Soft Tissue Injuries from Car Accidents: Are They Worth a Lawsuit?

Many types of accidents can cause soft-tissue injuries, including car, truck, and motorcycle accidents, slip-and-fall accidents, and product malfunctions. Although soft tissue injuries aren’t generally viewed as being as serious as certain catastrophic injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries or spinal cord damage, or as easily verifiable as broken bones, they can affect your ability to work, perform daily functions, and enjoy your life.

What is a soft tissue injury?

According to Medical News Today, soft tissue injuries refer to damage to tissues that are not bones. Soft tissue injuries include damage to the following:

• Muscles include a range of fibers that, through contraction and expansion, help you move.
• Tendons connect muscles to bones and help support movement and joint stability.
• Ligaments provide stability by connecting bones to other bones.

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), common types of soft tissue injuries include:

• A sprain is the stretching or tearing of ligaments, the bands of tissue that connect bones to other bones and stabilize joints.
• A strain can range from minor overstretching to a serious tear. It affects muscles or tendons, the bands of tissue that connect bones to muscles.
• Contusions are bruises that squash the muscle fibers underneath the skin but don’t break the barrier of the skin. A common cause of a contusion is blunt force trauma. The color of a bruise is due to the pooling of blood at the site of the contusion.
• Tendi This soft tissue injury involves a continuous irritation or inflammation in a tendon.
• The bursae are small sacs between soft tissue and bones that cushion the shoulder, elbow, knee, hip, and heel. Similarly to tendinitis, small stresses over time can cause inflammation and swelling in the bursae.
• Whiplash occurs when there’s damage to the muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the neck caused by a sudden back-and-forth movement, like in a car accident.

What are the symptoms of a soft tissue injury?

Common soft tissue injury symptoms include the following:

• Pain, bruises, swelling, and inflammation
• Muscle spasms, pain, swelling, and inflammation
• Discoloration of the skin and pain
• Swelling and pain that worsen with activity
• Pain and swelling
• Neck pain, stiffness, and reduced neck movement

How do doctors diagnose a soft tissue injury?

ER doctors, family doctors, orthopedists, and other doctors normally diagnose soft tissue injuries through a combination of factors. Your medical provider will begin by taking your medical history and conducting a physical examination. The examination will include a range of motion and other tests to determine the location and severity of your injury.

Possible imaging tests include X-rays and MRIs. These tests help assess the injury and help rule out fractures and other types of injuries.

What are the treatments for soft tissue injuries?

The treatments for soft tissue injuries due to a car accident vary, depending on the type of soft tissue injury, the severity of the injury, and the part of the body that hurts.

A common treatment method for soft tissue injuries is RICE. RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Other treatments may include the following:

• These may include over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In some cases, the timing of NSAIDs can affect your recovery, depending on the injury and medical guidance.
• Physical therapy. Specific exercises can help with mobility, strength, and flexibility.
• Splints/braces. These devices can help ensure that the site of your soft tissue injury doesn’t move.

If there is a tear of a muscle, tendon, or ligament, surgery may be necessary.

The timeline for recovery depends on the type of soft tissue injury, the severity of the injury, and the type of treatment your doctor recommends. Some accident victims who have a soft tissue injury live with chronic pain for the rest of their lives.

What factors affect the amount of compensation you can receive if you have a soft tissue injury?

Every person’s case is different. Insurance companies and defense lawyers in Oklahoma will often argue that your soft tissue injuries are not very serious. Diagnosis of soft tissue injuries often depends on reported symptoms and clinical findings from your doctor’s examination, rather than objective imaging such as X-rays, which can more easily show fractures.

It helps your claim if:

• You seek medical help as soon as possible after an accident. The more time you wait to seek medical help, the more the insurance carrier for the defendant will say that you’re not hurt.
• You have follow-up medical care. Just one or two visits to a doctor are usually not worth as much as regular visits to your doctor and/or a physical therapist (or other rehabilitative specialists).
• You undergo surgery. If your doctor recommends that you have surgery and you follow your doctor’s recommendation, then confirmation that you had the surgery generally supports a larger damage award for medical costs and pain and suffering.

Other factors that can affect the compensation you receive include:

• How the accident happened. The more forceful an accident is (the more physical trauma that is likely), the more reason there is to state that you have a serious soft tissue injury.
• Time off from work. The more time you take off from your job, the stronger claim you may have that your lost income is due to your soft tissue injuries and that your pain is due to your soft tissue injuries.

Our experienced personal injury lawyers work with your doctors to verify all your medical visits and the cost of your medical treatments. We can obtain reports from your doctors to verify your diagnosis, the types of treatment you need, the amount of pain and suffering you have, and all the ways your soft tissue injuries are affecting your life. We can also obtain verification from your employer regarding your inability to work and the income you have lost.

Cunningham & Mears advocates for full and fair compensation for injury victims. Please call us or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.