Dealing with Nerve Damage After a Mobile Car Accident

Nerve injuries are extremely common after car accidents. Yet, because nerve injuries aren’t always as easy to see, understand, or sometimes even to prove as broken bones or torn ligaments, many people who have been in an accident don’t fully realize the extent of their injuries until weeks or months after the incident.

If you’ve been in an accident in Mobile, Alabama that wasn’t your fault and you’re suffering from nerve damage, you need to make two phone calls as soon as you can—one to your doctor, and one to a mobile personal injury lawyer with experience dealing with auto accident nerve injury cases.

Causes of Nerve Damage in Motor Vehicle Accidents

There are many situations where trauma may cause damage to the nerves. However, the most common areas affected in nerve damage traffic accidents are the arms, legs, shoulders, hands, and face.

Accident injuries that may cause nerve damage include:

• Whiplash
• Concussions
• Deep cuts or lacerations
• Burns
• Head injuries
• Neck and back injuries
• Herniated discs
• Rib and torso injuries
• Dislocated joints
• Broken bones
• Skull fractures
• Facial injuries
• Brain damage
• Spinal cord damage

If you’ve been in an accident in Mobile, Alabama that wasn’t your fault and you’re suffering from nerve damage, you need to make two phone calls as soon as you can—one to your doctor, and one to a mobile personal injury lawyer with experience dealing with auto accident nerve injury cases.

What Are the Possible Signs of Nerve Injuries?

Nerves are your body’s communication network, linking the brain and spinal cord with the various muscles, organs, and tissues throughout the body. There are three basic types of nerve:

• Sensory nerves provide your brain with information about physical feelings—hot, cold, pain, hard, soft, rough, smooth, etc.
• Motor nerves are how the brain and spinal cord control muscles and allow you to move.
• Autonomic nerves regulate basic involuntary body functions like your heartbeat, blood pressure, digestive system, etc.

Since nerves play a critical role in basically every function of the body, symptoms of nerve damage can vary significantly depending on the type of nerve that was injured, how severely it was injured, and where it’s located.

The specific type of injury will often relate to the type of crash. For example, rollover accidents and multi-vehicle collisions are often associated with much more severe injuries compared to a rear-end crash. However, remember that even “minor” crashes can still have lasting impacts—which is why seeing a doctor is so important.

After a Mobile car accident, some of the most common early warning signs of a potential nerve injury include burning or shooting pain, prickling or tingling sensations, numbness, muscle weakness, or muscle spasms. If you feel any of these symptoms, you need to see a doctor right away.

What Should I Do if I Have a Nerve Injury After a Crash in Mobile?

Due to the range of complications that may arise from these injuries, people injured in Mobile car crashes should seek medical attention immediately following a collision. This helps you for a few reasons.

First and most importantly, it ensures you get the testing and treatment you need as soon as possible. Nerve injuries can worsen over time, so getting things checked early (even if symptoms seem mild) can lead to better health outcomes.

After a Mobile car accident, some of the most common early warning signs of a potential nerve injury include burning or shooting pain, prickling or tingling sensations, numbness, muscle weakness, or muscle spasms. If you feel any of these symptoms, you need to see a doctor right away.

Your doctor may be able to detect the early signs of a pinched nerve or other injury and treat it before it has a chance to do permanent damage. Diagnostics such as nerve conduction velocity (NCV) tests, CT scans, MRIs, and nerve biopsies can help narrow down a diagnosis.

Second, it helps to prove to the insurance company (and potentially a jury) that your injuries are real and directly related to the crash.

How a Mobile Car Accident Lawyer Can Help You Get the Compensation You Deserve

Nerve injuries can be serious, debilitating, and long-lasting. If you or a loved one suffered a nerve injury after a car accident that wasn’t your fault, you deserve fair compensation.

However, determining what’s “fair” in a nerve injury case can often be much trickier than with cuts, bruises, and broken bones. Nerve injuries are often complex, with long-term lingering effects on health and quality of life. And that can make a big difference in terms of the size of your claim.

Calculating the Value of Your Mobile Nerve Damage Claim

The money you get from your insurance claim or lawsuit should cover the costs of your medical treatment, lost wages, and suffering. So, if your nerve injury is going to keep you out of the workforce for a long time, require follow-up medical treatments or physical therapy, or require permanent in-home assistance or nursing care, these lifetime costs should be factored in.

Plus, if your nerve injury made it much more difficult for you to do other things, like play with your kids, do physical activities that used to give you a lot of joy, or take care of your home, you should be compensated for that loss, too. Pain, suffering, and other reductions in your quality of life may not have a “sticker price” like medical bills, but you still deserve accountability.

Building Your Case and Proving Your Injury

In any personal injury case, you need to prove that the other party was to blame, and that the injuries and consequences you suffered were caused by the incident.

That can sometimes be tricky with nerve injuries, since the effects aren’t always easy to see from the outside. The insurance company may try to argue that you are lying about the extent of your nerve problems, or that your condition was pre-existing and/or unrelated to the crash.

A persistent, aggressive, and thorough Mobile car accident lawyer can help you gather the evidence you need to prove your case, including medical records, expert witness testimony, crash scene investigation, and more.

Andy Citrin Is the Aggressive Mobile Car Accident Lawyer You’ve Been Looking For

If you’ve been hurt in an auto accident because of someone else’s mistake or reckless behavior, it’s time to get serious about getting the financial compensation you deserve.

Andy Citrin Injury Attorneys have been fighting and winning for nerve injury sufferers for more than 35 years. We’d love the opportunity to speak with you about your condition and help you figure out your next steps. To schedule a free consultation, give us a call at 251-888-8888, or complete our easy online contact form. Our Mobile, Alabama law office is conveniently located on Dauphin Island Parkway near I-10, but we’re also able to meet you at the hospital, your home, or remotely—wherever is most convenient for you.

The content provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.