You’ve been in an accident, and for the first few days, you feel fine—you’re relieved you’ve dodged the worst outcomes of a car accident or fall and focus on moving forward. But then symptoms start to develop, and you realize you’re not quite out of the woods. What are your legal options when your injuries don’t show up right away?

Serious injuries can take hours, days, or weeks to make themselves known. This can make it harder to secure fair compensation, as insurance companies may use the delay to their advantage. However, recovering damages for late-onset injuries isn’t impossible. Having the right legal team makes a big difference. Call Banks & Jones, Attorneys at Law to set up a consultation now.

Why do some injuries show up days or weeks later?

There are numerous reasons that injuries may not be apparent right after a crash, including:

  • Adrenaline and shock: After an accident, your body releases a rush of adrenaline to put you into fight-or-flight mode. This is to give you the energy to flee the danger you’re facing. Adrenaline temporarily masks pain, which may give accident victims the impression that they’re fine. But in reality, their body just hasn’t come down from the adrenaline high yet. Once adrenaline levels drop, it’s easier to see how you really feel and if you’re in pain.
  • Inflammation that is slow to develop: A number of injuries are caused by inflammation of soft tissue in the body, but that inflammation may take time to build up. Sprains, strains, disc injuries, and other soft tissue injuries can start out minor. As the affected area responds to the trauma with inflammation, your pain levels increase, and you realize that something is wrong.
  • Injuries that aren’t visible: Not all injuries are physically visible, and until you’re a few days removed from the accident, you may not realize that they exist. This is particularly common with traumatic brain injuries. You may feel fatigued, have a headache, and feel irritable—but then write off those symptoms as natural side effects of the accident. It’s not until they persist and worsen that you may realize that you’re actually injured.

A delay in symptoms and diagnosis doesn’t mean that your injuries are unrelated to your fall or car accident. It’s just an indicator of how your body responds to trauma.

What types of injuries commonly show up later?

Some injuries regularly show up days or weeks after an accident. These injuries include:

  • Whiplash: This injury may not become apparent until your neck stiffness and pain peak one to three days after the crash. It’s essential to seek medical care promptly, as whiplash may respond well to rest, physical therapy, and pain medication.
  • Herniated disc: While you may feel fine after an accident, back pain, numbness, and tingling may gradually set in and worsen over time.
  • Soft tissue injuries: Muscle tears and ligament strains may start out as mild pain, only to worsen as they become more inflamed and affect your mobility.
  • Internal bleeding: This may be a fatal injury when left untreated. Even if you do receive treatment on time, a recovery isn’t always guaranteed. People may not realize that something is wrong until they can no longer stay awake, have deep purple bruising, or become so dizzy they can’t stand.
  • Concussions and other traumatic brain injuries: People often do not recognize that they have traumatic brain injuries until their initial post-accident symptoms don’t wear off. As TBI symptoms develop and worsen over a matter of hours or days, that may finally be what forces people to seek treatment.
  • PTSD: Post-traumatic stress disorder requires that you have specific symptoms for at least a month, so while you may have psychological symptoms after an accident, they may not be attributed to PTSD until they last for at least 30 days.

Can you still recover damages for late-onset injuries?

People often worry about securing compensation after injuries take a long time to become obvious, but you may still be able to recover damages if injuries take time to show up. However, you do have to show that the injury was caused by the accident. This means showing that:

  • The other party had a duty of care to you.
  • They failed to fulfill that duty of care.
  • Their failure caused an accident that resulted in your injuries.
  • You had measurable damages.

When symptoms are delayed, linking the accident to the injuries is often where victims struggle. Insurance companies often push back hard against these claims; they know that if they can generate enough doubt, they may be able to get away without paying anything.

How insurance companies use delayed symptoms against you

Insurance companies are very good at finding ways to dodge liability, and delayed symptoms give them an opening they can use. Adjusters are trained to look for gaps in treatment or delays in reporting symptoms. They may claim that if you didn’t seek immediate medical care, your injuries must not have been that serious. They may also remind you that you initially told them or others that you felt fine. In some cases, they’ll even say that the injury is a result of something that happened between the accident and your report.

This is one reason we always recommend seeking medical care as soon as possible after an accident, even if you feel fine. Evidence that links your injuries to the accident can strengthen your claim.

Remember, too, that you have time to file a claim against the at-fault party with the help of a personal injury attorney. In Tennessee, you typically have one year from the date of the accident or injury to file a lawsuit. In some cases, the discovery rule may affect when the limitations period begins, but this is highly dependent on the facts of the case.

Start your personal injury claim now

The team at Banks & Jones, Attorneys at Law is here to help you fight for compensation after an accident. Contact us online or call us today.