What are Whiplash Injuries? – Jaroslawicz & Jaros, PLLC

Are you suffering from neck or back pain after a motor vehicle accident?

One of the injuries that is most often suffered as a result of a car accident is commonly called “whiplash”. A whiplash injury refers to neck or back pain that occurs after your head, neck, or back are suddenly and violently moved back and forth. Injury occurs because these movements push vertebra, muscles and ligaments beyond their normal ranges of motion.

Symptoms of whiplash, include stiffness, spasm and pain in the neck or back region. Because of the neck’s proximity to the head and spinal cord, a whiplash injury may also include other symptoms including headaches, dizziness, or blurred vision. Even catastrophic injuries like brain trauma and spinal cord injury may happen after a whiplash injury.

Although many car accident victims do recover from whiplash injuries in a few days or weeks, unfortunately, in some cases, individuals may suffer from chronic pain as well as other conditions for years after.

Before filing a lawsuit to recover compensation for your injuries from a motor vehicle accident, it is very important to know the full extent of your injury. Does your injury meet the required New York threshold standard of being classified as a “serious physical injury”, as New York’s No-Fault law defines it, so that you may file a lawsuit to obtain compensation for your injuries?

That is why it is so important to seek medical attention and obtain a diagnosis of your injury. Although going to a hospital emergency room for diagnosis and treatment immediately after an accident is always a good idea, unfortunately, emergency room doctors will just take an X-ray of your neck and back and send you home if no fractures are seen, with the instruction to go and see your own doctor. But if you do not have a fracture then why are you still in such pain?

You are in pain, and probably have, what is called a “reduced range of motion”, which means you cannot fully move your neck or back as before, because although you do not have a fracture you do have one or more bulging or herniated discs in your neck and/or back. People generally refer to this as a “slipped” disc, which is not the legal or medical term. A bulging or herniated disc in your neck or back can only be diagnosed on an MRI.

If you have neck or back pain after leaving the emergency room you should make an appointment to see a doctor. You may see an orthopedist, a neurologist, or a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist. They will not treat your neck or back without first seeing the results of an MRI. I cannot understand how chiropractors undertake to treat accident victims for neck or back pains without having the benefit of an MRI which I have seen on many occasions.

If you have a bulging or herniated disc in your neck or back, and it is pressing on your nerves that run through the spine, you may also feel tingling and/or numbness radiating to your arms or legs-this is called a “radiculopathy”. Radiculopathy simply means that the pain travels, or radiates, from one part of the body to another part depending on which nerve is being pressed on by the bulging or herniated disc in your neck or back. The nerves in your neck will affect your arms while those in the lower back will affect your legs.

Many doctors may advise waiting a week or two after an accident before going for an MRI to see if the pain gets better on its own.

Once you do have an MRI and have a proper diagnosis then doctors will generally start your treatment by recommending physical therapy, to see if that helps. If, unfortunately, physical therapy doesn’t help then your options are various injections, including Epidural Steroid Injections, as well as pain and nerve medications. If the pain still continues and is affecting your quality of life then your final option may be surgery.

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