Can A Whiplash Injury Be Permanent?

Copyright (c) 2011 Nicholas Jervis

If you have suffered a whiplash injury as a result of a road traffic accident you may be fearful that your symptoms are likely to be permanent. Are you likely to make a full recovery from your injury or will the symptoms you are currently experiencing remain on a long term basis? This article seeks to answer this question by looking at a how a whiplash injury is actually caused, what the main symptoms of a whiplash injury are, what the methods of treating a whiplash injury are and what the likeliness is of your injury being permanent.

A whiplash injury is commonly caused during a road traffic accident where one vehicle collides with the rear of another (often slow moving or stationary) vehicle. The collision causes the head and neck of the driver in the vehicle that has been struck to be suddenly and forcefully thrown back and forth causing the soft-tissue and ligaments in the neck to be stretched beyond their normal range of movement. This can cause a whiplash injury which may present itself in the form of stiffness, pain and/or discomfort in the neck and shoulders, back pain, headaches, nausea, dizziness and pins and needles. These symptoms may appear more or less straight away but it is more likely that they will take several hours, or even several days, to appear. As soon as you suspect that you may be suffering from a whiplash injury you should seek medical advice from your GP or local A&E department.

Your GP or local A&E department will advise you on the appropriate course of treatment for your injury. The treatment will largely depend on how severely you have been injury but may range from gentle mobility exercises to physiotherapy. In very rare cases, usually when complications occur, surgery may be required. It is very unlikely, these days, that you will be prescribed a surgical collar as latest research shows that keeping the neck gently mobilised is the best way to aid recovery.

So how long will it take you to recover from your injury and are your symptoms likely to be permanent? Again, this largely depends on how severely you have been injured. People who suffer from 'minor' whiplash injuries can be symptom free - i.e. back to their pre-accident state of health - within a few weeks of the accident. Commonly, sufferers make a full recovery from their whiplash injury within 1-2 years of the accident. In less common cases, where a more serious form of whiplash has been sustained, sufferers will go on to experience pain and discomfort for several years and in some cases symptoms are likely to be permanent.

If you decide to pursue a personal injury claim for the whiplash injury you have sustained, the medical expert who will be appointed to examine you will provide a prognosis on how long he or she expects your symptoms to continue and whether they are likely to be long-term or permanent.

To summarise, in most cases people who have sustained a whiplash injury and who have followed the recommended course of treatment, make a full recovery from their injury within 1-2 years of the accident. However, in some rarer cases, sufferers will be left with symptoms that are likely to be permanent and will need treatment to aid their recovery and to ease their pain.


------

Click here now for free instant access to fin out How To Claim Whiplash

Claim Whiplash Injury Compensation Now?