Back Injury Attorneys – Personal Injury Lawyers
Whiplash is a non-technical term used for pain in the shoulders, neck, head or base of the skull, associated with car accidents and some slip and fall accidents. Our auto accident injury lawyers see many cases of whiplash.
Whiplash occurs because of sudden acceleration, or more often, a sudden deceleration. Inertia, the force responsible for whiplash, can cause injury both to the neck muscles and the spinal structures in the neck and upper back. Please visit this website
Most patients with whiplash recover in a few weeks or months but in about 15 to 20 percent of cases, victims develop chronic longterm pain, according to spine institutes.
Doctors say whiplash is not a trivial issue because only 82 per cent of people who are hurt, have recovered within two years. It’s in these cases where victims suffer longer term symptoms that our whiplash injury lawyers, may become involved in high value lawsuits.
If pain persists beyond six months it may have gone beyond the soft tissue to include injuries to the facet joints or discs, which are round cushions that lie in between the vertebrae of the spinal column. They act like spinal shock absorbers. Lawyers often compare them to jelly doughnuts when addressing juries.
If a disc is injured this “jelly” may leak out. When the core of the disc extrudes into the spinal canal it may hit a nerve root, causing great pain to the patient. A serious impact during an accident can cause a bulging disc or even a ruptured disc in the upper back or the neck.
A herniated disc can put considerable pressure on the nerve, which can cause pain to radiate throughout the person’s body. Invasive surgery may be necessary in many cases.
Less commonly, whiplash could cause a change in the natural curvature of the spine.
Although herniated disc injuries often clear up, there are cases in which a patient remains in pain for the rest of his or her life, notwithstanding therapy, steroids or strong painkillers.
These kinds of cases often result in six figure settlements if another party is clearly to blame, the other party has good insurance cover and the victim had no preexisting condition.
But victims have received large payouts even when preexisting conditions were involved in their cases where an accident has clearly caused additional problems or exacerbated a condition.
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