People with serious injuries don’t always look hurt at first

Sometimes, a serious injury is impossible to ignore. Someone has a broken limb that they cannot use or another immediately visible injury. The injured party and anyone near them may recognize that they need emergency medical care.

Other times, an injury is subtler and easy to overlook. People can incur potentially catastrophic injuries without realizing it at first. Even after their diagnosis, the people in their lives may fail to recognize the true impact their injuries may have on their daily lives. So-called invisible injuries may take time to develop or may not present obvious symptoms immediately after someone gets hurt.

What kinds of injuries do people overlook?

Invisible injuries are typically internal injuries. For example, someone might have a stable fracture. They may have broken a bone in their arm, but the fractured sections of bone remained aligned. It may only be when they exert themselves or suffer a secondary trauma that the affected body part becomes so painful that they cannot use it.

Brain injuries are also invisible, internal injuries. People may not realize that they are at risk of a brain injury and could overlook early symptoms. In some cases, they may not have any early symptoms until the injury worsens. The same is sometimes true of internal bleeding in the abdomen are torso. It may only be when the bleeding continues for several days that someone notices the signs of their injuries and seeks proper medical care.

Not only do certain injuries take a while to present symptoms, but the body’s response to the trauma of a car crash could cover up the signs of their injuries. Therefore, those involved in major collisions might benefit from seeking proper medical evaluation shortly after the crash occurs. They also need to prepare themselves for the possibility that family members, employers or the other party at fault for the incident may not give their condition the respect it deserves.

A quick diagnosis not only improves someone’s prognosis but may also make it easier for them to get compensation later and to convince others of the long-term impact of an injury they cannot see. As such, understanding that sometimes serious injuries aren’t easy to spot may help people better handle the aftermath of a motor vehicle collision.