Car accidents are no laughing matter at the best of times, and at the worst of times, they can be downright devastating. If you are involved and are lucky, you sustained either no injuries or relatively minor injuries. Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as that, experiencing many types of injuries, up to and including death. But what is that extent of injury that someone can sustain in car accidents? And what injuries from car accidents are the most severe? Today, we will examine some of the serious injuries that may occur for the victims of these accidents.
Types of serious injuries in car accidents
For a lot of people who experience relatively minor injuries in automobile accidents, these typically manifest in things like bruising and whiplash, though the latter can certainly get fairly severe. These kinds of injuries typically do not last very long, at least not as long as some of the more serious injuries may last.
Traumatic brain injury
One of the worst types of injuries that you can sustain from a car accident is a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A TBI occurs as a result of a blunt or piercing injury to the head. It is not at all an uncommon kind of injury for how severe it is; every year, approximately 80,000 to 90,000 people experience long-term disability from a TBI, and 50,000 people pass away as a result of it. Some TBIs are worse than others, and the recovery process will have varying degrees of success, depending on both the circumstances of the brain injury and the circumstances of the recovery process. Some TBI sufferers recover after months, others years, and yet more may never fully recover.
Burns
Car fires are not uncommon results in a car accident, and of course, that means that burns can occur. Some burns can be relatively minor, surface-level burns that can heal relatively easily with appropriate care. However, more serious burns can be life-threatening; second-degree burns damage both the skin and the dermis, and third-degree burns do both of these, and potentially damage other tissues and the sweat glands. Not only that, but the burns may cause the clothing to stick to the skin. Depending on the severity of the burns, skin grafts may be required to properly deal with them.
Fractures and breaks
Bones are not exactly an easy thing to break, but when you are driving at 60 miles per hour and get into a car accident, the resilience of your bones is going to be significantly less important. In the end, driving that fast makes you extra vulnerable. Heck, even driving at a much lower speed still confers that risk to you and everyone else involved in the car accident. Fractures and breaks can be more severe than others, and any instances must be attended to. For example, if the break is allowed to set incorrectly during the healing process, that can create long-term issues.
Internal injuries
Some damages are not necessarily going to be evident in the moment, but become more apparent, either when you get inspected by a doctor or experiencing pain as a result of these internal injuries. The internal organs that were damaged, as well as the severity of damage that they occurred, determine how severe they are or may seem. For instance, a severe bleed may find you passing away in two hours if you do not get it treated. Even worse, damage to the hepatic artery, renal arteries, and/or kidneys could cause you to die of blood loss in mere minutes. A gastro-intestinal wound is significantly less severe as far as bleeding, but the risk of infection is rather severe. So even if you think that you got out of a car accident unscathed, check and double check that nothing is wrong with you with a professional.
Limb loss
In more severe accidents, there is a reasonable risk that a person may wind up losing a limb or another part of their body. Limb loss in a car accident typically happens when the limb is crushed or severed. The amputation process will attempt to salvage as much of the limb as possible. Losing a limb in a car accident also has a potential risk of further damage. For instance, the shock and trauma of the limb loss can lead to a person suffering a heart attack. Much of the other risks are more long-term, as opposed to this one, which is more in the moment.
Crush injuries
When you are dealing with a collision between two or more vehicles, there are a lot of damages that you can incur, including crush injuries. This makes sense; after all, these cars are not lightweights, weighing on average almost 3000 pounds. Much like limb loss, a crush injury can cause you additional damage not directly related to the crush itself. Much like with limb loss, the trauma can cause serious complications. In addition, there is a severe risk of harm if the response to the crush damage is not adequate. As the crush causes damage, it creates toxins in the affected tissue cellular components. Once the pressure on the crush point is relieved, this causes those toxins to be able to be released systematically through your body. This has a distinct possibility of being fatal, so extreme care should be exercised for anyone who has suffered from a crush injury.
Neck and back injuries
Both of these kinds of injuries can range from relatively minor to downright debilitating. In both of these instances, the injuries may result in pain over a long period of time, as well as the inability to perform your normal workload. Both whiplash and a herniated disc are common types of neck and back injuries, respectively. Whiplash occurs when a person’s head is jerked backward and then forward, as a result of the vehicle they are in suddenly stopping. As discussed above, whiplash can be relatively minor, but that is not the extent of all whiplash damage. A herniated disc is caused in a car accident when the vertebrae push into your spinal cord. This may cause the spinal cord to compress, become irritated, and/or be subject to pressure. In most cases, a herniated disc, with appropriate self-care of rest and ice, will heal after 4-6 weeks. For both herniated discs and whiplash, they have potential to become a long-term issue. Chronic pain is not an unusual symptom for either injury type, nor is stiffness. People suffering from whiplash in particular may experience ringing in their ears from time to time.
Get compensation for damages caused by another in a car accident
If you were involved in a car accident where someone else is at fault for the damages you incurred, then your best bet to get compensation is to seek the services of an attorney with experience in car accident claims. This experienced attorney will help ensure that you get compensation for devastating injuries that you deserve. No matter if your injury was as small as a bruise or as significant as a loss of a limb or traumatic brain injury, you deserve compensation if someone’s negligence has caused you financial, mental, or physical harm.