Hi, my name is Zachary Cole with Probinsky & Cole.
So, I want to talk a little bit about spine injuries. You’ve been in an accident. You went to the emergency room because you were in a lot of pain after the accident. You got checked out by a doctor. You had some X-rays done and the X-rays were clear. So, the doctor diagnosed you with a sprain or strain at maybe your neck or back and send you home. A few weeks later, you’re still in pain. You’re still in a significant amount of pain that wasn’t there before. Are you OK? Or, are you not OK?
That’s something that isn’t treated with the level of care in the emergency room that is appropriate for that situation. An X-ray will tell you if you have a broken bone. It can also tell you about the alignment of your bones. But very common injuries and car accidents are injuries to your disks and to your nervous and your spine. And that’s not something that an X-ray is going to typically show.
So, usually if you’re still feeling symptoms after an accident, there might be some damage to one of your disks. You might have a bulging disk, or a herniated disk that can be pressing on your nerve roots. It can be pressing on your spinal canal as well and causing you a great deal of pain or even dysfunction sometimes.
I was in an accident myself. I went to the emergency room and had X-rays which were clear but I was in an extreme amount of pain for weeks after the accident. I went to all my physical therapy sessions and the pain just got worse and worse and worse. And over a period of time, I noticed that my left arm started atrophy very significantly. So, we went back to the doctor. We went back to the orthopedist and he scheduled an MRI. And that MRI actually showed some pretty severe damage to one of my disks that was killing some of the nerve roots to my left arm. So that had to be surgically repaired.
And that’s one of the more significant injuries that can happen in a car accident, a lot of herniations and bulges don’t need surgical treatment but some do. And even though the emergency doctor said everything is OK. It’s just a sprain. X-rays are clear. That wasn’t the case. So, don’t be discouraged if you go to the doctor and they say everything is fine and you know you’re not fine over a period of time and the conservative care that you’re receiving has not worked because it very well could be something more serious and it’s important to get that checked up.
Going through it myself, it’s easier for me to counsel our clients about what to expect through this process and some of the things that they might be feeling. And also to communicate those to the defendant, to the insurance company and even to a jury if we go to trial.
If you have any questions about this or anything else, feel free to contact us at our office at 941-371-8800. Again, I’m Zachary Cole. My email address is Z.COLE@Probinskylaw.come. Thank you.
If you have legal questions and your matter happened here in Florida and you’re thinking about bringing a lawsuit, I invite you to pick up the phone and call me at (844) 335-4667. This is what we do every day and I’d be happy to chat with you.
