Blunt Force, Penetrative, Internal: 3 Kinds of Injuries to Look for After an Accident

In an accident, you can suffer three very different but equally devastating kinds of injuries, each of which causes its own level of pain and suffering, and all of which require specific medical interventions that can help you recover your health and keep you in the game. As personal injury attorneys, we frequently meet with accident victims who’ve experienced one, two, or even all three of these varieties of injuries. Let’s take a moment to discuss each one individually, so you can be well informed if you ever need our services (though we hope you’ll never have to live through the extended healing process these serious injuries can force you to experience).

Injury Type #1: Blunt Force Trauma

Quite simply, blunt force injuries are caused when the human body is impacted by a dense object at high speed. The blunt item can be moving (as in what happens when you hit your thumb with a hammer while driving a nail), or it can be stationary (which occurs, for example, when your body is thrust forward into your car’s steering wheel during a crash). Fortunately, in the latter case airbags are designed to absorb some (but not all) of that deadly force, though they also add trauma of their own due to the explosive forces they can exert while fully expanding in a tiny fraction of a second.

As the National Institute of Health notes, blunt force trauma injuries are one of the leading causes of morbidity and death for people under age 35 – and these types of injuries most commonly result from motor vehicle crashes or pedestrian incidents.

Treating blunt force injuries can be complicated, since they often involve large parts of the body, and can result in collateral damage to internal organs, broken bones, concussions, aneurysms, even deep contusions that may lead to blood clots, or other downstream effects.

Recovery from blunt force trauma injuries can take weeks, months, or even years. Indeed, if the injuries are too severe, they can linger forever – resulting in chronic pain. In general, though, the prognosis for recovering from blunt force trauma can be positive provided they’re addressed by prompt, professional medical care. Of course, that kind of treatment can be costly and might exceed the limits of your personal injury protection insurance coverage. That’s where a dependable personal injury attorney’s assistance can be crucial to your physical and financial recovery.

Injury Type #2: Penetrative Wounds

This type of injury involves an object either piercing the body, tearing the flesh, or slicing into muscle tissues. Examples are knife wounds, cuts inflicted by broken glass, or gunshot wounds. While minor penetrative injuries (think of cutting a finger while peeling potatoes) will often heal without any need for medical intervention, more serious penetrative damage usually requires stitches, sometimes emergency surgeries, or might even need to be addressed by skin grafts.

Because penetrative injuries often involve copious uncontrolled bleeding, the first step in treatment is to stop blood loss through the use of pressure, tourniquets, or other means. Stitches (or sometimes these days certain varieties of surgical “superglue”) can be used for more superficial cuts. Deeper wounds might require surgery to repair arterial damage and to reattach skin or muscles when needed. If the damage is too severe, the use of artificial skin or grafting techniques may be called for under the supervision of plastic surgeons.

Penetrative wounds can sometimes lead to significant scarring, which could meet the “injury threshold” that under Michigan law permits accident victims to sue for damages. (The specific language of the law says that “permanent serious disfigurement” is a qualifying condition.) We can advise you on that situation based on your personal condition, so call us to get a professional opinion on whether or not your injuries meet this criteria. In no circumstance will our analysis cost you anything, since we work solely on a contingency fee basis – meaning you never pay a penny out of pocket when you’re our client.

Injury Type #3: Internal (Hidden) Injuries

Some of the most insidious types of injuries are those that can’t be easily or immediately observed by emergency medical technicians at the accident scene or even trauma teams in hospital ERs. Internal injuries – resulting in invisible, internal blood seepage – can be missed when ambulance personnel concentrate on triaging accident victims whose external traumas, broken bones, or other signs of damage are highly visible and in need of instant attention to stop the bleeding.

In fact, some subtle internal injuries might become apparent only hours or days after the incident that caused them. Symptoms include dropping blood pressure, bloody or black stools, unexplained dizziness, or even coughing up blood among others. These might result from damaged or ruptured organs – which can include the spleen, liver, kidneys, or the digestive tract. In all of these instances, immediate surgery is usually indicated. Needless to say, your personal injury protection (PIP) coverage is designed to cover the costs of this type of care, but with recent changes to Michigan’s no-fault insurance laws you might not have adequate coverage. That’s why it’s important to know your rights to sue perpetrators responsible for your injuries so you can be compensated for lost wages, unpaid medical bills, or other costs you may incur through no fault of your own. Of course, we stand ready to help you and your loved ones with all of that!

Contact Us ASAP After an Accident

If you suffer from a car accident, a motorcycle crash, a bus collision, or any other kind of incident where your injuries are not your fault, we can help you receive fair compensation for your pain and suffering. But we can’t start until you make a phone call to 855-MIKE-WINS (855-645-3946) to get the ball rolling. We’ll do what it takes to represent your best interests and help you begin the recovery process in the best way possible.

Content checked by Mike Morse, personal injury attorney with Mike Morse Injury Law Firm. Mike Morse is the founder of Mike Morse Law Firm, the largest personal injury law firm in Michigan. Since being founded in 1995, Mike Morse Law Firm has grown to over 200 employees, served 40,000 clients, and collected more than $1.5 billion for victims of auto, truck and motorcycle accidents. The main office is in Southfield, MI but you can also find us in Detroit, Sterling Heights and many other locations.