Seeking Medical Treatment Following a Clearwater Truck Accident

Unless you find yourself in an emergency situation, it is likely that you just want to get home and move on after experiencing a truck accident in Clearwater, and are not considering potential injuries beyond those symptoms that immediately manifested. However, if you have been in a truck accident, it is absolutely necessary that you seek medical treatment both to address any immediate injury, as well as to have a professional diagnose conditions that the untrained eye does not know to look for. Doctors have the resources to discover injuries that drivers may not feel until it is too late to file an injury claim and collect damages, therefore making it imperative those involved in truck accidents seek medical attention no matter what and then consult with a Clearwater truck accident attorney.

Obstacles to Following Up with Medical Care

Patients often feel that doctors want them to treat more than the patient may feel is necessary to treat. While in some cases this may be true, doctors are extensively trained, and objectively knowledgeable about what the human body requires to recover from the kind of impact that is sustained in a truck accident. Without a willingness to work with medical professionals, it is easy for patients to feel that their daily lives require that priority be placed on getting other things done before they have the time to seek medical help.

Many times, taking the time is difficult because of constraints relating to school, work, or childcare. Everything can get in the way of medical treatment, but it is of the utmost importance if a driver is injured to seek expedient medical treatment because waiting two years to begin treating an injury that was sustained in the accident leaves the driver responsible for all of their medical costs, and absolves the at-fault driver of responsibility.

Common Mistakes Regarding Medical Treatment

It is a detrimental mistake to refuse medical treatment after a truck accident, because refusal of that treatment can be used against a driver in their accident case, and the insurance company will try to use a refusal to say the claimant was not injured at the car accident but was injured afterwards.

Anyone who is actually injured in a truck accident should seek medical treatment because people only have 14 days for personal injury protection to attach to a case, and drivers want to ensure that there is nothing more severe going on than what they are feeling on the outside, rather than letting anything linger in their body and potentially worsen with whatever they are going to do later that day.

Refusing Medical Treatment

Some people make the mistake of refusing medical treatment because they do not want to pay for the ambulance or they do not want to pay for the Emergency Room, and in many cases, they are scared to go to the doctor.

Refusing treatment is a mistake because it can be used against claimant’s by the insurance adjuster who will say that because a driver did not seek medical treatment at the scene of the accident, they were not injured in this accident, when many times, that is not true because someone can feel certain stiffness at the accident and not get treated for it and later it can worsen. Alternatively, drivers may not feel anything because of adrenaline stemming from the accident and later, when the adrenaline settles, more serious injuries in the body begin to be felt.

Failing to Follow Doctor’s Orders

The primary mistake in not following up with doctor’s orders is that it is detrimental for a person’s body and their recovery. After sustaining injuries in a truck accident, doctors are going to be able to instruct patients on what to do to feel better, which is the end goal of every personal injury case.

As far as individual cases go, if a claimant does not properly treat their injuries, even if it is because of work or child care, then the adjuster is going to say, this person obviously was not injured enough to require treatment. Insurance will argue that the person had that opportunity, had a doctor instructing to treat, and still decided not to treat; therefore, they are not injured.

It can severely hurt your case if a doctor is ordering you to treat and you are refusing that medical treatment. The baseline assumption is that if somebody is injured, they are going to go to the doctor. So, if you do not go the doctor, they are going to assume you are not injured. If you have been in a truck accident in Clearwater and have any questions about the medical or legal steps that lay ahead, our truck accident attorneys are here to help.