It’s a normal day; you are taking the usual route to work or university. Suddenly, a car moving at high speed comes in front of you. As immediate instinct, you hit the break, but it’s already too late. Your car crashes into the other vehicle, which causes a loud noise. Now, a car accident can be a traumatic and stressful situation for many people. The sudden car crash overwhelms some, while others try to keep calm in such cases. If you ever get into a car accident, the first questions in your mind would be, ‘What to do after a car accident?’, ‘Should I sell broken car?’.
Don’t worry; here are some necessary steps you should follow after getting into an auto accident.
The first step is to ensure that everyone is safe. Check the passengers and yourself for any injuries or bruises. If you have an injury, don’t move and ask for someone to call an ambulance.
The next step is to call the police and report the accident. It is necessary to inform the local authority about the collisions to investigate the case later.
Apart from informing the police, call the local helpline. Wait for a tow truck and emergency help to arrive.
After this, exchange information with the other driver. Document information about the crash. Later call your insurance company so that they can document and process your claim.
Consult a Car Accident Doctor
Getting into a car accident is an overwhelming experience. The driver and passengers experience physical, emotional, and financial damage. Especially if you faced injury in the accident, people in such situations would usually worry about the finances and physical damage to their vehicle. But the most important thing is to take care of themselves. You should go and consult a car accident doctor immediately.
No matter how minor the injuries from the car accident are, consult a doctor. In such cases, a car accident doctor will be your best option. The doctor specializes in treating auto accident cases. He/she will check your case and diagnose injuries. The doctor is then most likely to send you to a Neck and Spine Specialist. In a car
accident, the most common area affected is the spine and neck. So a specialist in this area will make a proper diagnosis and treat your injuries.
Types of Injuries
An automobile accident can result in a variety of major and minor injuries. In an accident, the neck and spine of the victims get damaged. Hence, back injuries are one of the common injuries in a car crash. The strained or pulled muscles and ligaments can cause lower back pain. Spine facet joint capsules, ruptured discs, or a deeper spinal cord injury can also cause immense pain. Spine injury is usually a serious injury that leaves patients paralyzed. But sometimes, the back injuries can be severe without being completely debilitating or paralyzed.
Other major injuries include muscle strain, whiplash, lumbar facet joint syndrome, and herniated disc. In a car accident, a lot of force exerts on the body. The force from a collision has a high impact on the body’s muscles, disc, and spine.
In an accident, when the body is hot by the sudden force, it protects itself by tightening the muscles. The muscles strain or tear by resisting the force of the impact. This causes acute back pain in car accident patients.
Whiplash is a common injury in car accident patients. It occurs when the neck moves beyond its normal range of motion, like a sudden jerk forward and backward. The movement causes muscles to strain and ligaments to break. The whiplash results in neck pain with headaches.
In Lumbar facet joint syndrome, the patients have nonspecific lower back pain. The pain is deep and achy quality, usually localized to a unilateral or bilateral paravertebral area. In this injury, the patient has a limited range of motion, normal gait, and maximal pain with extension from a flexed position in the low back, leg pain till the knee, numbness, and tingling sensation.
A car accident injury can also cause herniated or ruptured disc. A herniated disc refers to a problem where the spinal disc which forms our spinal cord damages. A spinal disc is like a jelly donut, with a softer center encased within a tougher outer layer, and when the white jelly comes out of the tough blue exterior, causing a Herniated disc. The tremendous force from a car accident can rupture annulus fibrosis and lead to disc herniation. A herniated disc causes lower back pain, numbness, and weakness in the area of the body where the nerve travels.
Types of Treatments
The car accident doctor may refer the patient to Neck and Spine Specialists. The specialists may opt for different treatments keeping in mind the condition and injury of a patient. Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy uses plasma to help the body regenerate more than it would in normal conditions. The proteins in platelets allow healing to happen, so a high concentration of them applies to the injury site. Since they are ideal for regenerating tissues, people who have muscle tearing from whiplash due to a car accident can recover better.
Kyphoplasty treatment is used to repair fractured vertebrae. A balloon gets inflated inside the broken vertebrae to expand the size. Once the bone is at its original size, it is filled with cement to provide support again, and the patient can feel relief from pain.
Spinal Cord Stimulator treatment targets nerve pain using electricity. The nerves of the spine and neck damages in a car accident and cause severe pain. Nodes are placed close to where the pain is. After that, a controlled amount of electricity is sent through the nerves into the back to calm them. This allows the pain to stop without having to do anything to the vertebrae.
Stem Cell Therapy works on the theory that our bodies have many types of cells in them. Stem cells can divide and turn into any other kind of cell in our bodies. So they are useful for healing any part of the body. In severe neck injuries, these cells can repair ligaments.
People are usually confused about what to do after a car accident. So first, it is important to find a car accident doctor immediately. The doctor will help you getting you the right diagnosis and treatment along with helping you with documentation and make a claim. People who encounter car accidents are usually confused and traumatized. They are not able to assess the situation or look after themselves. Hence, they overlook injuries in their bodies. In car accidents, the most common injuries happen in the neck and spine. So it’s necessary to find neck and spine specialists available after an accident.
Final Thoughts
If you have recently been in a car accident and experiencing pain, reach out to your nearest doctor to get help. The doctor will examine your injuries, write a thorough diagnosis and prescribe a suitable treatment for you. After all, car accident doctors are experts dedicated to the well-being of all the patients. They have a wide variety of treatments and payment plans available for everyone.
