After a car accident, it is always advisable to seek out a full medical examination from a doctor as soon as you can, even if the accident did not seem that serious. Car accidents are almost always more violent than we realize, and may leave you with injuries you do not feel at first, some of which are quite dangerous. Without receiving professional medical care soon after an accident, you may suffer great pain or may even die from a serious enough injury.

While not all delayed pain injuries are potentially deadly, those that cause pain in your abdomen may be. If you experience even a minor car accident and feel pain in your abdomen afterwards, you should stop what you are doing immediately and seek out emergency care.

Some victims avoid seeking out the care they need because they do not want to incur medical bills, which is misguided but understandable. If you have concerns about covering the costs of emergency medical care, you may have grounds to file an injury claim.

Why is abdominal pain an emergency?

Not all abdominal pain indicates a life-threatening condition, but it is not possible to know what is causing the pain or how serious the injury is without professional medical care. In some cases, you may feel pain indicating organ damage or internal bleeding, both of which may turn deadly.

If one or more of your organs suffer damage, they will continue to function normally for some time. However, if your body’s natural healing processes cannot repair the organ, then the organ will fail. When the organ fails, you will definitely feel pain. In some cases, the pain is nearly unbearable. Once one organ fails, the rest of the organs will also fail if you do not receive medical attention immediately.

Internal bleeding is also potentially fatal, in two ways. Most obviously, any kind of blood loss is deadly if you lose enough of it very quickly. This is true whether the blood leaves the circulatory system internally or externally. But, a small instance of blood loss is also potentially deadly if left untreated, even if it does not significantly affect the body’s functions. Small injuries that cause blood loss may develop infections that grow and travel through the blood stream to all parts of the body, causing a large scale infection, which is certainly deadly.

Protect yourself and your rights

If you suffered any injuries in a car accident, the first thing you should do is get medical care. Once you address any urgent medical needs, you should also consider whether or not you have grounds to file a personal injury claim against some other party who caused the accident. If successful, a strong claim helps cover the costs of your medical care and lost income, and may also compensate you for suffering you endure because of your injuries.