Posted in Car Accident,Catastrophic Injury on March 13, 2015
Injuries in an accident involve the entire body. Some parts may be unscathed, while others are severely damaged. Sometimes, a body part can look fine but doesn’t work the way it should or hurts during a specific movement because of the accident.
What happens in this situation is that the accident victim knows he or she hurts, can tell anyone who will listen about the pain, but is going to have a hard time proving the injury if it won’t show up on medical imaging devices. Soft tissue injuries are notorious for this exact problem.
Soft tissue injuries involve anything on the body that is not bone and skin. These types of injuries are often argued against by the responsible party and his or her insurance company. As an example, whiplash is perhaps the most famous of argued injuries due to its overuse and abuse. It is a real soft tissue injury, however, that can be sustained in an auto accident.
The argument is that modern safety devices in cars have minimized the extent to which whiplash can be an issue, but have they? During a collision, the body is thrown forward and backward or side-to-side. The head snaps in the opposite direction, instantly straining or tearing the neck tendons and muscles. Afterward, moving the neck and head is painful and difficult due to the soft tissue damage from the collision.
An auto accident is one of the primary sources of this and other soft tissue injuries, which may also include internal bruising, muscle tears, sprains or strains of the tendons and muscles, and nerve damage. Some of these problems show up easily during a medical examination, such as bruises. Soft tissue injuries, however, are hard to prove definitively, because it is difficult to confirm the injuries even with medical imaging, and pain assessment is not always an exact science.
One person might present little-to-no pain, while another person might have the exact opposite response. This does not mean, however, that the pain is imaginary or that the person is lying about the extent of his or her soft tissue injury.
In a situation such as this, the accident victim is best served by medically documenting the damage and impairment to his or her quality of life. That is, see a doctor on a regular basis, obtain copies of all exam paperwork, and keep a file that proves that the injury is real.
The victim should also keep a diary of exactly how the injury has impaired his or her ability to function each time the injury becomes a nuisance. If the insurance company of the responsible party remains reticent to cover any damages resulting from the soft tissue injury, the victim is best served to take his or her documentation to an attorney who is experienced in these types of cases. The attorney can review the damages resulting from the injury and present the best course of action for recompense for the victim. Learn more at: www.zanerhardenlaw.com.
