy of a Whiplash
One car is stopped at a light, the vehicle behind the first car doesn’t stop. A lot happens in the next second. Bumper impacts bumper. Let’s assume that the impact speed is only 15 miles per hour. There will be very little damage done to the first car’s bumper. Cars are designed that way. The bumper is connected to the car’s frame with a device that allows the bumper to move instead of crumple. This saves a large amount of money in auto body repair fees. However, the force generated by the impact doesn’t vanish. In fact the force is carried forward through the frame of the car. The car lurches forward. As this happens, the seatback of the driver moves backward just like a diving board does when a swimmer jumps down on it. The head and neck follow the movement of the seatback and go into full extension. The car’s forward momentum stops and the seatback springs forward. This activates the shoulder belt and pins the driver’s body to the seatback. Unfortunately for the driver’s neck, the head has nothing to restrain it. So, the head whips forward into full flexion. All of this happens in less than a second. During that time the head has been moving at 2 ½ times the speed of the impact. That means if the car is hit at 15 mph, the driver’s head travels back and forth at 37 miles per hour.
Now the accident is over and the driver of the car that was hit feels a little shaken but by and large pain free. And the car doesn’t look too bad either. So is that the end of the story. No. The reason the driver feels a little shaky and unhurt is the same reason—adrenaline. The adrenal gland has released its hormone in response to the sudden event creating the classic ‘flight or fight” response. That’s why the heart is pumping faster and maybe the hands are shaking a bit. The hormone also covers up the pain signals temporarily. This is precisely why you can feel no pain immediately after an accident. Several hours later it is a different story.
Symptoms of neck trauma tend of get worse over time. It’s very common for neck pain from whiplash to get worse after several days or weeks. Loss of range of motion, which is most noticed in turning the head, gets worse without proper treatment. Studies show it can continue to worsen over the next six weeks. That’s because the body is busy laying down scar tissue to patch up the tears in the soft tissue. 40% of car accident victims still have symptoms for years following the accident. Research has demonstrated that the speed of the accident has no correlation with the extent of injury.
Seven Things To Do Following an Auto Accident
1.Go to the ER if necessary. Bleeding, blurry vision, possible fractures, concussions require a visit to the ER. The doctors at the hospital should rule out any life threatening issues that were caused by the accident. However, the ER doctors are not focused on soft tissue injuries. They often tell victims, “You’re okay”. In fact, what they mean is nothing looks broken and you don’t need surgery.
2.Get evaluated by a chiropractor. No matter what the ER doctor says, having a complete examination and evaluation by a chiropractor versed in soft tissue auto injuries is imperative. The sooner the better. Patients who try to wait out the pain to “see if it will get better on its own” often find that they need more care. Also, the longer the interval between the accident and the start of care, the more likely it is for the insurance adjuster to think that you weren’t hurt at all. Because, according to his brand of logic, if you were hurt you would have gone to the chiropractor right away.
3.Do not use heat on the sore areas of your neck or back! Use ice. Heat may feel good on the sore muscles but the violent movement of the head and neck during the accident causes tearing in the soft tissue. That means bleeding. Your body uses blood as a marker of where to lay down scar tissue. Heat increases the bleeding and spreads the blood. Therefore you end up with scar tissue in places where it isn’t needed. This translates into loss of motion and further complications. Use a cold pack on the sore areas for twenty minutes on and forty minutes off.
4.No matter how nice the insurance representative sounds, don’t discuss your injuries. This is important because immediately after an accident you really have no idea how badly you were hurt. Secondly, telling the sweet sounding adjuster, “No, I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt” is music to his or her ears. A few days later when you can’t move your neck you have made it more difficult to get the care you need. It’s far better, and much more accurate, to say, “I don’t know. I’m going to get examined and find out.”
5.Be aware that medicine is not a cure. Medical doctors often prescribe pain killers and muscle relaxers. These drugs will make you feel better. That’s a double edged sword. The pills cannot realign vertebrae that have shifted out of position, so they mask the symptoms and do not get to the root cause. The other problem is that pain killers do kill the pain. In this case, that is the equivalent of turning off the fire alarm while your house is ablaze. When people don’t feel pain, they think everything is a-okay and go about their normal activities. Since the warning system is turned off, there is an excellent chance of making things worse and not even knowing it.
6.Get a lawyer. Insurance companies are making it tougher for victims to get paid. Sadly, it has become common for insurance adjusters to refuse to pay medical benefits in full when dealing directly with the patient. A good attorney will be able to negotiate with the insurance adjuster better than the victim. After all, he has already heard all the twisted logic and tired excuses that are in the insurance company’s bag of tricks.
7.Stick to your care plan. Resolving a soft tissue injury takes time and a schedule of treatments. Patients who skip visits or disappear for weeks at a time only invite the insurance adjuster to conclude, “that person really isn’t hurt.” And when that happens it means that the patient may end up with pain for the foreseeable future, or will have to pay for care that should have been included in the insurance settlement.
