Car accidents can be physically and emotionally traumatizing, with far-reaching effects. There’s a lot to handle afterward, and many victims unintentionally neglect their pain. Some might not even realize that their discomfort stems from the accident.

This article explores common types of post-accident pain and helps you understand their causes and the importance of seeking medical treatment. While car accidents can impose steep financial burdens, you have legal rights to help mitigate your financial responsibilities.

Learn how to recognize accident-related pain and understand your options for recovery and compensation.

Pain after car accident

Common Types of Pain After a Car Accident

There are common types of pain you may experience after a car accident. If you’re unsure if the delayed symptoms relate to your accident, here’s an overview of what you can expect. 

Immediate Pain vs. Delayed Pain

There are two common types of pain victims may feel after a car accident.

  • Immediate pain: This hurt is felt immediately following the accident. It could be the result of broken bones, head injuries, lacerations, and more. You feel the pain right away without any delay.
  • Delayed pain: Can develop hours, days, or weeks after the accident. You may have even been moving around with a serious injury without even knowing it. Once the adrenaline wears off, your body may begin to feel pain in new places.

Your neck or shoulder pain can last up to six weeks or more following the accident. Even if you’re not in immediate pain after the accident, you should still seek medical attention. This act will create a medical record of your injuries that can be used as evidence in later cases. 

Neck Pain and Whiplash

Upon impact during a car accident, a victim may sustain whiplash. This situation is when their head and neck move either back and forth or side to side due to the force of impact. Whiplash impacts the neck’s soft tissues, and it can include the following symptoms:

  • Neck pain
  • Back pain
  • Stiffness
  • Limited mobility
  • Headaches
  • Fatigue

Whiplash injuries can lead to chronic pain if left untreated. You may need pain medication to help control the swelling and help the neck injury heal. 

Back Pain

Another common injury during a car accident is back pain. Drivers and passengers can sustain various injuries, including:

  • Sprains and Strains: After an accident, you may feel achy and weak, have limited mobility, experience muscle spasms, or experience pain in your back.
  • Herniated Discs: Your spinal disc can shift out of place or rupture, which can be extremely painful. The pressure on your back from the herniated disc can cause nerve damage, numbness, limited mobility, tingling sensations, and general weakness. 
  • Spinal Cord Injury: You can break part of your vertebrae. Severe spinal injuries even lead to paralysis and a permanent loss of feeling. 

There are many different options for treating pain after a car accident. Leaving your back pain untreated can lead to lifelong consequences. 

Head Pain, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and Concussions

Many people hit their heads on the steering wheel, window, airbag, and more during a car accident. The force can cause head injuries, including:

  • Concussions: Symptoms of concussions include confusion, dizziness, nausea, headaches, etc. 
  • Traumatic Brain Injury: Trauma to the head can cause brain injuries. Look out for headaches, confusion, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, vomiting, changes in mood, slurred speech, and other behavior alterations. 
  • Skull Fractures: You can also fracture your skull. This injury can present as lumps, bruising, swelling, bleeding from the nose or ears, etc. 

If you sustained a head injury during a car accident, seek immediate medical attention. Head injuries can be severe and life-threatening if left untreated. 

Soft Tissue Injuries

A car accident can cause soft tissue injuries throughout the body. Soft tissue injury occurs when the body twists or stretches in ways it’s not accustomed to, overextending the tissues.  

These can include sprains, strains, and cuts on your head, neck, back, arms, legs, and torso. You may feel muscle aches for weeks after the accident as your soft tissues are healing from the trauma. These physical injuries are extremely common after a car accident. 

Understanding the Causes of Pain

Your pain may stem from various sources, so it’s essential to understand its root cause. Then, you can adequately treat it and start your healing journey. 

The Impact of Force and Trauma

The force of the car crash can impact how much pain you’re feeling. The harder the force, the more pain you will likely feel. Your body will jerk much more if you’re in an accident going 50 mph than if you were going five mph.

You may sustain the following injuries based on the force of the accident.

  • Broken wrist from hitting it on the dashboard
  • Broken nose from the force of the airbag deployment
  • Herniated disc from the impact of the car
  • Abdominal pain from hitting the steering wheel
  • Burns and bruising from the seat belt

A medical professional can help determine the extent of your injuries after a car accident. Even without visible external damage, you may experience internal bleeding, so you must get your injuries checked out. 

Adrenaline and Shock

The delayed onset of injury symptoms may be confusing. A victim may not even realize they are connected to their car accident if it happens after the fact. This situation occurs because your body goes into flight or fight mode when you get in a car accident. 

Adrenaline and shock can initially mask the pain, and you may even feel numb as you try to navigate the aftermath of an accident.

However, once that wears off, you’ll feel the full extent of your injuries. It’s not that the pain wasn’t there all along. It’s just that you couldn’t feel it at the time.

A medical professional will ask questions to help uncover the cause of the pain and identify a proper treatment plan. 

Inflammation and Healing Process

Inflammation is your body’s natural response to pain [1]. There’s an increased sensitivity and blood flow to the area as your body tries to heal. The more blood flow you have to an area, the more oxygen the damaged tissues receive. 

While oxygenated blood heals damaged tissue, it can also cause swelling, sensitivity, and pain. You may naturally brace to protect the area, causing additional soft tissue injuries due to the protective stances. 

Though painful, these behaviors are part of the natural healing process. 

Seeking Medical Attention and Diagnosis

Only a medical professional can tell the extent of your accident injuries and what treatment you may need following a car crash. 

Importance of Prompt Medical Evaluation

Even if you don’t initially feel pain, seek medical attention. You never know the full extent of your injuries until you are checked out. Routine medical exams will look for common car accident injuries, including:

  • Internal injuries and internal bleeding: The impact from the car accident can cause more severe injuries that do not break the surface of the skin. Some may resolve themselves, while others can be life-threatening. 
  • Sprains and strains: These soft tissue injuries typically make you feel sore after a car accident.
  • Neck and back injuries: Whiplash, a spinal injury, and a pinched nerve may happen after a car accident.

The medical evaluation will document these injuries. This report will be used as evidence during a personal injury case. Connecting the injuries to motor vehicle accidents can be challenging if you don’t have a prompt medical evaluation. You do not have proof of your injuries.

Diagnostic Tools and Tests

Medical professionals will use standard diagnostic tools to help identify an accident victims’ injuries. Depending on the extent of your injuries, they may use the following.

  • X-rays: These can be used to see inside the body. They can tell a professional if you have broken bones, foreign objects in your body, and more.
  • MRIs: These scans help a medical professional determine whether damage has occurred to the organs, bones, spinal cord, brain, etc. They are primarily used to assess injuries to soft tissue.
  • CT scans: These show bones, organs, muscles, and blood vessels. They can be used to diagnose a variety of injuries. 

While helpful, these diagnostic tools can be expensive. Many accident victims may avoid treatment due to the cost. However, these expenses can be recovered during a personal injury case. 

Treatment Options

There are various treatment options available for car accident injuries. They can include but are not limited to the following.

  • Medication: Pain medicine, antibiotics, and other medicines can be prescribed after an accident to help with the aftereffects of your car accident.  
  • Physical Therapy: Physical therapy may help with pain management and regain mobility. For more severe injuries, it may be necessary several times a week.
  • Mental Health Treatments: Some victims may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, or other psychological injuries as a result of the accident. 
  • Surgery: Car accident victims may need surgery to help stop internal bleeding, reset bones, remove foreign objects, and more. 

The recommended course of treatment depends on the amount of pain after a car accident.

Pain and Your Personal Injury Claim

As a part of your personal injury case, you can recover various damages. Economic damages are typically the actual costs you incurred due to the accident, including medical bills, lost wages, and damage to personal property. You can prove these with documentation such as medical expenses, police reports, etc.

There’s another type of damage you can recover that is intangible, and that’s your pain and suffering. It’s still real, but it’s not easily proven with receipts. Medical records and expert testimony can be used to support your claim for pain and suffering during your personal injury case. They can testify to how the auto accident impacted your life.

Then, the amount you can be awarded for your pain and suffering will be calculated. Various methods can be used, including:

  • Taking your economic damages and multiplying them
  • Per diem by awarding a monetary value to the daily suffering
  • Calculated by the insurance company

Pain and suffering are an important part of any civil claim, and a personal injury attorney can help advocate for the maximum amount on your behalf.

Long-Term Pain Management

Victims can develop chronic pain after an auto accident. They may require ongoing medical care, including various forms of pain management: 

  • They could be on medication for the rest of their lives to help manage the pain. 
  • They could need lengthy physical therapy treatments to relearn how to walk and regain limb movement.
  • They may seek alternative therapies like acupuncture, cupping, etc., to help address issues more naturally. 

Long-term pain management can be factored into a personal injury case. Even after the underlying injury is gone, the victim can still face persistent pain for the rest of their lives. 

Secure Expert Legal Counsel!

The injuries sustained in a vehicle accident can have long-reaching consequences if left unattended. Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers can help you get justice for your injuries and receive compensation to help you in your healing journey. 

We provide a free consultation. During this case review, our car crash attorneys will recommend the best course of action to help you achieve maximum compensation.

Call (888) 424-5757 or fill out our contact form to consult a Chicago car accident lawyer. 

References: [1] nih.gov