If you have been in a motor vehicle accident in Georgia, the stress and trauma cause your body to go into a fight-or-flight mode. Your adrenaline spikes and masks pain, as nature intended. However, the adrenaline could keep you from immediately noticing injuries that need medical attention.
The following types of injuries often have symptoms that are hidden or do not show up for days.
Whiplash and other soft-tissue injuries
The most common car accident injury, whiplash, often goes undiagnosed right after the accident. The force of your car being hit, especially from a rear-end collision, can cause your head and neck to snap violently forward and back. This action can result in strained and sometimes torn neck muscles.
You may also sustain muscle sprains or strained ligaments and tendons due to the accident force and pressure on your back, neck, shoulders and even knees and ankles. It’s easy to overlook what feels like minor pain and soreness, only to have the pain become extreme days later.
Injuries to the spine
In a car accident, your body is subject to a significant amount of force, which puts your back at risk of bruising, misalignment and more severe injuries such as herniated discs or spinal fractures. After an accident, these injuries do not become evident immediately and the resulting pain and inflammation could take days to surface.
Concussion or internal injuries
One of the most common concussion symptoms is a headache. This symptom is easily chalked up to stress or tiredness and often ignored, especially if you do not have other injuries from your accident. However, brain injuries can be very serious, and a concussion can also cause nausea, confusion, dizziness and other cognitive symptoms. Having a doctor evaluate your symptoms is critical because a concussion does not always show up during brain imaging.
Internal injuries from car accidents are often hidden, like concussions, and your organs or blood vessels may have been subjected to blunt-force trauma from the accident. The pain and bruising may not show up for days, making it difficult for you to grasp the full extent and severity of your injuries and get proper treatment immediately.
Knowing the types of injuries and symptoms that do not show themselves right away helps you to be better prepared and seek the medical expertise you need after a car accident.