After a car accident, you may look for injuries such as broken bones or lacerations. While these injuries are common in a crash, an accident can also harm you in ways that are not so easy to spot.
Internal bleeding, for example, sometimes goes overlooked by first responders. If left unaddressed, it may impact your health and could even endanger your life.
Internal head bleeding
Car accidents that affect the head sometimes result in bleeding. As you might imagine, bleeding inside the skull is a potentially dangerous condition. Some symptoms to watch out for include:
- Weakness or numbness, often affecting one side of the body
- Unusual tingling, particularly in the feet and hands
- Trouble chewing or swallowing
- Sudden and severe headache
- Lethargy, sleepiness or loss of consciousness
- Changes in hearing or vision
- Changes to balance and coordination
People who experience these or other unusual symptoms after a car accident should seek emergency medical treatment.
Internal chest or abdomen bleeding
Many car accidents involve blunt force trauma to the stomach and chest area, often leading to dangerous blood loss. Symptoms of bleeding include:
- Chest and abdominal pain
- Nausea, vomiting and dizziness
- Shortness of breath
- Blood in urine or stool
- Abdominal bruising
- Bleeding from ears, mouth, nose and other regions
Car accidents can also cause internal bleeding in muscles and joints. Symptoms of this include swelling, pain and reduced range of motion.
The main takeaway is to seek a medical opinion after any motor vehicle accident to rule out severe and hard-to-detect injuries. Seeing a doctor adds weight to any car accident claim or lawsuit you wish to pursue, increasing your odds of substantial compensation. It is also wise to learn more about Ohio accident and injury laws.
