Recovering from serious injuries sustained in a car accident can be a difficult ordeal. There may be psychological as well as physical barriers to recovery, and how a person copes or deals with these obstacles can make a difference is their recovery. Some injuries require long term treatment and permanent changes to a person’s way of life to accommodate new restrictions in what a person may be able to do on a daily basis. It is often challenging for a person to accept new limitations set on their lives as a result of their injuries, and some people find that regular rehabilitation helps to provide a helpful transition to their new life. Rehabilitation can also be useful to people who suffer less serious injuries in car accidents, such as whiplash, and who may use rehabilitation as a way to avoid aggravating those injuries.
Rehabilitation is a process that focuses on helping improve a person’s physical or mental condition following an injury or illness, with a goal of helping the person reach a greater level of independence post-injury. Rehabilitation can be crucial in getting an injured person moving again, especially after being immobilized for a long period of time. The repeated movement required through physical therapy for example, can help lessen the pain a person may feel in a joint or muscle, and help improve a person’s range of motion if there is no permanent damage. Physical therapy is especially useful for a person who suffered a broken bone and has to learn to use a cane or crutches as part of his recovery. People who have suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a car accident use rehabilitation as a means to relearn language, social, and other basic skills that may have been lost due to the injury.
Rehabilitation can take a long time to achieve optimal results depending on the degree of injury, and can be provided as part of an in-patient treatment, at home with a rehabilitation professional, or outpatient at a hospital. Furthermore, rehabilitation can be combined with other forms of treatment, including surgery, as recommended by a doctor in order to get a person the help they need.
Paying for Rehabilitation
Like most medical treatment received after a car accident, the cost of rehabilitation can be covered by the driver at fault, and such compensation can include future rehabilitation costs. What kind of rehabilitation would be helpful to an injured person is based on a recommendation from the injured person’s doctor, who is in the best position to advise on how the rehabilitation will help or hinder a person’s recovery. The person responsible for causing the injured victim’s injuries is not in a position to dictate what kind of medical treatment should be administered, especially in an effort to save costs. If the treatment is reasonable and recommended by a qualified doctor, it is likely to be compensable. In most cases, an injured person has already sought and received treatment for his injuries at the time he seeks compensation from the other party. Therefore, the negligent driver’s insurance company usually disputes the validity of rehabilitation that has already been provided, based on cost and sometimes on necessity. For instance, the insurance company may challenge the use of a chiropractor or the number of times the injured person went in search of treatment.
Other Forms of Rehabilitation
Chiropractic care is considered a form of rehabilitation, especially for back and neck injuries. Some people may feel more comfortable going to see a chiropractor after an accident than seeking medical treatment from a doctor. This may be in part because they wish to seek non-surgical treatment that does not result in them taking a lot of medication for their injuries. There are pros and cons to each approach. However, it is sometimes more advisable to seek medical care from a doctor who can then suggest other forms of treatment, including chiropractic care, as well as assess you for more serious injuries that a chiropractor may not be qualified to treat. However, going to a chiropractor after an accident is still better than not seeking any treatment at all, and can actually help you with documenting your injuries and when you may have complained of pain with regard to those injuries. Medical evidence from both a chiropractor and a medical doctor is admissible in a civil case, but when trying to settle with insurance companies, they tend to give more weight to the opinions of doctors over chiropractors.
Injured people who suffer permanent disability as a result of a car accident can also seek vocational rehabilitation as part of their long term recovery. If the injuries suffered leave a person disabled and unable to return to his former line of work, vocational rehabilitation can assist with learning new job skills that can help the person get a new job or start a business. It can also help with teaching a person interviewing skills, how to fill out applications or write resumes to make himself more marketable even with new limitations on what they can do. Although it is possible to seek and receive compensation for lost wages, an award for future wages may be reduced and not be enough to cover a person’s expenses for the rest of his life. Therefore, vocational rehabilitation can be an avenue to gain new helpful skills.
Call Us For Legal Assistance
It is not always easy to tell how hurt you are after a car wreck. It may seem that you have walked away with minor scratches until more serious symptoms manifest days or even weeks after. This is why it is important to seek medical treatment as soon as possible after a car wreck. Your present and future medical costs related to injuries suffered in a car wreck may be covered by the negligent driver who caused the accident. For more information about how you can receive the compensation you need to cover your needed medical treatment, call an dedicated Spartanburg, SC car accident attorney from the Spartanburg, South Carolina firm of Double Aught Injury Lawyers for a FREE consultation.