Car accidents happen every day, and most of the time, people can get up and move on.
Yet, some people never even seek emergency care because the injury is minor and expect to feel better. While it’s true that healing time varies from one injury to the next, you should never discount the extent of a car accident injury.
Common symptoms may not show up immediately, or they may be minor. Still, car accident injuries are genuine, and you need to address them. Read on to learn why your injury may have delayed symptoms.
Adrenaline and Shock
Car crashes can cause hidden injuries. Adrenaline and shock from the occurrence contribute. Post-traumatic adrenaline release is high.
It can give a person a burst of energy, making them look unharmed. It can deceive sufferers and hide physical and mental anguish. The shock causes freezing and disconnection.
Shock’s numbing effects can make it hard to recognize an injury. Thus, people may only identify the physical symptoms of an injury much later, which can delay healing.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue includes muscles, ligaments, tendons, and other fibrous tissues. One might not feel the full extent of their mild tissue injury until a few days or weeks after the accident.
This delay in injury recognition is due to the inflammation and swelling of soft tissue injuries in the body. Soft tissue injuries can cause delayed pain, as muscles, tendons, and ligaments could take days to start feeling the impact of the collision. It is not uncommon for a victim of an auto accident to experience “phantom pains.”
This often occurs when a person has experienced whiplash and is seldom relieved by traditional methods. Recognizing the delayed onset of injuries is essential in getting the proper treatment and avoiding further damage and complications.
Internal Bleeding
Internal bleeding is a significant reason why people die after living hurt. Even if they aren’t evident immediately, people can get injured in a car accident.
When you injure your body, blood can pool inside and cause much damage or even death. They call this internal bleeding. Before more severe signs show up, the person may have weak symptoms like dizziness.
Without improved medical care, it can be hard to tell if someone has internal bleeding because the injury may only show minor bruising on the outside. If you don’t fix internal bleeding, it can damage organs or cause blood loss, which could kill you.
By going to a doctor immediately after a car accident, people can ensure that you find and treat any internal delayed injuries.
Concussions and Brain Injuries
Symptoms of concussions and brain injuries resulting from car accidents might delay by days or weeks. This is because the physical trauma or force of the car accident may cause microscopic tearing of the brain’s axons or folds.
Over time, axon damage can cause inflammation and internal bleeding in the brain, impacting cognitive functioning. Increased free radicals, the byproducts of metabolism, can cause the tissue in the brain to destabilize. Both of these can lead to severe, long-term consequences.
Treatment can only begin once you recognize the injuries and diagnose them. For these reasons, individuals who have been in truck accidents need medical attention and be aware of prolonged delayed reactions such as headaches, confusion, and drowsiness.
Keeping safe on the road is also essential to prevent accidents from happening. You may see truck accident causes here and avoid getting injured.
Neck and Back Injuries
It can be hard to tell when someone has hurt their neck or back in a car crash. This is because ligaments and muscles may strain, and discs might hurt or herniate without showing obvious signs of injury.
Even though the pain might have been there at the time of the accident, it might not show up for a few days. Also, the shock of the accident stresses the body, making signs take longer to appear.
So, people in car accidents must check their health and see a doctor for aches and pains, and you can handle any injuries before they worsen.
Psychological Trauma
People in car crashes don’t always show outward signs of mental trauma immediately. This is because symptoms of psychological trauma often don’t show up immediately.
Some of these delayed signs might not show up for weeks, months, or even years. They can include anxiety, sadness, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can impact a person’s life.
People may have a lower quality of life and be unable to do typical jobs because of the physical injuries that come with it. Physical and mental damage from a car accident can last a person’s whole life and have long-term effects on their health.
Inflammation and Swelling
When the body is injured, it causes the immune system to become damaged. This, in turn, results in swelling, redness, and localized pain. As the body begins to heal from the trauma, cellular debris, and other fragments build up and cause further inflammation.
The body also begins to produce biochemical mediators and specialized proteins now. These proteins focus on repairing the damaged area. They can cause fluid to accumulate around the healing rooms, leading to swelling.
In some cases, the inflammation and swelling can take days or weeks to resolve, which may explain the delay in car accident-related injuries.
Fractures and Bone Injuries
Fractures and bone injuries involve tremendous force, and the body responds. When a person is in a car accident, the strength of the impact can cause bones to break while masking the symptoms of pain and swelling.
Even after the initial shock of the accident, fractures may cause swelling and pain in the affected area for days, and sometimes weeks, afterward. This can be dangerous, as the delay in the symptoms of injury can cause the site to worsen as time passes and proper medical attention is not sought.
Knowing These Car Accident Injuries
The delayed onset of car accident injuries can be one of the most concerning aspects for victims. It needs to seek medical attention after an accident and check any physical symptoms that arise, no matter how minor.
Anyone in a car accident should not hesitate to seek medical advice if they believe something is wrong, as early detection may be the key to preventing more severe complications.
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