What Are the Most Common Auto Accident Injuries?
Approximately 7,500 people in America are injured every day in auto accidents, and Americans spend 1 million days in the hospital for common auto accident injuries every year. This results in around $18 billion in lifetime medical expenses and $33 billion in lost work.
If you have been involved in an auto accident, you know how frightening and jarring it can be. Car accidents cause many injuries, both psychological and physical.
However, most car crash victims don’t feel the full extent of the injuries until several hours or even days after the accidents.
Here are some of the most common car accident injuries.
Scars and Disfiguration
Burns and facial injuries can result in disfiguring scars that alter a person’s appearance. These may need plastic or reconstructive surgery and may never disappear completely.
Depending on the career, facial disfiguration might limit a person’s ability to maintain their jobs. Scars can also cause many other long-term problems, such as anxiety and depression.
As the scars heal, they contract. This limits the movement of the affected area. In some situations, a scar can even grow into a keloid.
Bruising
Bruises are rarely severe and often heal in a week or two. The belt seat is among the items that cause bruising in a car accident while saving you from worse injuries.
Most bruises are harmless, but monitor them if you get them from a motor vehicle accident. Some bruises can be worse and penetrate as deep as the bone.
A bruise can also indicate internal bleeding. If it progresses into a contusion or hematoma, it may be because of a more serious injury beneath the bruise.
Always pay close attention to bruises on the head. They may be a sign of a brain injury which can worsen quickly.
Broken Bones
Fractures and breaks in the bones result from a heavy collision during a car accident and may not always be detectible at the time of the accident.
A displaced fracture involves breaking bones into several pieces, while a non-displaced fracture is when the bone breaks but remains where it was. When a bone fracture occurs, but there is no puncture in the skin or open wound, it is called a closed fracture.
Facial Injuries
The eyes, ears, and mouth are delicate parts easily injured in a car accident. During a car accident, the facial bone may break and sometimes not heal well, causing mutilation.
Lacerations can also occur. When they do, the face gets deep cuts requiring stitches that leave undying scars. If the eye is injured, blunt force or debris might cause blindness.
One may also lose teeth during accidents. Fortunately, there’re dental experts in the industry to help with cosmetic dentistry services.
Neck Injuries
A car accident may cause injuries to the neck’s tendons, muscles, cartilage, and other soft tissues.
Whiplash is a neck injury caused by an intense, quick back-and-forth neck movement, similar to the cracking of a whip. This movement can also be referred to as whip cracking.
Whiplash may not be visible, but can take months to heal or lead to a life of pain. During the accident, the airbags and steering wheel are the chief causes of neck injuries that need medical attention.
Loss of Limbs
The force of an auto accident can remove a limb completely or cause substantial damage that will require the limb to be partially or fully removed. Limb loss leads to expensive and long-term rehabilitation. It may also lead to the need for prostheses.
Hand and Wrist Injuries
If your hands flew up to shield you in reaction to a car crash, you could get injured. The delicate bones in the wrist and hand work together in a complex relationship. In severe accidents, you may need surgery to heal these injuries.
Foot and Leg Injuries
Drivers are mostly the victims of leg and foot injuries during a car accident. With their legs overextended frontward while driving, bones and tissues can take the brunt of a forward crash resulting in leg injuries that require physical therapy, among other medical services.
Like the hand, the foot has many small bones that can easily break or move out of place.
Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries can occur because of a car crash, but these injuries are slow to appear and diagnose. Problems with memory, body, and brain functions can signal worse injuries in the brain.
Traumatic brain injuries include blows to the head and penetrating injuries to the skull. Severe accidents resulting from these injuries lead to lifelong challenges or death.
Concussions
The best way to describe a concussion is when the brain comes to a sudden stop. It makes the brain bounce around inside the skull and stretch or twist out of shape.
Every concussion that occurs is possibly severe and life-threatening. Unlike broken bones or burns, you cannot directly see a concussion.
If you experience a concussion, you don’t require an immediate brain scan. You can always observe your learning, memory, and concentration to identify changes.
Burns
During an accident, people come into contact with car parts, such as the engine, or spray liquids that can cause severe burns. The entire vehicle might also burst into flames, causing life-threatening burns or death.
Seek Medical Help If You’ve Sustained Auto Accident Injuries
Modern vehicle safety systems are designed to protect you during an accident, but auto accident injuries happen regardless of this. If you have been involved in a car accident, seek medical help quickly.
At the Injury Care Center, we have doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, and assistants to treat your injuries. Contact us today, and we will respond as soon as possible so we can begin treating you.
