While truck accidents are not as common as car accidents, they tend to produce the most serious injuries. Even when truck accidents are not fatal, the momentum of a large truck traveling at even a relatively low speed can crush a smaller vehicle. Truck accident victims often suffer severe internal injuries, dangerous puncture wounds, brain injuries, broken bones, spinal damage, facial injuries, and joint damage, among other tragic injuries from the crash.
Victims of severe injuries are usually transported to a hospital by ambulance. Truck accident victims who do not need emergency care sometimes wait to see if their injuries will improve before visiting a doctor. Delaying medical treatment is the worst decision a truck accident victim can make. There are sound reasons to visit a doctor promptly after a crash, even if there is no deadline in seeing a doctor after a truck accident in your state. Prompt treatment improves health outcomes and can help the victim obtain full compensation for injuries from the accident. Truck accident lawyers recommend that accident victims see a doctor immediately and that they follow the doctor’s advice until treatment is complete.
Health Benefits of Going to a Doctor Promptly After a Truck Accident
Truck accidents can cause hidden injuries. A mild headache could be a symptom of a serious brain injury. By the time the headache becomes severe, it may be too late to relieve swelling or bleeding within the skull. Organ damage and internal bleeding might not produce serious symptoms until it is too late to save the victim’s life. Truck accident victims owe it to themselves to be evaluated by a doctor immediately after a crash.
Muscle damage might not become painful until a day or two after the accident. Ignoring the pain in the hope that it will go away can turn a treatable injury into a permanent disability. Every ache or pain that appears in the days following a truck accident should be evaluated by a physician. Prompt treatment improves health outcomes. Doctors can suggest medications, physical therapy, and other treatment that will hasten recovery. While physical therapy can be painful and time-consuming, injury victims are more likely to make a full recovery if they follow a monitored course of exercises.
Injury Victims Receive More Compensation When They Go to a Doctor Promptly After a Truck Accident
To receive compensation after a truck accident, injury victims must prove that their injuries were caused by the crash. Proof is weakened when victims wait to receive treatment or when they discontinue treatment prematurely. Insurance claims adjusters are encouraged to settle claims for less than their full value. They use any evidence they can find to argue that claims are not legitimate. When an injury victim waits to see a doctor, they argue that any treatment eventually obtained was not related to the truck accident. They argue that delayed treatment proves that the victim is faking an injury. If a doctor finds objective evidence that the injury is real, they argue that delayed treatment proves that the injury was not caused by the truck accident.
When busy injury victims fail to attend physical therapy sessions or miss doctor’s appointments, insurance adjusters argue that the victim stopped seeking treatment because the victim was no longer in pain. Doctors typically close their files when patients do not keep or schedule appointments. Juries sometimes agree that injuries must have healed if accident victims stops receiving recommended treatment.
Truck accident lawyers want to obtain full compensation for their clients. That task becomes immeasurably more difficult when injury victims delay or stop their medical treatment. Seeing a doctor promptly and following their advice is the key to maximizing compensation for truck accident injuries.