What to Do If I Get Whiplash at Work?

Whiplash refers to a neck injury frequently associated with vehicle accidents. This happens when the head moves quickly forward and backward in a crash, almost like the emotion associated with bobblehead dolls. If the movement is strong enough, it can lead to serious injuries to the patient known as whiplash. This is due to damage to the tendons, discs, and muscles in the neck. There are many different potential causes of whiplash, but one of the most common is a rear-end accident. This can lead to common symptoms of whiplash like neck pain, chronic pain, and shoulder pain. 

Ultimately, the medical care recommended usually requires a couple of days of rest, but that might not be enough to treat your initial injury. You may not be able to resume normal activities for some time. If you get a physical exam from your doctor but continue to experience severe pain and can't get pain relief from over-the-counter medications, talk to your doctor about physical therapy or chiropractic care. 

Other common causes include falling or sports injuries. Many people do not begin to experience whiplash symptoms immediately after they suffer a whiplash injury. Instead, they experience trouble sleeping, headaches and dizziness, lower back pain, stiffness in the neck, pain in the shoulders, arms, neck, or hands, trouble sleeping, or ringing in the ears in the days or weeks following the accident. 

Treatments for whiplash will depend on the severity of the injury and whether or not you have sustained other injuries at the same time. Many people apply hot or cold to the neck and use over-the-counter medications to treat minor whiplash, but more severe whiplash injuries could make it difficult for you to go back to work and may even require prescription painkillers. A doctor might also want you to go through physical therapy and for you to wear a neck brace.

It is very important to understand all of the legal elements of a whiplash claim after you have been seriously injured. This can come up in the context of both your workers' compensation claim and a personal injury claim. When driving for work, you may be entitled to compensation from both if there is a third-party liability claim. The moment that you believe you may have a whiplash injury associated with a car accident, you need to get medical treatment. Bear in mind that you may feel okay immediately after the accident but begin to experience symptoms later.

These symptoms and changes in your medical condition should all be reported to your doctor. If there is soft tissue damage, failing to take appropriate precautions could make the pain worse. You might also think that it will be easier to file a claim with your insurance company later, however, the longer that you wait to get medical attention for a car accident injury, the more likely the insurance company is to assume that the injuries are not as serious as you claim. It will almost always be asked why you waited to file a whiplash injury claim.

Getting Whiplash Injury Insurance Claims Filed

If you currently live in a no-fault state, then you would file your whiplash injury claim with your own vehicle insurance company. If you don't have no-fault insurance or are living in a no-fault state, you file that claim with the other driver's car insurance company. It is strongly recommended to file a claim with the appropriate insurance company as soon as you can. If you are not yet ready to file a claim, you do need to let your insurance company know you've been in an accident and notify them of the accident and your injuries. Because you were hurt at work, you also need to tell your supervisor as soon as possible that you were hurt in an accident and believe that you may have whiplash.

It is complicated enough to attempt to recover compensation for whiplash and neck injuries in a personal injury claim, but if this happened while you were on duty or working, it can be even more complicated. Hiring the right legal team, such as the lawyers working at Morgan & Morgan can be very helpful if you're trying to figure out, "What to do if I get whiplash at work?" Most people who are trying to find the answer to that question recognize that they may have multiple elements of their legal claim and don't know how to proceed. 

Regardless of whether or not this happened at work, you need to get medical attention right away. Do not ignore your symptoms. Usually when someone shows up to the emergency room or an urgent care office after a car accident with a complaint of pain in their neck and back, X-rays will be ordered. Sometimes imaging tests like X-rays are used to determine whether or not there are any fractures that could lead to spinal cord damage. 

However, X-rays do not indicate many soft tissue problems such as herniated discs, meaning that the doctor may order additional tests in the form of an MRI or a CT scan. The course of treatment after discharge will depend on the severity of the injury and some cases of whiplash can be resolved with rest and over the counter pain relievers. After reporting the accident to your employer and getting medical attention, you'll want to contact a knowledgeable workers' compensation attorney. 

A workers' compensation attorney can answer many of your legal questions about recovering compensation, and can help you gather the necessary materials to file a strong claim. You will need to gather evidence to make the case that you suffered an injury because of someone else's negligent or reckless actions. Anytime you're already experiencing blurred vision, irritability, memory issues, limited range of motion in the neck, or pain when moving your neck, it is time to find answers to the question, "What to do if I get whiplash at work?"

If you get whiplash at work, documenting this and also keeping your own personal notes about the severity of your injuries and what you did as far as medical treatment can be extremely important for moving forward. You want to document a solid case of injuries sustained relatively soon after the accident and indications that you moved forward to protect your legal right to recover compensation and to get appropriate medical treatment. 

The lawyers at Morgan & Morgan know that it can be challenging to figure out what to do if you get whiplash at work, but knowing that you are not alone and that you have an advanced legal team working as hard as possible on your behalf can make a big difference.

There are many types of injuries that can happen after a vehicle accident, and some of them may be permanent injuries. If your pain level affects your ability to return to work or live life normally, you need to talk to a personal injury attorney about the best way to proceed. 

The injury event you suffered is a serious one, and even with prescription medications, gentle exercises, and chiropractic adjustments, you might not feel back to normal. This is when fighting for personal injury compensation becomes important. Contact us today about a claim for a whiplash injury at work.