Did you ever bump your arm or twist an ankle only to have more pain several days later than you did at the time of the injury? This type of situation often arises after a car accident. It’s one of many reasons the top priority following a Pennsylvania collision should be to obtain medical attention. If you have neck pain, you’ll want to closely monitor your condition, even after ER doctors release you.
Whiplash is a term that describes a broad range of neck injuries. If another driver runs a stop light or fails to yield a right of way and crashes into your vehicle, the jarring you experience upon impact can have a lasting, adverse effect on your neck and spinal regions. It’s important to know how to recognize the signs of whiplash and also to be able to access post-collision support, as needed.
In a person’s neck, there is a group of bones that are essentially stacked on top of each other. There are discs in between those bones that perform a similar function to the shock absorbers in a car. There are also bundles of nerves and ligaments in a person’s spinal column, any or all of which may be affected if he or she suffers a whiplash injury.
How long it takes to fully recover from whiplash depends on many unique factors in a specific incident. Sadly, whiplash can cause long-term health problems in some situations. Upon visiting a doctor after a collision because of neck or back issues, it’s always best to make sure he or she knows about the car accident, even if it was months earlier. Whiplash injuries often prompt a need for repeated medical visits, which can be expensive; this is one of the ways litigation can help recovering victims who seek compensation for damages against those deemed responsible for their injuries.