Hernando Whiplash Lawyer

You can suffer a whiplash injury after a motor vehicle accident or other traumatic incidents. Whiplash injuries can damage the bone, muscles, nerves, and ligaments in your neck and spine. Some whiplash injuries resolve within a few days or weeks, while others leave lifelong pain. 

Making matters worse, your whiplash injury is the result of someone else’s negligence. You must hold these parties responsible by taking legal action and hiring a personal injury lawyer in Hernando, MS, from Gatti, Keltner, Bienvenu & Montesi PLC, to represent you.

Grades and Symptoms of Whiplash

When inertia causes your head, body, and neck to move at different speeds, that is what leads to whiplash. The inertia of the vehicle movement will impact your body and cause whiplash. Essentially the vehicle stops moving, but your body lunges forward, leading to stress and strain on your neck and skull. 

Depending on the severity of the whiplash, your symptoms and grades will vary. There is a grading symptom for whiplash injuries, and it is as follows:

• Grade 0: no injury 
• Grade 1: pain, stiffness when moving, tenderness to touch 
• Grade 2: pain radiating to nearby areas in your face, head, shoulders, and back along with muscle spasms and signs of injury like bruising, swelling, and sensitivity to touch
• Grade 3: pain, signs of injury and neurological effects, muscle weakness, headaches, dizziness, paresthesia, vision problems, trouble swallowing 
• Grade 4: severe pain and dangerous neurological effects 

A medical professional must evaluate and test you for an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. The grade of your injury will depend on your symptoms and diagnostic testing. You can typically manage grade 0, 1, or 2 symptoms independently with pain meds, cold and heat, and over-the-counter anti-inflammatories but discuss your treatment with your doctors. 

Grades 3 and 4 will require more invasive treatments like injections and spinal surgery. 

Diagnosing Whiplash

Diagnosing whiplash involves excluding other potential injuries, and healthcare providers will only diagnose you with whiplash after eliminating other possible causes. You will undergo diagnostic tests, image scans, neurological exams, and more. 

Medical professionals will ask about your symptoms and how the injury occurred. They will perform MRI scans, CT scans, and x-rays. 

You must disclose all your symptoms so your medical team can make an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan. You must also discuss your injuries with your whiplash injury lawyers. Diagnoses will also help establish a treatment plan where you feel better, but how soon you recover from whiplash depends on many factors. 

The Treatment Available for Whiplash

You cannot cure whiplash, but you can treat it to a point where it begins to heal independently. Whiplash can also lead to chronic issues in some victims requiring lifelong care and periodic physical therapy or injections. Treatment is most effective immediately following the injury and consists of the following:

• Medications: painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxers, and nerve blocks 
• Immobilization 
• Cold application for seven to ten days, 
• Physical therapy 
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation therapy: mild electrical current through your skin surface to nerve endings to ease the pain. 
• Radiofrequency nerve ablation 
• Spine surgery: in severe cases with torn ligaments or fractured vertebrae, you will need spine surgery to reduce pain and prevent nerve damage. 

Complications exist for these treatments, and you must discuss your potential side effects with your medical team. You must not strain yourself and make the injury worse but always follow your doctor’s orders. Treatment is costly, and you must have a whiplash attorney in Hernando, MS, to secure compensation for your expenses and losses. 

Prevalence of Whiplash

Whiplash is the most prevalent condition from a motor vehicle accident, but it can also happen during sports accidents and physical abuse. Millions of people suffer from the condition worldwide to varying degrees. Hernando whiplash attorneys will see these injuries after rear-end and head-on collisions. 

You cannot prevent whiplash from happening, but you can try to reduce the likelihood by wearing your seatbelt, driving safely, and adjusting your vehicle seat. Your vehicle headrests can reduce your chances of suffering from whiplash, and you should ensure your headrest is in the correct position. You should also play contact sports safely and talk to your doctor before riding roller coasters since these activities can also cause whiplash. 

Outlook for Whiplash Injury

Depending on the severity, you can recover from your whiplash injury in a few days or weeks. However, complications can mean you will permanently live with a whiplash injury. Severe whiplash injuries can take months, but your healthcare provider will determine your healing timeline. 

The worst outlook is a severe whiplash injury that causes spinal injuries and becomes permanently disabling or deadly. Safety equipment in vehicles and contact sports has improved to prevent these injuries, but they still happen. 

Holding Negligent Parties Responsible for Whiplash

When you speak to our whiplash lawyers, we will determine who is liable for paying for your losses after a whiplash injury. Sports injuries are prevalent, but that doesn’t excuse anyone from taking responsibility and paying for their losses. Since car accidents are the most likely cause of whiplash, we will focus on how to hold negligent drivers accountable for your losses. 

All personal injury cases require that your whiplash lawyer in Hernando prove duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. We must prove that the other person owed you a responsibility to keep you reasonably safe, that they breached their duty and caused your injuries, and the breach led to your damages. While the process sounds simple, it requires thorough investigations, evidence collection, and top-tier negotiating skills that GKBM can provide. 

Speak to a Hernando Whiplash Lawyer Today

Many victims are dazed and confused after a car or sports accident, especially when they suffer a whiplash injury. Refrain from assuming your whiplash injury is minor and will go away independently. Instead, speak to medical professionals, ensure you disclose every symptom you experience and call the office of Gatti, Keltner, Bienvenu & Montesi PLC for your legal options. 

Our team is dedicated to alleviating your struggles after a whiplash injury wreaks havoc on your life. Our Hernando whiplash lawyer will work to secure compensation for your injury and other losses.