Numbness After Car Accident

Sometimes, feeling no pain after a car accident can turn into the worst pain of all.

Motor vehicle collisions produce a wide variety of injuries, from minor cuts and bruises to severe head trauma that requires emergency surgery. One result of an auto crash can be the loss of feeling in a limb or a certain area of the body. Numbness often results in some type of damage to the nerves that run through the spinal column. Feeling numbness after a car accident is a common symptom of a much more serious underlying medical condition. Numbness can turn out to be a symptom of partial or full paralysis that can last a short period or throughout the rest of a lifetime.

On the other hand, numbness can eventually give way to a rapidly growing sensation of severe pain that makes it difficult to get out of bed and complete basic household chores such as cooking and doing laundry. If you got involved in an auto crash and the result is the feeling of numbness, you should seek immediate medical care by undergoing a series of diagnostic tests that might detect the issue causing you to feel numb in a certain area of the body. Your healthcare provider can diagnose your medical condition, as well as issue a prognosis concerning the likelihood of you making a full or partial recovery.

You also should contact an experienced personal injury attorney if you feel numbness after a car accident. A lawyer conducts an exhaustive investigation that includes the gathering of physical evidence, as well as interviews held with witnesses that provide legal support for your case. Your personal injury attorney also helps you organize medical bills and records to file the most persuasive insurance claim and perhaps a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

At Morgan and Morgan, we assign an in-house investigator to work with the personal injury attorney in charge of handling your case. For more than 30 years, Morgan and Morgan has represented clients that required legal representation for personal injury cases. Our efforts have led to the recovery of more than $14 billion in monetary damages, with a large percentage of the compensation coming from the favorable legal judgments handed down by civil court judges.

Learn how Morgan and Morgan can get you the compensation that you deserve by scheduling a free case evaluation with one of our car accident lawyers.

What Factors Cause the Most Car Accidents?

During the free case evaluation scheduled with one of the highly skilled litigators at Morgan and Morgan, one of the goals of the meeting is to determine whether another party committed one or more acts of negligence. To prove negligence, the car accident lawyer assigned to your case must discover the cause of your injuries.

With more than four decades of experience, Morgan and Morgan has come up with a list of the four most common causes of vehicle collisions.

Poor Weather Conditions

Mother Nature causes a significant percentage of auto collisions, from severe thunderstorms in summer to raging blizzards during winter. If poor weather conditions caused you to collide with another motor vehicle and the result was feeling numbness after the car accident, you should work with an experienced personal injury attorney to file an insurance claim. Unless another party committed one or more acts of negligence in addition to poor weather conditions contributing to a car crash, your only recourse to recover financial losses is to file a convincing insurance claim.

Reckless Driving

Proving negligence regarding one or more reckless driving maneuvers involves retrieving video footage from a traffic camera located at the scene of an auto crash. If another party received a traffic ticket for reckless driving, your personal injury lawyer can use the traffic ticket as evidence that the other party committed at least one act of negligence. Reckless driving includes speeding, failing to yield, and running a stop sign or red light. Speeding is a particularly dangerous type of reckless driving because the faster the speed of travel, the stronger the impact of a car accident.

Driving Under the Influence

Most states have set the maximum blood alcohol content (BAC) for operating a motor vehicle at 0.08 percent. Commercial truck drivers cannot exceed a BAC of 0.04 percent. Drinking while driving impairs the judgment required to make the correct operating decisions. For example, a motorist operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol might make the poor decision to run a red light. Measuring the BAC level is the most effective way to prove negligence in a car accident case involving an impaired driver. Driving under the influence also slows down reaction times.

Distracted Driving

You could stand at an intersection for five minutes and need more than two hands to count the number of drivers texting while driving. Before the unveiling of digital technology, distracted driving typically involved eating and tending to some personal hygiene issues like combing hair and applying makeup. The introduction of cell phones substantially increased the number of car accidents caused by distracted driving. Advances in cell phone technology eventually created another distraction called texting and driving. Despite laws passed at the state level banning the practice, far too many drivers continue to text while driving a motor vehicle

What Causes Numbness After a Car Accident?

After getting involved in a car accident, you expect to feel some degree of pain. When you do not feel pain and instead experience numbness or a tingling feeling, the symptom might indicate a serious underlying medical issue.

The strong impact delivered as a result of a vehicle collision can cause a medical condition called whiplash, which is a serious injury that develops because of a strong, quick movement of the head and neck. The upper spine absorbs a tremendous amount of punishment, which disrupts the transmission of nerve cells down the spinal column to other parts of the body.

Whiplash can cause delayed symptoms that eventually morph into excruciating pain in the neck and shoulders. The violent movement of the head back and forth also can cause severe brain trauma such as a concussion. Numbness after a car accident also can develop because of damage to the spinal column. Since the spine controls the central nervous system, any damage done to the spine can produce a breakdown in communication among the nerves traveling from the spinal column.

If you feel numbness after a car accident in any area of your body, you should be proactive and receive immediate medical care.

What is the Deadline for Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit After a Car Accident?

Every state has established a deadline for plaintiffs to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Most states have set the statute of limitations for filing a personal injury lawsuit between two and four years, although a handful of states go as long as six years and as short as one year for plaintiffs to meet the deadline. The clock typically starts ticking for filing a personal injury lawsuit on the day of the auto crash. However, feeling numbness after a car accident might allow you to extend the deadline for filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

The reason for an extension to the statute of limitations for feeling numbness after a car accident is your symptoms have not fully developed to require undergoing treatment and physical therapy sessions. The numbness you feel right after a vehicle collision might slowly dissipate, which you think means you do not have to worry about getting medical care. However, the transition period between the disappearance of numbness and the development of excruciating pain can take a few days. Once you receive medical care to treat the intense pains caused by an auto crash, the statute of limitations starts on your case.

What Are the Types of Compensation Awarded for a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Sustaining an injury that initially caused numbness after a car accident before morphing into a serious medical condition can cost you a considerable amount of money. The most important responsibility of a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan is to recover all of your financial losses.

Economic Damages

Economic damages represent the tangible expenses that are linked to an auto crash. You file a civil lawsuit to recover the costs associated with diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. You also have the right to request compensation for prescription medications and the use of an assistive device such as a wheelchair. Feeling numbness after a car accident often is an indication of a much more serious healthcare issue that requires a prolonged period of intensive care.

Although recovering the financial losses stemming from medical care should be your priority, you also should ask for compensation to cover the costs associated with lost wages and property damage. Feeling numb after a car accident might mean you have to live with a medical condition that forces you off the job temporarily or even permanently.

Non-Economic Damages

Getting involved in a car accident produces more than physical trauma. It also can trigger one or more intense negative emotions such as fear, anger, and/or anxiety. The intense emotional feelings can be strong enough to have a long-term adverse effect on the quality of your life. Your personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan calculates a value for non-economic damages that refers to a formula that factors in the value of economic damages.

Punitive Damages

The defendant might have committed an act of negligence egregious enough to prompt the judge hearing your case to award punitive damages. This type of compensation is not meant to pay off your medical bills and recover lost wages. Punitive damages penalize the defendant for committing one or more acts of negligence, as well as act as a deterrent to prevent future negligent acts.

Learn More About How to Deal With Numbness After a Car Accident

Before you file an insurance claim, consult with one of the experienced personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan. You can expect the lawyer assigned to your case to represent you during every step of the litigation process, as well as keep you updated on a regular basis concerning the status of an insurance claim and a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

Schedule a free case evaluation today with one of the highly-rated car accident attorneys at Morgan and Morgan.