The Hidden Cost of Soft Tissue Injuries

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Soft tissue injuries are not as obvious as other injuries. Still, they come with a hidden cost related to chronic pain, emotional trauma, and limited mobility throughout every area of your life. Yet when you’re hurt in a car accident or any other accident, it can be difficult to show how these injuries impact your life. It requires you to present evidence that makes it clear someone else negligently or maliciously caused your injury. Consider what your soft tissue injury claim should include, and how the personal injury lawyers at Munley Law can help.

Why Is It Important to be Compensated for Soft Tissue Injuries?

Soft tissue damage can be permanent. Your life can comprehensively change because of whiplash or a muscle sprain. That is why your personal injury attorney must help you obtain fair compensation.

How Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Help You Fight for Compensation?

A personal injury lawyer such as Munley Law can help you determine what to fight for and how. However, you must keep in mind the following:

• Insurance companies have many tactics, including use of medical scans that may not show all of your losses. They may also rush you to settle too quickly.

• Evidence is critical. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of medical treatment documentation in these cases. It can make a major difference in your ability to recover compensation.

• Legal guidance is often the differentiating factor. Choose an attorney with soft tissue injury experience, and particularly experience with challenging cases.

Your soft tissue injury claim should give you financial support to help you recover. Insurance companies have no interest in that. They want to pay you the least amount possible.

What Are the Hidden Costs of Soft Tissue Injuries?

A major cost of soft tissue injuries is the emotional damage they cause. Psychological damage from a soft tissue injury takes time to heal and often creates a lingering concern for victims. For example, if you have a soft tissue injury in a car accident that was traumatic, you could face the following implications:

• Onset of post-traumatic stress disorder, where you relive the accident over and over again

• Intense fear of getting into a vehicle

• Onset of anxiety, especially related to car trips

• Onset of depression due to the limitations the accident creates for you

• Trouble sleeping due to nightmares

• Changes in mood and behavior

While your pain and suffering damages seem to compensate for this, many victims do not recognize the full extent of these injuries. For those with extreme anxiety, for example, you may find that you cannot go back to work, leading to lost wages, until you work through the struggle to drive your car again.

What’s even more challenging about emotional and psychological injuries is that there is no simple way to treat them, and every person is different. Unlike whiplash, sprains, and strains, all of which can be documented on an MRI, CT scans, and X-rays, there’s no way to monitor the healing process that must occur in the brain for you to overcome these challenges. You may need to work with a psychologist, take medication, and engage in stress-free activities that encourage healing. All of these factors must be a factor when considering your soft tissue injury settlement.

What is the Connection Between Soft Tissue Injury and Chronic Pain?

It is common for chronic pain to occur in many soft tissue injuries. These injuries include damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues in the body. They tend to be less dramatic than a broken bone, but are still highly impactful. Chronic pain develops with these tissues, as the nerves surrounding them do not heal properly.

More scientifically, chronic pain develops as the brain becomes oversensitive and amplifies pain signals being sent from the area where the injury occurred, even if that injury has fully healed. Changes in brain chemistry, along with nerve damage, make it seem like there’s still an injury to treat. For you, the victim, that pain impacts every facet of your life, and finding relief can seem impossible.

This is a hidden cost of soft tissue injuries that is often overlooked because many insurance companies expect you to fully heal. Healing often translates into no longer being in pain. Yet, for many victims, that just does not happen. As a result, your soft tissue injury settlement should include damages for chronic pain, such as:

• Pain and suffering in your day-to-day life

• Earning capacity changes due to pain intolerance

• Treatment for chronic pain, which may include ongoing medication and physical therapy costs

What Are Other Costs Associated With a Soft Tissue Injury?

Soft tissue injuries, such as those related to personal injuries, often include sprains, strains, and contusions. They can worsen to tissue tears and bursitis. In some situations, they can lead to muscle damage that limits mobility. No matter which of these injuries you might have, you could face other hidden costs as well, including:

• Reduced mobility: The development of scarring, nerve damage, and improper healing may contribute to limited mobility. This may require physical therapy and chiropractic treatment for improvement.

• Financial strain: Diminished earning capacity is possible for those who suffer chronic pain, limited mobility, or permanent tissue damage. Doing the same job may not be an option.

• Lifestyle adjustments: Your soft tissue injury settlement should also compensate you for changes to your lifestyle, such as a career you can no longer follow and hobbies or other you once loved and can’t do now.

• Ongoing medical costs: Your injuries may heal, and you may not have to go back to the trauma surgeons or specialists. Yet, you could face problems with inflammation and recurrent tears because of these injuries. You could be more prone to additional injury later in life.

• Impact on relationships: As your life changes from a soft tissue injury and associate pain, so might your ability to maintain friendships and intimate relationships.

The hidden cost of soft tissue injuries can increase the value of your claim exponentially. Speak with a personal injury lawyer today about your soft tissue injury case and the damages you might be eligible to recoup.

Set Up a Free Consultation with Munley Law Now

With our vast experience and genuine care for our clients, Munley Law can make a huge difference for your case and help you get your life back on track. We know how to maximize soft tissue injury settlements so you have a fighting chance at full recovery. Contact us now for a free consultation to discuss your soft tissue injury from a car accident.