Rib fractures can cause rib pain, and so can bruised ribs. A rib injury after a fall or a crash can disrupt your daily life with intense pain. It can also put you at risk for life-threatening complications.
Pain in the ribs after falling in a place that should have been safe or being involved in a car accident with a careless driver could mean that you can recover the costs of your medical bills, other financial losses, and even your mental anguish from the person at fault.
At The Issa & Castro Law Firm, we are committed to providing justice for those with rib fractures and other rib injuries from a fall or motor vehicle accident. Often, the symptoms are delayed, requiring an advocate to stand up for you against the insurance companies.
In this blog post, we discuss delayed rib pain, symptoms of bruised or broken ribs, and how the delay in experiencing symptoms could complicate your case without the help of an attorney.
Understanding Delayed Rib Pain After a Fall or a Car Accident
If you break your arm or your leg by falling down stairs that weren’t maintained or when another driver crashes into your vehicle, you’re bound to notice. Why, then, do victims in these circumstances often experience delayed rib pain?
Since you’re not using your ribs to walk or lift objects, it stands to reason that it is easier to miss the signs. Delayed rib pain often occurs because a sudden fall due to neglected grounds or a car accident can put you into a state of shock. One minute, life is ordinary on your commute or while browsing the aisles at your local supermarket. Next, you may be in disbelief that your whole world is shattered.
At this point, your adrenaline kicks in, masking the pain and making symptoms of rib fractures or bruised ribs much less noticeable in the immediate aftermath. Swelling and inflammation in the chest wall and around the site of the rib injury also take time to develop, something you may not feel for several days.
Additionally, you may have soft tissue injuries on their own or with broken ribs, depending on the nature of your accident. Soft tissue damage could take days or even weeks to become obvious. If you have a rib fracture, you may mistake it simply for a bruise; however, as the pain worsens, it will soon present with many other symptoms that will compel you to seek immediate medical attention.
Common Causes and Symptoms of Rib Injuries
Whether you are in a car accident or you slip and fall, the impact on your body could result in rib injuries.
How Falls Can Cause a Rib Injury
If you slip and fall, blunt force trauma may cause a direct blow as you impact a surface. The direct impact of your rib cage onto the ground or even hitting other objects as you fall can cause blunt force trauma that causes cracked ribs. In some cases, rib fractures and other rib injuries are caused by forceful twisting, making the ribs stretch or the muscles surrounding them in the rib cage tear.
How Car Accidents Can Cause a Rib Injury
The human body has 24 ribs, and each one can sustain an injury in a car accident. The sudden impact of a crash could mean that the rib cage is injured by the restraints, including seatbelts and airbags. Drivers sitting too close to the steering wheel, not wearing a seatbelt, or having faulty airbags may be directly impacted by the wheel. It is also possible to sustain broken ribs or other rib injuries by slamming into the dashboard.
Types of Rib Injuries
Bruised Ribs
A bruised rib may not be a serious rib injury, but it can hurt all the same. This rib injury occurs when the muscles and tissues along the rib cage are impacted in a fall or car accident. While it will heal, the rib pain it produces can be incredibly difficult to contend with.
Broken Ribs
A fractured rib is another common rib injury, and broken ribs could have a small crack or the rib may be completely broken apart. Suffering a fractured rib is serious and requires immediate medical attention. In addition to causing rib pain, a fractured rib can also lead to far more serious issues, including internal injuries.
Flail Chest Injury
One of the more severe rib injuries is a flail chest injury, which involves multiple fractures of the ribs. This can cause part of the chest wall to move during breathing, making it a very urgent issue that requires medical treatment straight away. While some soft tissue injuries around the ribs and even bruising or fractures can cause rib pain, if you have a flail chest injury, it is likely you will experience immediate pain.
Symptoms of Broken Ribs
If you have experienced significant chest trauma, there is a possibility you may have a rib injury. After a car accident or falling, pay attention to the common symptoms of broken ribs:
- Chest pain
- Worsening pain or severe pain in the back
- Trouble breathing
- Shortness of breath
- Pain that worsens while conducting breathing exercises or when coughing
- Chest tightness or tenderness
- Bruised chest coupled with swelling and chest pain
Complications from Rib Injuries
It’s not just rib pain and shortness of breath that you need to worry about if your ribs are impacted in an accident. Your internal organs could be in danger too. Displaced fractures are among the most likely to cause internal bleeding as the rib bones can puncture organs, leading to other chest injuries that are life-threatening.
Your spleen may be impacted or you could experience a collapsed lung, partial lung collapse, and other lung complications. If your injuries were sustained in a fall or car accident that someone else negligently caused, make sure you seek medical attention and consult an experienced personal injury attorney.
Legal Implications of Delayed Rib Pain
Certain soft tissue injuries in the rib area, ribs that are broken, and damaged organs may not be immediately evident after you’ve been in an accident. If you experienced delayed rib pain, you will not lose your legal claim but talking to a personal injury lawyer is even more important.
The biggest cause for concern will be the dispute for causation. In a car accident or slip and fall, the injured party will need to prove their injuries were caused by the other party. The insurance company representing the “other side” will likely argue that the symptoms of your injuries are unrelated to the accident you experienced or were caused in another way to avoid liability.
Another issue that commonly arises with insurers is that they may view your failure to seek medical treatment immediately after the accident as a non-serious issue. They may even try to claim it was a pre-existing injury or condition.
Not seeking medical attention or failing to follow up with medical appointments can put you in a precarious position as you try to recover financial damages caused by the other party. For these reasons, it is essential that you get treatment right away for your injuries and discuss your circumstances with a personal injury attorney as soon as possible.
None of this is to say that you can’t win a settlement or verdict when a negligent person has caused you harm and there is a delayed onset of pain or delayed reporting or treatment. However, it will be a greater challenge when your ribs break and there is delayed pain. In the event that days later, you notice troubling symptoms such as breathing difficulties or worsening pain, take the following steps:
Get Medical Care
If you can’t take deep breaths without experiencing pain or have other symptoms, do not wait to go to the emergency room to get checked out. Let the doctors know whether you were in a car accident or experienced a fall. They will perform a variety of tests and scans to determine whether it was just the surrounding soft tissue that was impacted or if you have affected ribs.
Keep Documentation
After falling or being in a crash, you should get evidence of these events. The location, time, and information from the other parties involved should be logged and documented. The medical records from the treatment you received should also be kept together. This will make it easier if you need to take legal action against the party that caused your injuries.
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer
A personal injury lawyer will be your advocate when the insurer attempts to claim that your delayed pain was caused by something else unrelated to the accident. It can be difficult to navigate legal claims on your own, even when you go straight to the hospital after incurring an injury. When delayed treatment is a factor, only an attorney will be equipped to help you overcome the challenges.
Our Firm’s Legal Support for Victims with Rib Injuries
The Issa & Castro Law Firm can assist you with legal guidance and case evaluation for your rib injuries. It all begins with visiting us for a free consultation to review what happened to you and present you with your legal options.
While you don’t need an attorney to file an insurance claim, it can be helpful to have one from the start. Insurance companies often tell injured parties that they don’t need a lawyer, then offer them a low settlement amount. For the injured, either they accept it because they’re in a desperate situation and need the money or they do not realize that this amount isn’t going to cover their medical bills and other losses from the accident.
We advocate for you from the start, helping to keep the insurance claim process as stress-free as possible. If they deny your claim or offer too low of a settlement, we can file a lawsuit to hold the liable parties accountable for the physical, emotional, and psychological damages you’ve endured.
Preventative Measures and Safety Tips for Chest Injuries
No one wants to suffer injuries in a fall or accident, and while some situations may be out of your control, there are steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of these injuries.
Pay Attention to Your Surroundings
Whether behind the wheel or at the store, be aware of what is around you. Restaurants, shops, and even public parks and sidewalks all have a duty to keep the premises safe. If a hazard is present, the entity in charge must repair it immediately or take the right steps to secure it to prevent someone from getting hurt.
For example, the city may conduct an analysis and discover that a sidewalk is badly damaged and poses a tripping hazard. However, it may not be able to make the necessary repairs immediately. In that case, it must erect signage and block off the area to warn others of the danger and prevent them from getting hurt.
While driving, simply paying full attention to the traffic around you can help you avoid danger when another driver is behaving recklessly.
Use Safety Restraints
While it is true that seatbelts and airbags can cause injuries to the chest and break ribs, they also save lives. Make sure that you’re wearing your safety belt when driving or riding in a vehicle. Never sit too close to the steering wheel or dashboard, as coming into contact with these objects in a crash can lead to the most severe injuries.
Ultimately, slips and falls and car crashes can leave you prone to injuries to your chest. Although you may not think it at the time, it is always a good idea to get checked out by paramedics or go to the hospital immediately to rule out anything serious. If you’ve sustained a severe injury, you’ll be able to get the treatment you need and will be less likely to have the liable party’s insurer cast doubt on your claims.