Soft Tissue Injuries In Oklahoma City
The crash force of a car accident is more powerful than many people realize. A collision propels the motorist forward at the speed the car was traveling before the accident, until the seatbelt snaps them back against the seat. If you were injured in an accident, it’s important to speak with an experienced car accident lawyer in Oklahoma City for legal guidance and support. According to crash force calculations, a 130-pound person becomes a 5,850-pound force in an accident at only 45 miles per hour, placing the body’s skeletal structure, organs, and soft tissue under tremendous stress. At the same time, the vehicle’s structure collapses inward at the collision points, causing blunt-force trauma.
Some of the most common injuries people suffer in car accidents are soft-tissue injuries. While these injuries are not typically life-threatening, they are often painful, debilitating, and temporarily or permanently life-altering.
What Is Soft Tissue?
Soft tissue in the body is anything other than skeletal structures, but in medical terms, soft-tissue injuries refer to any harm to the skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, and nerves. When a motorist suffers soft tissue injury, they may not immediately realize the serious nature of the injury, particularly since these injuries often have delayed symptom presentation. Soft-tissue injuries become more painful and debilitating in the hours and days after a car accident when inflammation builds, placing pressure on the surrounding structures, including nerves.
Common Types of Soft-Tissue Injuries From Oklahoma City Car Accidents
During a car accident, a seatbelt prevents the driver and passengers from being expelled from the vehicle, while an airbag protects them from high-force contact with the dashboard, saving countless lives every year. Unfortunately, seatbelts and airbags cannot prevent all injuries, and often cause specific types of injuries, particularly soft-tissue damage. The most common soft-tissue injuries in car accidents in Oklahoma City and elsewhere include the following:
- Whiplash: This is the most common car accident injury, occurring to the neck when the force of a collision causes the head to whip back and forth, stretching and damaging the soft tissue around the cervical spine
- Sprains: sprains occur when the force of the accident stretches the ligaments that connect muscle to bone
- Strains: This type of injury is similar to a sprain but affects the tendons or muscle itself rather than ligaments
- Contusions: Contusions are bruises and inflammation that occur when blood vessels burst below the skin
- Torn ACL or MCL: These are painful and debilitating injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or the medial collateral ligament (MCL), two crucial ligaments connecting muscle to bone in the knee
- Lacerations: Lacerations are cuts that happen in an accident from the body’s forceful contact with sharp or jagged structures broken during the crash
- Abrasions: these occur when a sharp or rough surface brushes forcefully against the skin, scraping its surface layers
Soft tissue in the neck, back, knees, shoulders, wrists, and ankles are most at risk of injuries in a car accident.
Economic and Non-Economic Damages Recoverable In Soft-Tissue Injury Claims After an Oklahoma City Car Accident
After a car accident, injury victims with soft-tissue injuries often face a long road to recovery. Some injuries, such as ACL and MCL tears, may require surgery. Soft-tissue injuries cause pain, stiffness, and loss of mobility. Common soft-tissue injury damages recovered in Oklahoma City car accident claims against the responsible driver include the following:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Past and future income loss
- Out-of-pocket costs
- Compensation for pain and suffering
Less commonly, additional compensation for loss of enjoyment of life may be available for debilitating soft-tissue injuries that cause a dramatic change in the injury victim’s abilities and lifestyle.
How Can an Oklahoma City Car Accident Attorney Help?
Insurance companies don’t always take soft-tissue injuries like whiplash and other conditions as seriously as they deserve and may deny or undervalue claims. Instead of leaving your financial recovery in their hands, call an Oklahoma City personal injury attorney from Dan Davis Law so you can concentrate on your physical healing while we focus on your financial recovery.