There are many different types of injuries that a person can suffer as a result of a car accident in South Carolina. One of the most common types of injury is soft tissue. In fact, soft tissue injuries describe a range of injuries that can affect many different parts of the body in different ways.
Because of their broad–and often difficult-to-diagnose–nature, soft tissue injuries are also among the more complex to deal with in the context of a personal injury claim.
What Is a Soft Tissue Injury?
In simple terms, soft tissue describes any damage sustained by the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and similar areas of the body. The use of the term “soft tissue” is meant to distinguish these parts from “hard tissue” such as bone. So while a muscle strain sustained in a car accident would be considered a soft tissue injury, a broken leg would not.
What Are the Most Common Soft Tissue Injuries from a Car Accident?
Soft tissue injuries are often not visible. Again, it is helpful to contrast soft and hard tissue injuries.
If you break your leg or arm in a car accident, you are likely to know right away that something is wrong. You will feel immediate and overwhelming pain and find yourself unable to fully move the damaged limb.
With a soft tissue injury, in contrast, there may not be immediate pain or other easily detectable symptoms. Furthermore, even if you seek immediate medical treatment following a car accident, emergency room medical personnel might not be able to promptly diagnose a soft tissue injury. A broken bone shows up on an X-ray. A soft tissue injury will not.
So what are the specific kinds of soft tissue injuries that you are most likely to suffer in a car accident? Here are some of the more common ones that we see in our personal injury cases:
Whiplash
Whiplash is perhaps the most common soft tissue injury associated with car accidents. Whiplash occurs due to the sudden back-and-forth movement of the neck during the impact caused by a car accident. This movement simulates the “cracking a whip,” which is where the name comes from.
The reason that whiplash is the most frequently diagnosed soft tissue injury is because it usually occurs in rear-end car accidents, which is the most common type of motor vehicle collision in South Carolina. When the rear vehicle collides with the vehicle in front, the occupants of the front vehicle are at significant risk of sustaining a whiplash soft tissue injury as their car suddenly accelerates forward and then stops.
In most cases, car accident victims who develop whiplash will experience symptoms within a few days of the car accident. Common symptoms include neck pain and stiffness, loss of range of motion in the neck, headaches originating at the base of the skull, and tenderness in the shoulder, upper back, and arms. While most whiplash symptoms resolve within a few weeks, in serious cases a car accident victim may experience long-term consequences such as chronic pain and permanent limitation in their range of motion.
Muscle Sprains
A muscle sprain involves over-stretching the ligaments that connect the bones within the body.
Whiplash is actually a type of muscle sprain. But you can suffer muscle sprains in any other part of the body containing ligaments. Typical symptoms of a muscle sprain include pain or bruising in the sprained area, swelling, inflammation, and limited flexibility.
Muscle Strains
A muscle strain differs from a muscle sprain in that the former involves an injury to the tendons connecting the muscles to the bones, or even to the muscle itself. If you are in a car accident, the most likely form of muscle strain you will experience is in the lower back. In the most serious cases, the muscle itself can become torn and require surgical reconstruction.
Tendonitis
Tendonitis is when the tendons become inflamed. Tendonitis is most common in the shoulder and the elbow. Most cases of tendonitis are treated through rest and placing ice on the inflamed areas.
Contusions
Also known as bruising, a contusion occurs when a sudden force strikes the blood vessels underneath the skin. This causes blood to lean into the surrounding tissue and produce visible bruising. While most bruising is not serious, contusions may be an indicator of other, more serious injuries such as broken bones, muscle sprains, or muscle strains.
Bursitis
Bursitis is a soft tissue injury affecting the knee and other areas that have what is known as a bursa sac, including the shoulder and elbows. Bursitis often does not produce as much pain as other injuries, but the inflammation can significantly affect movement in the affected joint.
Torn ACL or MCL
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a piece of connecting tissue in the middle of your knees. The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is a connective tissue on the inside of your knee. In a car accident, either of these ligaments may be torn and require surgical reconstruction.
How Do You Treat a Soft Tissue Injury Following a Car Accident?
You should always seek immediate medical treatment following any car accident. This is especially important as you may have sustained one or more soft tissue injuries without realizing it.
Emergency room medical staff can perform a full examination–including ordering an MRI, which is commonly used to identify and diagnose soft tissue injuries–and ensure you receive the appropriate treatment.
Keep in mind, insurance companies will often push back against paying car accident claims where the victims suffered soft tissue injuries. The insurer will try and argue such injuries are non-existent or exaggerated. That is why you need to seek prompt medical care and keep careful records of any treatment you receive. This will make it easier to pursue an insurance or personal injury claim later.
If you need legal advice from an experienced Charleston car accident attorney on this or any related subject, contact attorney Trey Harrell today to schedule a free consultation and remember Trey Helps!