Car accidents vary in severity, and many victims find themselves in relatively minor accidents in which they have no visible injuries. They expect a few bruises and some soreness to appear in the day or two following an accident, but they don’t want to seek medical attention for what they consider minor injuries. If you’re just a little banged up but otherwise just fine following an accident, you’re going to forgo medical treatment. It’s what the vast majority of victims decide. It saves time, money, and irritation to forgo medical treatment when you feel you’re just fine, but it’s not always the healthiest decision.
With so many other things to handle following a car accident, forgoing a visit to the doctor is an easy decision. We urge you to reconsider. We know there’s so much going on you simply don’t have time to get checked out when there’s nothing really wrong with you, but you can never be too safe. Once you’re done with police reports, picking up a rental car, and discussing your accident with the proper insurance company, call your doctor. If not for your good health, at least for one of the following reasons.
Proper Documentation
Many things happen after a car accident. You could learn your car is a total loss and you don’t have GAP insurance. If fair market value is less than what you owe, you’re left with a car payment and no car to show for it. You might decide to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver, in which case you’ll want to properly document all of your injuries to ensure you have all the evidence you need in case of a lawsuit.
You might also learn you do have more serious injuries than you previously thought. If you need to seek compensation for these injuries, having proper documentation from immediately following the accident is helpful.
Unseen Injuries
We’re not medical professionals, but we know a thing or two about accident victims. Even if you assume you’re just fine, you might not be. Blood and cuts, broken bones, and serious visible injuries are not the only serious injuries you sustain in a car accident. Many injuries are serious but invisible. You might not notice symptoms right away, but they could be there.
If you have a brain injury, a small fracture, one of your organs is injured, or you have internal bleeding, you might not know until it’s too late. The longer your injuries go undiagnosed following an accident, the worse they become. They could require more painful treatment, more aggressive treatment, or they may cause additional damage you cannot recover from if you wait too long to seek treatment. In some instances, internal injuries could result in your death.
Potential Side Effects
Undiagnosed injuries cause long-term effects in may accident victims. You could spend years feeling just fine before a minor fall, a slip, or another accident causes these side effects to appear. It might mean spending the rest of your life with pain. When you forgo a visit to the doctor, you put your entire future at risk.
See the doctor. It’s the best thing you can do following an accident. It’s all right to wait until the following day to see the doctor following a minor accident, but you should seek medical care as soon as possible. If you have any questions regarding your health, call a personal injury attorney. Discovering major injuries means you’ll have a long list of questions regarding insurance premiums, payments, and who is responsible for paying your medical bills.
Since medical bills and insurance claims are a complex topic, now’s the time to contact an attorney. You have rights, and it’s important you know what those rights entail if you’re injured during an accident. any questions you have are questions we either already have the answers to or we can find quickly. Don’t let another day go by without seeking both medical and legal help regarding your car accident. You’re an accident victim, but you have rights to help you move on from this pain.