Truck Accident Lawyer
Truck accidents are more likely than car accidents to cause serious injuries. The weight of a truck can easily overcome safety features like airbags and crumple zones. Even at a relatively slow speed, collisions with trucks can inflict serious harm on car occupants.
Obtaining medical care for truck accident injuries is essential. Prompt and sustained medical care will help accident victims recover more quickly and fully from their accident injuries. Delayed treatment, on the other hand, can cause an injury to become more serious.
Since compensation for injuries is influenced by medical records, truck accident victims improve their opportunity to receive full compensation by visiting a doctor immediately and by following the doctor’s advice. Delaying a doctor’s visit after an accident allows the insurance claims adjuster to argue that the injury was caused by something that happened after the truck accident.
Failing to follow a doctor’s orders allows a claims adjuster to argue that the injury must have healed. Busy people often neglect follow-up care until nagging pain becomes unbearable. Adjusters argue that a gap in treatment is evidence that the accident victim had no symptoms and that any new treatment must be for a new, unrelated injury.
Finding an ER or Urgent Care Doctor After a Georgia Truck Accident
The first doctor many truck accident victims will see is in an emergency room. If an ambulance arrives at the accident scene, a paramedic may recommend taking the ambulance to a hospital. Injury victims should always follow that advice. Paramedics are trained to recognize injuries that might need emergency care, and it is better to be safe than sorry.
Even if no ambulance is called to the scene, it is wise to visit a hospital emergency room or an urgent care facility. If the accident victim’s health insurance covers a particular hospital or a chain of clinics, the victim should go to the nearest covered facility without delay. Some injuries, including head injuries, might not cause immediate symptoms, but the failure to diagnose and treat those injuries promptly could be fatal.
Visiting an ER or urgent care doctor makes an immediate record of the victim’s symptoms. Truck accident victims should not be shy about describing all of their injuries in detail. Even if minor pain in one part of the body is dwarfed by more significant pain elsewhere, making a record of the minor pain is important. A less painful injury might turn out to be a symptom of a long-lasting disability. If the injury is not documented right after the accident, an insurance adjuster might argue that it was not caused by the truck accident.
Finding a Doctor for Follow-Up Care After a Georgia Truck Accident
Emergency physicians stabilize injuries, but they do not provide ongoing treatment. When accident victims have a personal physician, including a primary care physician assigned by a health insurance provider, that doctor is usually the starting point for further accident injury treatment.
A primary care physician might refer the injury victim to one or more specialists to treat broken bones, brain injuries, organ damage, or other health conditions that require expert attention. A referral might also be made to physical therapists or other healthcare providers who provide rehabilitative care. Whenever a referral is made, a truck accident victim should follow through by making and keeping appointments. An unbroken record of following doctors’ recommendations is the key both to healing and to obtaining full compensation for truck accident injuries.
If the accident victim has no physician, friends and relatives may be able to suggest one. The victim’s truck accident lawyer can also suggest doctors who have done a good job for other clients, both as treatment providers and as witnesses in court.
