Should I Take an Ambulance After a Car Accident?

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Ambulance Driving to HospitalAfter the shock of an auto accident, you may feel compelled to take an ambulance and seek immediate emergency medical care. While these actions are appropriate in some situations, you should not automatically ride in an ambulance to the hospital if you have been in a crash. Find out more below from the Kirkland auto accident lawyers at Max Meyers Law.

When Should You Take an Ambulance After a Car Accident?

If you need emergency medical care, call an ambulance to take you to the hospital. If you are in any doubt, call for an ambulance. As the Mayo Clinic explains, emergency rooms have staff whose primary function is to evaluate the level of care you need, including hospital admission, treatment in the emergency room, or getting discharged with instructions to see your primary care physician. It is in your best interest to allow these professionals to do their job and determine if you need emergency treatment.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, it is a good idea to seek emergency care immediately:

  • Chest pain, palpitations, or shortness of breath;
  • Profuse bleeding;
  • Fractures;
  • Head or eye injuries;
  • Neck or spinal cord injuries;
  • Severe burns;
  • Seizures;
  • A severe headache or head or neck pain;
  • Loss of consciousness, dizziness, loss of balance, or confusion;
  • Sudden difficulty speaking or understanding what people are saying;
  • Severe pain, particularly in the abdomen or the lower half of the back; or
  • Another significant injury.

As Scripps Health warns, knowing whether you should go to the emergency room or an urgent care center could save your life. The advantage of taking an ambulance over getting a ride to the emergency room is that the ambulance has paramedics who can begin providing treatment on the way to the emergency room. This treatment could make the difference in whether you survive your injuries or not.

When Should You Not Take an Ambulance After a Car Accident?

If you are not experiencing any of the above symptoms and you do not have a significant underlying medical condition, you might not need to take an ambulance to the emergency room. Instead, consider one of the following actions, depending on the specific facts in your situation:

  • Get a ride to the emergency room;
  • Go to an urgent care center; or
  • Make an appointment to see your primary care physician as soon as possible.

If your doctor cannot see you within 24 hours, go to an urgent care center. If your condition worsens or new symptoms appear, go to the emergency room immediately.

Why Is It Important to Get Medical Attention After a Car Accident?

Some injuries do not reveal themselves immediately, but they can become life-threatening within a short period of time. Internal bleeding and head injuries are examples of this phenomenon. If you have any injuries or you just do not feel “quite right” after being in a car wreck, you should get a thorough evaluation from a health care professional. Some medical conditions can be treated easily right away, but if you delay treatment, you might need a more extensive or invasive procedure.

Another reason to get medical attention as soon as possible is to document that the crash caused your injuries. If you try to tough it out without getting medical attention, only to discover that your injuries are worse than you thought and you need significant treatment, the insurance company of the at-fault driver could deny that you sustained your injuries in the crash.

When you get medical treatment, make sure that the person taking your medical history notes that a car accident caused your injuries. Doing this will provide the necessary link between the crash and your damages.

What Should You Do After a Car Accident?

First, get whatever medical care you need right away. Follow your doctor’s instructions and complete the treatment. If you do not complete your treatment as your doctor ordered, the at-fault driver could claim that you did not do everything you could to get better.

Next, you should talk to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Your lawyer can keep you from settling for too little or offering a statement to an insurance adjuster that could hurt your claim. When you settle your accident injury case, you sign away the right to come back in the future to get more compensation.

Finally, if the insurance company declares your car a total loss, do not let the company dispose of the vehicle without checking with your lawyer. Sometimes the car is valuable evidence, particularly if the vehicle had a design defect or faulty equipment. Always save personal property damaged in a car accident.

Get Legal Help After a Car Accident.

At Max Meyers Law, we focus our practice entirely on transportation-related claims. We can tell you if you might be eligible for compensation after suffering injuries in a car wreck. We do not receive any legal fees until you recover damages. Call 425-399-7000 for a free consultation.

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Max is a Kirkland personal injury attorney handling cases in Seattle, King County & surrounding in WA State.