If you’re driving along a West Virginia roadway and another vehicle hits you, is it safe to assume that you haven’t suffered a serious injury if you’re not experiencing tremendous pain or seeing visible signs of lacerations or broken bones? The answer is that it’s definitely not safe to make such an assumption. In fact, you could have a head injury without being immediately aware of it.
This is one of several reasons it’s always best to seek medical attention after being involved in a collision. It’s also important to know what types of symptoms are most often associated with a head injury, several of which may surprise you, such as feeling erratic in your emotions or having trouble sleeping.
Head injuries can be closed or open
If another vehicle hits you, the force of impact might cause you to hit your head on a hard surface inside of your vehicle or on the ground if you were a pedestrian or riding a bicycle at the time. The impact might also cause your body to be shaken or violently thrust forward then back, which can also result in a severe head injury even if your head didn’t hit anything.
A closed head injury means that you have likely suffered a concussion, but your skull did not suffer an open wound in the process. An open injury, on the other hands, means that you have hit your head so hard that it broke your skull. The latter can quickly become a life-threatening situation.
Head injury symptoms that constitute a medical emergency
If you suffer a head injury in a collision, you might experience bleeding, swelling or clotting in the brain. Any of these issues can place your life at risk and are medical emergencies. This is why it’s so important to closely monitor your condition for several weeks following a car crash.
You can also experience damage to your brain cells without bleeding, which is called a diffuse axonal injury. This is one of the most dangerous types of head injury, which can result in permanent brain injury or death.
Recovering from a head injury after a West Virginia car accident
In the days and weeks that follow a collision, you need a lot of rest so that your body can begin to recover. If you have a head injury, recuperation might include lying still in a darkened room and keeping noise levels to a minimum. You might also need surgery or rehabilitation to help you regain cognitive function.
Many recovering head injury victims seek compensation for damages to help cover medical expenses and other costs when another person’s negligence was a causal factor of the damages that occurred.