What Happens If I Wait to Go to the Doctor After an Accident?

You’ve been hurt in a fall, a car crash, or another type of accident. But do you really need to go to the doctor? Maybe you’re experiencing some minor soreness, or you don’t even think you’re injured. Even if you think you’ve made it out of your accident without injury, you absolutely need to go to the doctor as soon as possible. Your health and your personal injury claim depend on it.

If you’re not sure where to start on your personal injury claim, the team at Mann & Potter is here to support you throughout this process. Call us at 205-879-9661 to schedule a consultation now.

Seeking Medical Attention Right Away is the Best Option

Ideally, you should get checked out by a doctor within 72 hours of being involved in an accident. This is important for both your health and your personal injury claim. This doesn’t mean that you should go to work, take care of home tasks, and finish other items on your to-do list before going to the doctor. In fact, going to the doctor should be your top priority after an accident.

Waiting Too Long Risks Your Health

First and foremost, waiting too long to get checked out is detrimental to your health. You truly have no idea if you are injured—even if you aren’t experiencing pain or any other issues, you could have serious injuries lying in wait.

For example, internal bleeding is not always immediately apparent. It becomes more noticeable over a period of hours or days as the abdomen becomes tender and purple. In a situation like that, waiting to go to the doctor could truly mean the difference between life and death.

Even if your injury isn’t one that’s potentially fatal, you put your health at serious risk by delaying a trip to the doctor. Broken bones, whiplash, and strains or torn muscles all worsen when victims try to get right back to normal. By putting additional pressure on your body, you could make your injuries worse and actually delay the healing process. Some injuries, if left too long, can actually become much worse so that a full recovery is no longer possible.

The best-case scenario is that you go to the doctor, find out that you do not have any injuries that require treatment, and get a clean bill of health. In that case, you’re just out a little bit of time and a copay. On the flip side, delaying and then finding out you have a serious injury could cost you your health.

Waiting Too Long Weakens Your Personal Injury Claim

If you plan on filing a personal injury claim, it is crucial to go to a doctor as soon as possible after an accident. The more time that passes between your accident and your medical checkup, the easier it is for the insurance company to discredit your injuries.

Imagine that you get in an accident and decide to skip a checkup because you don’t have time. A week later, the pain you were experiencing right after the accident is now much worse. You go to the doctor and find out you have a severe case of whiplash.

At that point, the other party’s insurance company could easily claim that your injuries are the result of something that happened between the accident and the time of your checkup. They may even insinuate that you only got checked out because you got injured after the accident and thought that you could get it paid for by the other person’s insurance.

The less time that passes between the accident and your medical checkup, the easier it is for your attorney to tie the injury to the accident. Make it a priority.

Explore Your Legal Options with Mann & Potter

The quicker you connect with a personal injury attorney, the sooner you can rest easy and know that your case is in good hands. At Mann & Potter, our goal is to fight aggressively for the compensation you deserve while you recover from your accident. Set up a consultation with our team right now by calling us at 205-879-9661 or reaching out to us online.