Anderson Injury Lawyers | November 6, 2024 | Car Accidents
Any driver knows that each time they get behind the wheel introduces the risk of getting into a car accident. If they are lucky, that accident will be quite minor. But even what appears to be an insignificant fender-bender can result in unexpected injuries.
One of the more common types of injuries from a seemingly minor auto accident is neck or lower back pain. That has to do, in some part, with how collisions usually occur, as well as how delicate those parts of the human body are.
If you are suffering from neck or lower back pain after a car accident, it’s best to consult a doctor and a lawyer as soon as possible. With any luck, your injuries will prove trivial, and you will recover quickly. But in the event that they are more serious, professionals can help you recover.
In any case, the following are some of the most frequent car accident injuries that inflict pain to the neck and lower back:
Whiplash
Many people suffer whiplash after being involved in a rear-end accident. The injury is typically associated with your head moving forward at a high speed and then reversing direction just as suddenly. The jerking motion places intense strain on the muscles in your neck and other soft tissue in the area.
Whiplash symptoms often don’t appear immediately. You may feel fine for a few days after the car accident, only to then start feeling unexplained pain. If the symptoms aren’t treated, they can last for months and may even worsen into a more serious condition.
Difficulty Sleeping
Sometimes, one type of injury can result in complications that effectively have nothing to do with that injury. For example, what you might not realize is that your body is also suffering while you sleep. Given the kind of pain you may likely be in, you may end up tossing or turning in your sleep. That can put a strain on your back or neck, even if the site of your injury is not near them.
It isn’t uncommon for people with serious injuries to have difficulty sleeping, which results in sore neck and back muscles. If that is what you’re facing, the good news is that your doctor can probably give you some type of muscle relaxer or sleeping medication that resolves the symptoms.
Herniated Disk
A herniated disk is one of the most serious types of back injuries you can suffer in a car accident. It occurs when you tear some of the soft tissue in your spinal column.
The good news is that the damage from a herniated disk will usually heal without the need for surgery. The bad news, though, is that the healing process may span several months or even years. Sometimes, even when surgery isn’t required, it can help speed up your healing time significantly.
The reason that a herniated disk is so serious is that its effects can radiate well beyond your back and neck.
You might feel any of the following symptoms:
- Arm pain
- Leg pain
- Severe muscle weakness
- Numbness
These are often difficult to predict, but when they are serious, they can be almost as debilitating as a spinal injury that results in paralysis.
Overworked Muscles and Tendons
Your spinal cord houses what are effectively the central bones in your body. Every other bone, muscle, and ligament is connected to it in some way. When one of your other muscles or tendons is seriously injured, often the soft tissue near your neck and back needs to take up the work.
That, however, can result in muscles in your lower back or neck becoming overworked. And though that may not seem like a big deal at first, it can result in more serious injuries over time. If your neck muscles get overworked, for instance, you might strain or even tear them.
That is a major reason why doctors often recommend relaxation after an injury, even when you feel as though you are healthy enough to return to normal activities. You might think you can get back to work with only a cast on your non-dominant arm, for example, but the extra weight of the cast and extra work on your back muscles could be causing additional harm.
Cracked or Broken Ribs
Though wearing your seat belt is a much safer option than riding without one, you are very likely to crack or break some ribs in a serious car accident with one on. That is because the seat belt locks in place and places pressure directly on your ribs during a collision. While that may sound bad, usually cracked ribs are highly preferable to the injuries you would likely suffer if the seat belt didn’t prevent you from flying out the windshield.
Cracked and broken ribs are similar to whiplash in that you may not even realize you suffered an injury at first. And more serious injuries will often overwhelm them. Cracked ribs, for instance, may not be apparent until you put pressure on them.
However, as previously noted, the body is connected. When a rib is injured, it places strain on nearby soft tissue and spinal connections. Even if your injured ribs aren’t apparent immediately after the accident, you will probably start to feel pain, both in your ribs and in nearby areas, within a few days.
If you experience unexplained pain, you might want to consult an orthopedic doctor. Some X-rays could reveal rib damage that explains your pain.
Don’t Wait To Consult a Doctor If You’re Experiencing Neck and Lower Back Pain After a Crash
If you are experiencing any type of lower back or neck pain after a car accident, do not wait to see a physician. The sooner you get evaluated, the sooner you can start getting medical treatment to alleviate your symptoms.
Contact Our Car Accident Law Firm in Texas
If you’ve been injured in an accident in Fort Worth or Dallas and need legal help, contact our car accident lawyers at Anderson Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation. We proudly serve Tarrant County, Dallas County, and throughout Texas.
Anderson Injury Lawyers – Fort Worth Office
1310 W El Paso St, Fort Worth, TX 76102
(817) 294-1900
Anderson Injury Lawyers – Fort Worth Office (Secondary)
6618 Fossil Bluff Dr # 108, Fort Worth, TX 76137
(817) 631-4113
Anderson Injury Lawyers – Dallas Office
408 W Eighth St Suite 202, Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 327-8000
Anderson Injury Lawyers – Dallas Office (Secondary)
6301 Gaston Ave suite 610, Dallas, TX 75214
(469) 457-4711
