Should I Seek Medical Attention Even if I Feel Fine After a NY Accident?
If you were involved in an accident and you think you might be okay, you might be missing injuries you did not know about. If you wait to get them treated, you could put yourself in a dangerous position, both health-wise and for your legal case.
Even if you feel fine, you should still get medical attention after an accident. That care should start with an assessment by the EMTs that respond to the accident. If they recommend further care, follow their recommendations. Some injuries are hard to notice, and it is only when a medical expert takes a look that you will know you were injured. Especially since adrenaline masks injuries after a crash, it is hard to trust your own judgment about whether you were injured. Some injuries also take a while before they become noticeable, so you might need to follow up with a doctor days or weeks after a crash.
For help with car accident injuries, call the NY car accident lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083.
Should You Get Medical Attention After a Car Crash in NY?
If you were involved in a car accident, you should always call 911 and ask for a police response and an ambulance. The police can write up a police report that can help you get evidence for your case, and the responding EMTs and ambulance crews can help you and anyone else who was injured with medical treatment.
It is important to talk to the EMTs and get evaluated at the scene of the accident, even if you think you are okay. After an accident, your body is flooded with adrenaline and put into “fight or flight” mode. This automatic reaction in your body is sometimes called “survival mode,” and it helps you think clearly and move and act as you need to and even lets you push through serious injuries. Adrenaline’s whole job is to mask injuries and help you get yourself to safety and survive, even if you have serious injuries.
As such, you might not feel injured at all, but you could be sporting serious cuts or even broken bones that you just cannot notice right now. In the hours after the accident, once the adrenaline leaves your system, you could feel exhausted, and you will begin to notice all of those injuries. However, hours after a crash might be too late to start medical care for some serious injuries, and you could be putting yourself in danger by avoiding treatment.
Because of this, you should always follow instructions from EMTs. That could mean going with them to the ER right away, or they could recommend you drive yourself to the hospital after the accident or follow up in the next few days if you notice injuries later.
How Waiting to Get Medical Care Hurts Your Recovery
If you do not get immediate medical treatment for your injuries, serious injuries can get much worse. It can be difficult to notice internal injuries like a puncture from a broken rib or bleeding in your brain in the immediate aftermath of a crash. EMTs are experienced at looking for these kinds of injuries and can recommend you go to the hospital for care if they notice signs of potential internal injuries. If you do not get medical care, some of these injuries can quickly become fatal – especially when it comes to brain injuries.
Other injuries become much harder to heal if you let them linger. Broken bones will start to heal crooked if they are not checked out – which can be especially noticeable with broken fingers or a broken nose. Both of these injuries are the kind that you might be able to ignore and hope they get better, but they will heal improperly without medical attention.
Failing to get medical care can also hurt you, legally speaking. Our Brooklyn car accident lawyers will need to prove that your injuries were related to the accident in question in order to get you compensation for your injuries. If you get immediate medical care, then the time and date on your medical records will line up with the accident and help us prove that the injuries were caused in this crash. If you get medical care days later – or have no records of any care – then it will be harder to connect those injuries to the crash. The defense will use this against you and claim that your injuries might have happened in another unrelated accident.
If the jury believes that the injuries came from another accident, they cannot award you damages for these injuries. If your insurance company believes that, then they will refuse to cover your damages, too.
Delayed Onset Injuries from NY Car Accidents
Some injuries are not immediately detected, even with a full medical evaluation. Soft-tissue injuries, sprains and strains, and bruising often take a few hours or even days to become noticeable. The same is true for back injuries and neck injuries.
Whiplash is one of the most common injuries that has a delay before you notice it. The morning after your crash, you might wake up with a stiff neck, and only then will you consider that maybe you have a whiplash injury. Similar delays can also happen with back injuries.
At that point, you should get medical care as soon as you can. That way, we can avoid any delays and still fight to link this injury to your accident the day before.
You might also notice other injuries in the days and weeks after a crash, and it is important to get medical care to log these injuries and talk to a lawyer about how to connect them – legally speaking – to the crash.
Call Our NY Car Accident Lawyers for Help Today
If you were involved in a crash, call our Elmhurst car accident lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083 to get a free case assessment.