Every year, millions of Americans experience personal injuries, and many victims are able to recover damages from the at-fault party for medical bills and wages they lost while recovering. Although some injuries are easy to prove, many are not evident.
Invisible injuries are personal injuries that are not externally visible. In this blog, we discuss different common types of invisible injuries that people experience after accidents, and we discuss proving invisible injuries when filing a personal injury claim.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are an incredibly serious type of invisible injury that result from blunt force trauma to the head, which then results in minor or serious injuries. Traumatic brain injuries can lead to victims becoming mentally or physically impaired. Types of traumatic brain injuries include:
- Concussion
- Spinal cord injuries
- Cognitive impairment
- Short or long term memory loss
- Psychological injuries
Common causes of traumatic brain injuries include slip and fall accidents, bike accidents, motorcycle accidents, car accidents, and pedestrian accidents. If you’re involved in any of these types of accidents, we recommend you visit a doctor just in case you’ve experienced a traumatic brain injury or another invisible injury. You need to also be on the lookout for symptoms of traumatic brain injuries.
Some symptoms include:
- Headaches
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Having a strange taste in your mouth
- Mood swings
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Trouble sleeping
- Drowsiness
- Loss of consciousness for minutes
- Issues speaking
- Blurred vision
- Memory problems
Additionally, those suffering from severe traumatic brain injuries may experience the following:
- Severe headaches
- Losing consciousness for hours
- Dilated pupils
- Clear fluids coming out of your nose or ears
- Seizures
- Slurred speech
- Lack of coordination
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries, such as muscle sprains and strains, are often difficult to spot because they’re not serious enough for medical professionals to perform surgery or take invasive maneuvers. They are incredibly common after experiencing car accidents and slip and fall accidents.
If you experience an accident resulting in soft tissue injuries, you may receive a permanency evaluation that estimates the long-term severity of your soft tissue injuries. For example, if someone suffered from a shoulder sprain, a doctor may determine that they sustained a permanency rating of 5% because of their accident. The doctor will also give their opinion about projected medical expenses related to the soft tissue injury and any costs associated with impairment.
Mental and Emotional Injuries
Mental and emotional injuries can result from a physical injury or from an accident itself. For example, someone may develop a mental illness, such as depression. after suffering from an amputation. Alternatively, someone might develop post-traumatic stress disorder because of a traumatic experience, such as a serious car accident. The mental injury occurred not because of a physical injury but from the event itself.
Common mental and emotional injuries include anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms of these problems include:
- Changes in mood
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks
- Distress
- Sadness
- Anger
- Trouble sleeping
- Nervousness
- Increased heart rate
Proving Invisible Injuries
Your ability to prove invisible injuries after an accident largely depends on the type of injury. For example, it’s easier to prove that you sustained a traumatic brain injury than anxiety because you can undergo a CT scan or other tests that prove you sustained brain trauma.
In the case of experiencing a soft tissue injury, you can objectively prove that you sustained injuries to your afflicted body part through medical imaging like MRIs.
You can also use evidence outside of objective medical tests to prove you sustained an invisible injury. For example, as noted above, those suffering from soft tissue injuries and other types of personal injuries often undergo permanency evaluations that are used in court.
Additional expert evaluations can also be used to prove that you sustained mental and emotional injuries. Experts, such as psychologists and psychiatrists, can provide testimonies indicating you experienced emotional stress and developed a mental illness as a result of your injuries or the accident itself.
Contact an Indiana Personal Injury Lawyer
Proving certain individual injuries can be exceptionally difficult, especially in the case of emotional and mental injuries. If you work with a personal injury attorney, they’ll assist you with building your case and help gather evidence for your invisible injuries. They may be able to find experts who can corroborate that you suffered from invisible emotional or mental damage as a direct result of your physical injuries or a traumatic event.
For expert legal guidance in Indiana, contact Crossen Law Firm. We’ve helped numerous Indiana residents build a successful case for invisible injuries. Call our office at 317-401-8626, or you can contact us online here!
.jpg)