If you get involved in a car accident and you suffer a head injury – or potentially a brain injury – then it’s important to go to the hospital and meet with medical professionals. They may need to do certain scans or simply check and monitor your symptoms. You want to get an official diagnosis so that you know what type of injury you’re dealing with and you have the medical records to prove it.
Unfortunately, people will often skip this medical care, perhaps refusing treatment even at the accident scene. The reason is that their symptoms don’t feel very significant and they don’t think that they’ve been seriously injured.
For instance, someone may believe that they just have a mild concussion, which should heal in the next few days if they get some rest. Rather than going to the hospital and risking high medical bills, they are tempted to go home.
Why could this be a problem?
This could be a serious issue because some brain injuries get worse with time. Subdural hematomas and other types of bleeding within the brain are a good example. This internal bleeding causes excessive pressure to build up within the skull, and it can even be fatal – or lead to long-term brain damage – if it isn’t treated.
But at the accident scene, it may not be clear that the person is suffering from internal bleeding. They just think that they have a mild headache, and they don’t find out how much more severe the injury is until their symptoms begin to get worse.
Do you deserve compensation?
Have you suffered a brain injury in a car accident that someone else caused? If you have, be sure you know what legal steps you can take to seek compensation for medical bills, treatment costs and much more.