If you experience dizziness following a car accident, you may attribute it to emotional effects. However, dizziness following a car accident can also be a symptom of physical injury. It is important to pay attention to any unusual symptoms such as dizziness following a motor vehicle collision. These can sometimes be delayed and do not show up until hours or sometimes days later.
What Dizziness Could Mean
Dizziness after a car accident could be a symptom of several different injuries, some of which can be severe. A blow to the head resulting in a traumatic brain injury can result in a range of symptoms such as dizziness. A concussion is a relatively mild TBI from which most people recover fully. However it can lead to serious complications:
- Second-impact syndrome: Rapid brain swelling resulting from a second concussion before the first has resolved
- Post-concussion syndrome: Symptoms of concussion that persist beyond three months from the date of injury
- Cumulative effects of multiple brain injuries: Repeated concussions over a number of years could result in chronic brain damage
Dizziness after a car accident could also be a sign of a more serious TBI, such as an intracranial hemorrhage, i.e., bleeding in the brain.
Another serious injury that can be caused by a car accident and result in dizziness is damage to the blood vessels that supply the brain. This is a medical emergency requiring immediate evaluation. In addition to dizziness, restricted blood flow from a vascular injury can result in severe pain in your head, usually in the back.
Dizziness from a car accident can be cervicogenic, meaning that it arises from the neck. Specifically, it can result from damage to nerves in your neck called proprioceptors that inform your brain of your body’s location in space. If these nerves are damaged in a car accident, the signals can get scrambled, and dizziness results from the brain’s efforts to try to interpret them correctly.
What You Should Do About It
If you are experiencing dizziness or any other troubling symptoms after a car accident, you should see a doctor as soon as possible to assess for a serious injury and receive proper treatment. However, even if you do not experience symptoms immediately after a car accident, it is a good idea to see the doctor. If there is a serious injury, a doctor may be able to catch and treat it in its earliest stages. Also, your medical records from the accident can be valuable evidence in an insurance claim or lawsuit against the responsible party.
After receiving a diagnosis from your doctor, contact a car accident lawyer, like from David & Philpot, PL, to discuss compensation for any serious injuries from the accident with one of our attorneys.