Car accidents are one of the main causes of fractures / broken bones. This is because it’s a natural reaction for a person to tense up and try to brace their arms or legs to protect their face or other body parts prior to impact with another vehicle. Our Phoenix car accident lawyers frequently see clients who have suffered these types of injuries, which can sometimes be quite serious.
If you break a bone in a car accident, you’ll need to seek immediate emergency care. In some cases, a cast can be used to repair the break. More severe breaks may require surgery and hospitalization. This is particularly true if your bones have broken in more than one place.
Types of Bone Fractures
Bone breaks / fractures are often classified in the following ways:
Displaced Bone Fracture – The bone fractures into two or more pieces that then shift out of alignment.
Non-displaced Bone Fracture – In this type of fracture, bone pieces break but remain in place and aligned.
Open Bone Fracture – This type of fracture causes the bone to snap and break through skin.
Closed bone fracture – This type of fracture does not cause the bone to break through the skin.
Common Fractures
The following includes the most common body parts that often fracture and break in a car accident:
Arm Fractures – An arm will often break in both of the two bones (the radius and ulna) that make up the forearm. It can cause pain, swelling, inability to rotate your arm and numbness or weakness in your wrist or fingers.
Leg Fractures – Your leg contains four bones. One or more of these bones can be broken in a car accident. In most cases the pain is severe and you will most likely have swelling and deformity in the area where the fracture occurs. However, there are instances when you may think that you just have a bad strain and do not immediately realize you have a broken bone.
Rib Fractures – This type of break occurs in one of the bones of the rib cage. According to WebMD, a blow that causes a broken rib could also injure your lungs, spleen or blood vessels.
Skull Fractures – This type of injury is severe and can tear the layers of protective tissues that surround your brain. When this occurs bacteria may enter the brain and result in an infection that could spread.
Getting Help From Phoenix Car Accident Lawyers
Serious fractures can result in dangerous complications if they’re not treated promptly. If you’ve been injured in a vehicle accident, call the Phoenix car accident lawyers at Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys today at (602) 977-1900. In most cases we can help you get immediate medical care with no out-of-pocket expense.
Our skilled personal injury attorneys are available in the office Monday thru Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but we can also be reached by phone and our web sites live chat feature 24/7. We pride ourselves on providing aggressive representation and helping our clients obtain the highest settlement amounts they deserve.