Chest pain after a car accident could mean you suffered an injury that requires medical attention, like broken bones or an internal injury. Prompt medical attention can identify what happened. Injuries that cause chest pain could prove serious enough to require medical intervention.
If you were hurt in an accident, a Boca Raton car accident lawyercan help you seek compensation to pay for your injuries. You may recover a settlement that helps pay for the injury that caused your chest pain.
Possible Injuries That Cause Chest Pain After a Car Accident
Several car accident injuries can cause chest pain. Your symptoms could range from muscle pain to tingling to difficulty breathing. Because chest pain can point to some very serious conditions, don’t delay in seeking care.
You could be entitled to compensation if your chest pain is the result of one of the following types of injuries:
Anxiety
In its overview of chest pain symptoms and causes, Mayo Clinic points out that one cause is a panic attack. Car accidents are stressful and traumatic. It’s not unusual to experience mental health issues that manifest with physical symptoms, including chest pain.
Unfortunately, mental health consequences of auto accidents are often overlooked or underestimated by insurers and other liable parties. Nonetheless, if you experience symptoms of anxiety, stress, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), those consequences of your crash should be recognized.
Muscle Strains
Some of the force of your collision passed through your body. You may have lurched forward or to the side. This can cause muscle strains that present as pain in the chest. Even whiplash, a common result of a rear-end collision, can cause pain in the upper part of your chest.
Many soft tissue injuries like muscle sprains, strains, and whiplash don’t show up on imaging tests. That can prompt liable parties to question their existence. Getting checked out by a doctor can verify that you were injured, creating records that help support your case for damages later.
Broken Bones
You can experience chest pain due to broken ribs or bruised sternum, both of which can occur in a car accident. Broken ribs and rib fractures cause chest pain when you breathe, cough, or move your upper body, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The National Library of Medicine reports that sternum fractures have similar symptoms and occur in 3 to 6.8 percent of motor vehicle collisions.
Lung Injuries
Pain from your broken ribs could also point to a punctured lung. You can also experience lung pain due to inhaling harmful substances. In fact, problems with the lungs are one of the most common airbag injuries, as powder and chemicals used to deploy the bags can irritate the lungs and cause breathing difficulties. You may also experience chest pain due to an asthma attack.
Heart Injuries
Your heart is a muscle, and like any other muscle in your body, it can get bruised. Suffering trauma, such as getting hit by debris or striking the steering wheel or dashboard in a crash can cause a myocardial contusion—essentially, a bruised heart. This condition can be accompanied by a broken sternum. A heart injury can cause serious complications like abnormal heart rhythms and even heart failure.
Depending on the accident and your health, you could also suffer blood clots, a heart attack, or other cardiac complications. Chest pain accompanied by telltale signs like radiating pain in your arms should prompt you to seek immediate medical attention.
Other Internal Injuries
As previously mentioned, some broken bones can puncture organs. You can also suffer ruptured organs just due to the force of a crash. Kidneys and spleens are sometimes injured in car accidents, requiring serious medical care.
What Can Cause Chest Pain Following an Auto Accident?
Some common culprits connected with chest pain after a car accident are:
- Seatbelts
- Airbags deploying or failing to deploy
- Striking the steering wheel
- Getting hit by debris
However, just the force of getting jostled in a collision is enough to cause injuries. A personal injury attorney from our law firm can help you determine the exact cause of your injuries.
What Are Your Options for Treating and Paying for Car Accident Chest Injuries?
If you suffered chest pain after a car accident, and someone else caused the crash, you could seek compensation to help pay for your treatment with the assistance of a personal injury lawyer. Insurance claims and lawsuits can provide you with damages that cover all medical costs related to the chest injury:
- Emergency treatment
- Diagnostic testing and scans
- Surgeries
- In-patient stays
- Physical therapy
- Prescription medications
- Medical equipment
- Mental health support
The Non-Economic Consequences of Car Accident Chest Pain
Whether you suffered from panic attacks, broken ribs, or a myocardial contusion, you suffered. That suffering probably interfered with your life in many ways—your job, your well-being, your peace of mind. These are just as compensable as medical treatment costs and physical therapy expenses.
You can check with a law firm to learn about getting compensation for lost income, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. These are all recoverable damages for car accident chest pain.
Auto Accident Attorneys Can Seek Damages While You Recover From Chest Pain
Having a lawyer seek damages for you doesn’t just help you pay for your bills. It provides you the opportunity to heal by freeing up your time and energy. Your legal team can handle the insurance claims process—filing paperwork, talking to adjusters, responding to correspondence, providing records and evidence, reviewing settlements—so that you can handle your physical and emotional recovery.
If your case does require filing a lawsuit, our car accident lawyers still manage everything, from filing before the statute of limitations to developing a case strategy and representing you at trial. Our team even continues negotiations while we’re pursuing a lawsuit to see if we can settle without going all the way to court.
Most of all, personal injury attorneys speak up for you. You might have a fight ahead of you. Your chest pain might get downplayed by those who caused it. The other party might also recognize how serious your losses are and push back on every last expense. Either way, having representation means you have someone to fight for you.