What to Do If You’re Experiencing Back Pain After a Car Accident?
It is not uncommon to develop back pain hours or even days after a car crash. If you are experiencing back pain after a car accident, here is what you should do to protect your health and your right to compensation:
Get Medical Care
It is always a good idea to seek immediate medical care after any motor vehicle collision, including an on-scene exam by first responders and a checkup in the local emergency department. However, in some seemingly minor accidents, you may not know you have suffered any injury until much later. As soon as you notice your back pain, however, it is important to seek medical care.
Visit your local emergency department for severe pain or pain that includes weakness or other symptoms that extend to the lower extremities. If it is during normal office hours, or if the pain is not severe, you perhaps could schedule an appointment with your regular doctor.
Medical care is the first step in your physical recovery and also plays an important role in proving you suffered injuries in the crash. If you do have a claim against the driver who caused your crash, your medical records will serve as evidence of your accident injuries.
Continue Your Treatment
Your doctor will likely take imaging scans and determine what is causing your pain, then offer a treatment plan to help you heal. You need to follow your doctor’s instructions and continue your treatment. This includes taking all prescribed medication, attending all appointments, and going to physical therapy as recommended.
If you want a second opinion, it is important to consult another doctor quickly. We will need to show the insurance company you are doing everything possible to recover from your injuries.This includes continuing treatment until your doctor releases you from their care.
Call a Car Accident Lawyer
Once your doctor diagnoses you and you have a good idea of the extent of your back injuries, it is time to talk to a lawyer about whether you qualify to file a car accident liability claim. With this type of claim, you can recover compensation for your medical bills as well as other damages related to your back injury and the resulting pain.
Under New York State law, you can file a claim based on your no-fault policy after any crash. This will cover medical care for a relatively minor injury as well as a limited amount of lost wages due to missed work. To file a liability claim against the at-fault motorist’s insurance policy, you need to meet the state’s serious injury threshold, the criteria for which include:
- Permanent loss of a part of your body, function, or body system
- Permanent limitation of a body part
- Significant limitation of a body function or system
- Total disability for at least 90 of the first 180 days following the crash
If we can show you meet this threshold, we can file a claim for compensation to cover your medical care, lost wages, property damages, pain and suffering losses, and other damages. If you believe you are eligible to file a claim, call us today.
Gacovino Lake: Your Long Island, NY, Car Accident Attorneys
The Long Island car accident attorneys from Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C. are ready to take your call. You can reach us at 631-600-0000. We offer free evaluations and handle most car crash claims on a contingency basis.
What Type of Doctor Should I See After a Car Accident?
After an accident, you should see your primary care doctor for treatment and follow-up, as well as any specialists that your doctor refers you to. If you have moderate to severe injuries, you will need to go to the emergency room and follow up with your primary care physician afterward.
Always See Your Doctor Following a Car Accident
Even if you think you are fine, you should still see your doctor for an examination, just to make sure you are okay. Strains, sprains, and whiplashes can take several days to manifest symptoms. Internal bleeding might not present signs right away until it is life-threatening. Even broken bones can be hard to detect at the scene of an accident.
Call 911 or Go to the Emergency Room for Severe Injuries
If the police say you need an ambulance, do not argue with them. Realize that you might be a little shell-shocked from the crash and that others can see things that you might not be able to observe or process right now. They are looking at you from the perspective of an unbiased outsider. If you look badly hurt to a stranger, you probably need an ambulance.
You should call 911 if you are experiencing:
- Severe pain
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Profuse bleeding
- Deep lacerations
- Broken bones
- Head injury
- Neck or back injury
- Loss of consciousness
- Confusion, or
- Any other symptom that concerns you as urgent
You should not try to drive yourself to the emergency room. If an ambulance is not an option, have someone drive you to the hospital if you need emergency treatment.
What Happens If My Doctor Sends Me to A Specialist?
The specialist will do whatever the referring doctor asked him to do. Usually, after a car accident, your doctor will ask the specialist to perform a consultation or workup to explore your condition within the specialist’s field, or to rule out something specific, such as an orthopedic surgeon checking to see if you have a herniated disc. The term “rule out” does not mean to prove that you do not have a particular injury. It means that your regular doctor wants the specialist to see if you have the condition.
After the specialist completes the tasks requested in the referral, she will send your primary care physician a report with her findings and recommendations. Your regular doctor will then decide the next steps for treatment. The next step might be for your doctor’s office to contact your insurance company for authorization to start treatment for your injuries. Your primary care physician will organize the medical care for your injuries.
For example, if your doctor sent you to an orthopedic surgeon to evaluate a knee injury you sustained in a crash, the surgeon might order x-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, and other diagnostic work. The surgeon will then send your regular doctor a report with a diagnosis and a recommendation that you have surgical repair of your knee trauma. Your treating physician agrees and gets the authorization from your insurance company for the surgery.
You have the knee surgery, and then the orthopedic surgeon sends you to have physical therapy and post-surgical rehabilitation. After you finish the therapy and rehabilitation, the orthopedic surgeon will see you once more to evaluate your condition. When you have achieved full recovery or as much improvement as the surgeon thinks is possible, his work is complete, and he releases you back to your regular doctor, who will see you in an office visit as a follow-up.
What Types of Doctors Treat People Who Have Injuries from Car Accidents?
Quite a few medical fields can become involved in the care and management of crash trauma. Some of these are:
- Emergency room physician
- Radiologist to read the x-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, and other imaging studies
- Trauma surgeon
- Orthopedic surgeon
- Neurologist or neurosurgeon
- Burn specialist
- Plastic surgeon
- General surgeon for internal injuries
- Physical, occupational, and vocational therapist
The personal injury attorneys at Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C. are happy to talk to you about your car accident injury claim. Call us today at 631-600-0000 to get your no-cost, no-obligation consultation.
What’s Causing Neck & Lower Back Pain After a Car Accident?
Since a serious injury could be causing neck and lower back pain after a car accident, you should never ignore it. If you are at the scene of the wreck and cannot safely drive yourself for medical assistance, call 911 for an ambulance or have someone drive you to the hospital. If you can transport yourself, you should go to an emergency room, urgent care center, or your doctor, depending on the severity of your symptoms.
If you injured your neck or back in a car wreck, the attorneys at Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C. can help you file an insurance claim for compensation. Call us today at 631-600-0000 to schedule your free consultation.
What Can Cause My Neck and Lower Back to Hurt After a Car Crash?
Herniated Disc
If you have pain in your neck and lower back, you might have a herniated disc. A herniated disc, sometimes called a slipped or ruptured disc happens when trauma forces the jelly-like contents of one or more of the discs between the bones in your spine (vertebrae) to leak out through a tear in the disc. The discs serve as cushions, similar to shock absorbers, between the vertebrae. Your discs have a strong exterior protecting a gel-like substance inside the disc.
If you have an injury to a disc, the Mayo Clinic says you might feel pain in your shoulder, arm, leg, or neck. You can also have shooting pain when you move suddenly, such as when you cough or sneeze. The Mayo Clinic advises that you should get medical attention if you have pain in your neck or back with numbness, tingling, weakness, or pain going down your arm or leg. You should get emergency medical help if your symptoms become worse, you have bladder or bowel dysfunction, or you have loss of sensation in the areas that would touch a saddle if you were riding (called saddle anesthesia).
Spinal Cord Injury
Pain in your neck or lower back can be a symptom of a spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injury symptoms include:
- Severe pain or pressure in your back, neck, or head
- Paralysis, weakness, or lack of coordination anywhere in your body
- Sensation changes, like numbness, tingling, or loss of feeling in fingers, toes, hands, or feet
- Struggling to stand, balance, or walk
- Difficulty breathing
- Twisting or unusual position of the neck or back
- Loss of control of the bladder or bowels
You should call 911 for an ambulance if you suspect that you or someone else has a spinal cord injury. Do not try to move, unless you are in a dangerous location because movement can exacerbate a spinal cord injury, leading to paralysis or death.
Other Back Injury
After a thorough examination by healthcare professionals, they might tell you that you have a sprain, strain, or another minor back injury.They might recommend that you should rest for a few days or longer and see if your injury improves on its own. Some minor back injuries can heal with conservative treatment like rest in conjunction with anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxers, and painkillers.
The Mayo Clinic says you should call your doctor if:
- Your pain is not better after a week of conservative treatment
- You have severe or constant pain
- Your pain worsens at night or when you are lying down
- There is redness or swelling onyour back
- You are losing weight without intending to
- Your pain goes down one or both legs
- You experience numbness, tingling, or loss of strength in either leg
You should get emergency medical help, according to the Mayo Clinic, whenever you have back pain after a high-impact car crash. You should either go to the emergency room by calling 911 for an ambulance or have someone drive you to the hospital. If you are treating your back injury at home and you develop a fever or bowel or bladder control issues, get to the emergency room either by ambulance or by having someone drive you there.
What Should I Do If Only My Neck Hurts?
If only your neck hurts, you might have a neck sprain, strain, or whiplash. You should see your doctor right away to determine exactly what the problem is and to start you on the appropriate treatment. If your injury is severe, seek emergency medical treatment.
When Should I Go to The Doctor?
Do not delay. If you do not get medical attention right away, your condition might worsen. Also, it can be harder to prove that your injury came from the car accident if you do not get immediate medical attention. Make sure that you tell your doctor and whoever treats you for your condition that you were in a crash, and have them write that fact in their intake notes in the section for your medical history and the reason why you are seeing them.
If you have suffered injury from a wreck that was not your fault, call Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C. at 631-600-0000 to line up your free claim analysis and consultation.
