Doctors for Car Accidents in Fort Myers: What You Need to Know

Not only is it important to visit with a medical professional as soon as possible after your accident to rule out any more serious injuries, but it can also be essential to establish this as a baseline for medical care. Down the line, if you discover that you have whiplash, a brain injury, or some other type of medical condition, it will be helpful to show to the insurance company and any other involved parties that you sought medical attention right away and took your injuries seriously. 

This is one of the biggest reasons to visit doctors in Fort Myers following a vehicle accident. It is much easier to establish that you experienced symptoms relatively quickly and that these impeded your quality of life to the point that you sought out a physician. The types of doctors in Fort Myers who you are most likely to see after a vehicle accident are a priority care doctor, an emergency room doctor, or an urgent care doctor. In some cases, you may have such serious injuries that they refer you to another specialist to confirm your diagnosis and a treatment plan. If you are seeing any doctors in Fort Myers following a car accident, keep notes of all of these doctor visits and of what was said during them. This information can become helpful evidence down the road in a personal injury claim.

You may seek out your own physician for medical care after an accident. However, if your accident happened while on the job and you file a workers' compensation claim, your employer has the right to send you to a specifically approved doctor through their workers' compensation system. This does not mean that you are ineligible to receive care and treatment recommendations from your own doctor, but it is important to attend any and all meetings with this other physician for the purposes of documenting this material in your workers' compensation claim. 

Since your workers' compensation claim may only be successful if you are able to show that you were seriously injured on the job and that workers' compensation coverage should help to pay out your expenses associated with the accident, it is good to comply with any and all paperwork and requests associated with a workers' comp claim.

Your personal injury attorney in Fort Myers and your own physician may recommend that you need to see a specialist. This usually occurs when you have such severe injuries that your primary care doctor feels that you would be better off seeing someone who is more trained in that specific field of medicine. These visits to specialists can be expensive and time-consuming, particularly if the specialist is not located in Fort Myers. 

Imagine, for example, that you suffered severe burns as a result of a vehicle accident. Your primary care doctor might send you to a burn specialist for treatment and care. This means more time off work, potentially a longer drive, and having to attend additional doctor's appointments to be treated for these injuries. This can make it very difficult to keep up with all the doctors in Fort Myers.

As you meet with your doctors, one of the most important things you'll discuss with them is "maximum medical improvement." This is a term used to describe when you have reached the maximum likely level of recovery for your injuries. You may reach maximum medical improvement at different stages based on your medical conditions. For example, you may recover from whiplash in a couple of weeks, but the impacts of a brain injury can continue on for months. 

Maximum medical improvement does not always necessarily mean that you have fully healed and recovered from the medical condition. Rather it means that your physician believes you have reached a point at which you are unlikely to recover that much more from this condition. This means you may still suffer from day-to-day pain and other impediments to your life. This information can become important as part of your personal injury claim. Your attorney may also recommend that expert witnesses, including other doctors in Fort Myers, be used to review your medical records and to speak up about the severity of your injuries. This usually comes up in those cases in which an insurance company is attempting to deny the severity of your injuries or claiming that they are not as serious as you allege. Having an outside medical professional review your medical records in full and testify regarding your condition can help to bolster your case and increase your chances of recovering compensation if you choose to take legal action regarding your injuries. 

Even if you are attending visits with doctors in Fort Myers who you have been required to see as a result of a workers' comp claim, keep good records of every meeting you have with them. You are also entitled to seek out a second opinion if you believe that a doctor providing your care is not giving you the thorough attention and care that your concern requires. Having good records and illustrating the impact that even attending all of these medical appointments has had on your life can be important for making a claim for personal injury or workers' comp recovery. 

If this accident and its associated medical conditions have made it difficult or impossible for you to continue on in a kind of physical labor or another job you had prior to the accident, it will be very important how they calculate lost wages and future lost wages as part of your personal injury claim. With so many things at stake, it is crucial to identify an experienced and dedicated personal injury lawyer who knows more about how you'll work with doctors in Fort Myers over the duration of your claim.

It's a good idea to see a medical professional following an accident, even if just to rule out more serious injuries. Some injuries can be shielded by the shock you experience in the accident, or some injuries may get worse over time. You also want to be screened for serious injuries, such as internal bleeding or soft tissue pain. Many people overlook these or assume that they are not important enough to bring up in a personal injury claim. However, as your personal injury attorney can tell you, all visits with doctors in Fort Myers can help to put together the overall picture of how your life has been impacted by the accident. 

Serious injuries often affect people through multiple medical conditions at once, and having a personal injury attorney at your side who understands these complex issues can make a big difference in your chances to make a full recovery of compensation in your case.

It may be difficult to tell the full story of how your injuries occurred without the support of outside expert witnesses. When you hire the right car accident lawyer to assist you with your claim, your lawyer can decide whether or not these outside experts need to be involved in the resolution of your claim. Your attorney can tell you more about how to use outside resources such as expert witnesses. It is strongly recommended that you find a personal injury attorney who has a strong track record of putting together compelling cases. This in and of itself can make a big difference in your ability to recover compensation and close this chapter in your life. 

If you or someone you love have sustained injuries due to a car accident due to someone else's negligence, contact the specialists at Morgan & Morgan to learn more about the process and to receive a free, no-obligation case evaluation.