Why Some Shoulder Injuries After a Car Accident Can Be Fatal

Car accidents can have unexpected consequences on your health, from minor injuries that don’t take much time for recovery to serious injuries that might be fatal or leave you impaired temporarily or permanently.

If you have been in a car accident and you had a shoulder injury, don’t assume that it’s not serious, based on the immediate symptoms and pain. Many car accident injuries can get worse if left untreated or lead to complications that might prove fatal in some cases. Always seek medical attention.

Shoulder Injuries in a Car Accident

The forces involved in a car accident can be massive and have a great impact on your body. Although wearing a seatbelt and a proper functioning airbag can reduce some of the damage, you are never 100% safe from harm when it comes to car crashes. A lot of factors are at play, such as the force of impact, your state of health, the point of impact and so on. Based on all these variables, you can get out of the accident virtually unscathed or suffer from very serious injury.

The most common injuries in a car accident are bone fractures, soft tissue injuries, internal organ injuries, and head injuries.

If the force of impact is very strong, your seatbelt can actually hurt you, even when saving your life. Because it crosses your chest and shoulder, these body parts can be affected, and in some extreme cases, shoulder and chest injuries can be fatal if left untreated.

Shoulder Injuries That Could Be Fatal: Symptoms

Here are some of the worst-case scenarios involving shoulder injuries:

• An internal fracture can cut off a person’s airways, nerves or arteries. Internal bleeding in the joint requires emergency care as soon as possible.
• A joint infection, if left untreated, can quickly spread, irreparably damage your joint and even prove fatal if it leads to sepsis (bacteria infects bloodstream.)

Immediately see medical attention if you’re experiencing one or more of these symptoms:

• Continuous pain that exacerbates when you try to move your arm
• Swelling, redness, tenderness in the shoulder joint
• The symptoms above, accompanied by fever, chills and night sweats (symptoms of infection)
• Crunching sounds in the joint when you are moving it

What to Do If You Have a Serious Shoulder Injury in a Car Accident

If you are suffering from a shoulder injury following a car accident, there are two things to do right away: see a doctor and speak with a good St. Louis auto accident attorney.

A personal injury claim must be based on hard evidence and expert evaluation. Going to the doctor to get checked is mandatory, first of all, to make sure you are not in danger of suffering much worse injuries, but also to collect medical documents that you will attach to your claim.

Follow the doctor’s instructions closely, make sure you take the prescribed treatment and that you see other specialists if they were recommended by the first doctor who saw you.

Focusing on your recovery is very important, so we strongly recommend that you speak with an experienced St. Louis car accident attorney to handle legal matters for you, and protect your best interests in a car accident claim.