What to do after an accident....

If you have been involved in a car accident, whiplash injuries need to be taken very seriously.  Because symptoms of a whiplash injury can take weeks or months to manifest, it is easy to be fooled into thinking that you are not as injured as you really are.

 

 

Whiplash Trauma
Whiplash is the common term used for a hyperextension injury to the neck. Though the neck is a very flexible structure, it can be injured when the weight of the head exceeds the neck's ability to control its motion. The injury usually happens when the head is suddenly jerked back and forth beyond its normal limits during a car accident, rough contact sports, or a fall. This jerking motion can cause over-stretching and tearing of the neck muscles and ligaments and can cause the discs between the neck vertebrae to bulge, tear or rupture.

After the Emergency Room…..
An individual who has been in an accident should first make sure that there is no life threatening emergency— broken bones, bleeding or hemorrhage, internal organ damage, serious contusions or abrasions, shock or other damage. This is the specialty of emergency medicine. Yet too many patients are released from medical care after an injury even though they are not well.

Too often people don't seek treatment following a car accident because they don't feel hurt. By far, the most common injury to the neck is a whiplash injury. Unfortunately, by the time more serious complications develop, some of the damage from the injury may have become permanent.

Numerous studies have shown that years after whiplash victims settle their insurance claims, roughly half of them state that they still suffer with symptoms from their injuries. These people are still suffering years later in pain and a compromised lifestyle due untreated injuries. If you have been in a motor vehicle or any other kind of accident, don't assume that you escaped injury if you are not currently in pain.

Spinal, shoulder, chest, TMJ, disc and other injuries may result from even low speed motor vehicle accidents. Numerous studies have shown that the forces on the occupant of a damaged vehicle can be five times the force to the vehicle. Although discs are sometimes herniated in the spine during auto accidents, slips and falls and other injuries, this is just one form of damage that may occur to the spine. More often, ligaments in the spine are torn and these injuries are seldom seen without specialized testing. ...Anyone who has been in an accident or trauma should see a Chiropractor….

Dr. Keith Warde, Chiropractic Physician and Clinical Director of Southwest Spine & Sport, Inc. has completed extensive studies on Whiplash and Brain Injury Traumatology through the Spine Research Institute of San Diego. This comprehensive training program leads to the highest credential available in whiplash and is the foremost comprehensive, science-based program on the subject. The course is taught by Dr. Arthur C. Croft, director of the institute and one of the world’s leading authorities and researchers on the subject of whiplash trauma. Over 3,000,000 Americans are injured this way each year, and nearly half of them never fully recover. Because of the interest of Dr. Croft and other researchers, our understanding of whiplash – both as a public health problem and a physical phenomenon- has evolved more over the last two decades than most other areas of health science.

This training program covers all aspects of case management, diagnostic, specialized treatment, rehabilitative methods and physical examination procedures. The latest research into vehicle-occupant interactions, low speed automobile crash reconstruction methods, biomechanics issues and the range of soft tissue injuries and brain injuries are reviewed in depth.

In our office, we have years of training combined with the latest treatment and diagnostic techniques to determine injury. We will refer you to a specialist when needed, obtain testing and provide documentation of our findings for insurance companies and attorneys.