If you’re driving along a Virginia highway and another vehicle hits you, what may have otherwise been an uneventful day may suddenly become an emergency. The blunt force of impact in a collision often has devastating consequences, especially if someone hits you head-on or from the side. Following a car accident, you’ll want to closely monitor your health, as well as the health of anyone who was a passenger in your vehicle at the time.
Symptoms may develop in the hours or days following a motor vehicle collision. If you were in critical or life-threatening condition after the hit, you might have to spend several days (or longer) in the hospital. Even after you go home, however, it’s best to seek additional medical support if certain symptoms occur because these symptoms often accompany brain trauma.
Never disregard these symptoms after a car accident
The following list shows five symptoms that often develop in people who have experienced brain trauma, especially if they were recently involved in a car accident:
- Fluid leaking from the nose or ears
- Sudden, drastic mood swings
- Nausea, dizziness or unsteady gait, or vomiting
- Upper body pain, especially head or facial area
- Confusion, incoherent speech or trouble with memory
It’s not a good idea to drive a car if you’re experiencing the symptoms on this list. However, it is wise to obtain medical attention right away and to let the physician know that you were recently involved in a car accident. This information alerts the medical team that you might have suffered brain trauma.
Were you or your loved one diagnosed with a brain injury?
If a vehicle hits you while you’re driving or riding as a passenger, your body might be violently shaken and jostled around inside the vehicle, sometimes hitting up against a hard surface. Sometimes, the force of a collision causes the ejection of people from their seats. A car accident might result in a brain hemorrhage, skull fracture, swelling on the brain, concussion or axonal injury, which means that your brain cells have been damaged.
If a doctor diagnoses you with a brain injury following a car accident that was caused by another driver’s negligence, you’re entitled to seek restitution for damages. In the past, this has helped many recovering accident victims obtain compensation, which they then used to alleviate financial distress associated with their injuries, such as medical bills. Severe brain trauma often requires long-term care, which is expensive. This is why Virginia law provides recourse through the legal system to those who suffer injuries because of another person’s fault.