Whiplash Injury Due to Motor Vehicle Accidents

There are a lot of different types of major as well as minor injuries that are caused by a motor vehicle accident. Whiplash is one of these kinds of injuries. It is caused when your head experiences a quick movement in either the forward, backward, or even sideways direction.

Whiplash injury can be caused by even the lightest of jerks from an accident. The thing about this is that not many people take it seriously. People often don’t go to a doctor after an accident, thinking it is just a muscle pain that will get better in a day or two. Unfortunately, ignoring this injury only makes it more severe. According to studies, most of the people claim to be suffering from whiplash even years after their insurance claims are settled.

Phases of whiplash

•          The first phase is the one where you get the whiplash by facing an accident. The back of your seat pushes you forward while your head goes in the opposite direction, creating a force on your neck.
•       The second phase is where your body has reached a greater acceleration than the car while your head is still in the opposite motion. This is the phase that is mainly responsible for most of the injuries related to whiplash.
•           In the third phase, your body starts losing the acceleration while your head is at its maximum acceleration. The application of the breaks slows your car down, making the neck injury even more severe.
•           The fourth stage of whiplash is one of the most damaging ones. Here, your body becomes stationary because of the seat belt worn whereas the head keeps moving forward freely. This forward motion of your neck results in the strained ligaments and muscles, torn fibers, and displacement of vertebrae. Even though this is severe, wearing the seat-belt saves you from far more damaging injuries by hitting your head against the steering wheel etc.

Symptoms of a Whiplash trauma

There are several different symptoms of a Whiplash trauma. Some of them are mentioned below.

Neck pain

Neck pain is the most common symptom when it comes to a whiplash injury. According to a study, ninety percent of the people who suffered from whiplash were undergoing pain in their necks. This pain moves from the neck to the shoulders and from the shoulders to the head, making every task very uneasy and painful to perform.

Headaches

The second most common symptom of whiplash injury is the headaches. The same study showed that eighty percent of the people suffering from whiplash reported severe headaches. It is not necessary though that headaches come as a result of whiplash only, they can also be a result of a brain injury.

Brain injury

People often think that a mild whiplash is nothing serious, which is completely untrue. Even a mild whiplash injury could result in a brain injury as a result of the phases of whiplash. This is because the forward and backward jerks cause the brain to hit the walls of the skull despite the cerebrospinal fluid protecting it. This could easily lead to bruising of the brain or any other type of damage.

If you have been injured in a Auto Accident in Orange Park or Jacksonville, call Spinal Injury Centers. Let us guide you through your treatment and let our network of Physicians help you through this traumatic time. Call us today (904) 644-7034.