Most Common Car Crash Injuries Physical Therapy Can Help With

Driving is an essential part of most people’s lives. Most Florida residents don’t expect to get into a car accident, yet according to a recent report by the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, over 340,000 car crashes have been reported this year. If you or a loved one has been involved in a car crash, you may have suffered damaging injuries as a result.

Baker Legal Team is a car crash injury firm with experience helping clients who have been injured recover the financial compensation they are owed. Being injured in a car crash can be frightening, but there are certain common types of car crash injuries that physical therapy may be able to help with. Knowing that there could be a way to reclaim your life after an accident may help ease your path to recovery physically and mentally.

What Car Crash Injuries are Helped by Physical Therapy?

When a person is injured in a car crash, they may suffer damaging injuries even in a minor accident. While some injuries are severe and require intensive medical care like surgery, some car crash injuries can be healed through physical therapy.

Back & Neck Injuries

Some of the most common car crash injuries are back and neck injuries. These come about as a result of the intense force these areas of the body receive when they’re thrown violently back and forth or forcefully compressed during impact. Common injuries to this area of the body include ruptured or herniated discs, spinal cord injuries, cervical dislocation, back strains, and more.

Initially, you’ll want to work with your doctor to manage the intense pain that usually accompanies these injuries. Once that’s under control, the next step will be to strengthen the muscles that support these areas of the body. Regular physical therapy can help rebuild these muscles so that they can be rejuvenated and brought back to health.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries, or “TBIs”, are another extremely common type of car crash injury. According to the CDC, automobile accidents are one of the leading causes of TBIs after falls and getting struck by an object. The head is extremely vulnerable during a car crash. Depending on how the crash happens, the head can get hit by the driver’s-side window, the passenger window, the dashboard, the windshield, the steering wheel, or by something that flies into the automobile during the crash.

Head injuries can be especially bad if there isn’t an airbag in place or if the airbag malfunctions. This impact causes the brain to slam against the skull, ultimately resulting in issues like the inability to communicate effectively, mental confusion, persistent headaches, and a host of other issues.

Left untreated, the long-term effects of a TBI can last years, disrupting the victim’s quality of life. Physical therapy can actually be extremely helpful for TBI victims. With careful, consistent rehabilitation, TBI victims may eventually regain cognitive function and learn how to do routine tasks all over again, allowing them to gradually reinsert themselves into their former routines.

Shoulder Injuries

Car accident victims often sustain shoulder injuries. One common type of shoulder injury is a rotator cuff injury. The rotator cuff, a collection of muscles that attaches your shoulder blade to your humerus, is the area of the arm that allows you to rotate and lift your arm. It’s often torn in high-impact car crashes, leaving the victim with no or limited mobility and range of motion in that area.

Other car accident victims suffer extremely painful dislocated shoulders. With this type of injury, the shoulder joint is dislocated from the shoulder socket. It’s an extremely painful injury, and it can lead to long-term damage without treatment. Physical therapy will target the shoulder muscles that have been injured or that surround the areas that have been injured. Some of the therapy will target and help reduce the intense pain that often follows. Over time, full range of motion to the shoulder could be restored.

Florida Car Accident Attorneys Are Here to Help

Going through the trauma of a car accident can be devastating. There are lasting physical and emotional scars that could take a long time to heal, making it difficult for the victim to get back to normal. If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of another driver’s negligence, a Florida car accident attorney may be able to help.

With over 30 years of experience helping car crash victims, Baker Legal Team has what it takes to build strong claims for their clients. Board-certified attorney Robert Baker and the rest of his legal team work hard to provide protection for their clients, providing them with the dedicated representation they deserve. Call us at 561-320-0000 for a free consultation or fill out our online contact form here.