It is common knowledge among those who are about to or are making a whiplash claim that these whiplash claims have been growing rampant lately because of the whiplash ‘epidemic’, as experts say. Last 2007 whiplash claims were made by more than 430,000 people because people have already an idea of how this injury could be become worse because of its possibility of becoming chronic. BBC have recently released a statement that says that the members of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) receive an utmost estimate of 1,200 whiplash claims every day, totalling to a 2 million-pound payout every year in the UK alone. It has been a product of an earlier research, though, that these whiplash accidents and injuries can be reduced if drivers adjust their head restraints to the right height; the head restraint should have the same level as your head or the top of your head, and the back of your head should be close or touching the restraint. However in cases like this, the victims could have prevented it themselves with the head restraint adjustment and the brace manoeuvre. The advocacy for safe driving is supported by the ABI and one way to reduce incidence of whiplash injuries and whiplash claims alike is to avoid ‘tailgating’ or driving too close to the car in front of you.
A car accident which caused you to suffer a whiplash injury would entitle you to a lawful whiplash claim, and the whiplash compensation would then be helpful for you. If ever you are feeling symptoms of a whiplash injury, you might as well think about making a whiplash claim as soon as possible. It is never too late to save what remains of your precious health.
The symptoms of a whiplash injury can range from a simple neck or back pain to vertigo or migraines. Usually this injury can be associated with car accidents and rear-end collisions but there are also other mechanisms in which you can get a whiplash injury as long as it mimics the action of your neck when it goes into a car accident. You would be very lucky if you experience this injury for a short period of time. However there are treatment options available just to help alleviate the symptoms of this injury.
>One is applying an ice pack right after the symptoms of the injury is felt. This is effective in reducing the inflammation that comes with tearing of your neck ligaments during a whiplash episode, thus reducing the pain or promoting numbness. You might want to put this on for about ten to thirty minutes.
>Also you must try to exercise and move your neck regularly with the guidance of your physical therapist so as not to stiffen your neck up.
>If the pain becomes unbearable, take Tylenol or any paracetamol-based drug that are also commonly known as painkillers. These medications are advised by doctors to be taken regularly not just when the pain occurs. It is important to ask advice from your physician because some painkillers may have adverse effects that may interact with your current condition.
>It may be also advised by your physician to go through other therapies like corticosteroids, physiotherapy and osteopathy.
For you to cope with all the necessary medical treatments, whiplash claims are made to help you. If you make that whiplash claim you are then claiming for your whiplash compensation which would, in return help you with your present and future medical expenses.
The whiplash injury can be simple and common among victims of rear-end collision but no matter how simple a neck or back pain is it would develop into something worse. The symptoms of this injury can be felt 48 to 72 hours after getting into a car accident. The pain may present itself as an inflammation and bruising to the soft tissues that surround the neck. Some may only suffer from its symptoms in just a couple of weeks, others a little longer and the unfortunate ones who did not submit themselves for a medical check up and treatment could have whiplash as a chronic condition. Symptoms of physical nature could present as the following:
>numbness or tingling in the arms or hands
>pain in the shoulder blades
>neck pain and back pain
>prickling, tingling or burning sensation in the upper trunk
>vertigo, headache
>tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
>distorted/ blurred vision
>difficulty or inability on swallowing
Before the worse symptoms occur, you better make a whiplash claim as soon as possible and claim your whiplash compensation to help you out with your medical treatments required now and in the future. Make that choice and make you whiplash compensation claim.
New information from the Cervical Spine Research Society states that whiplash injuries can now be thoroughly assessed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI. This will be useful in assessing ligaments and membranes in the upper cervical spine and will grade the injury according to its severity. Furthermore, structural changes in the neck can be assessed by the MRI and can be graded with utmost reliability.
It is common knowledge that if you ever get into an accident you will feel devastated and helpless afterwards. What’s worse is when you have obtained a whiplash injury after this car accident which just seems so unbearable. However, contrary to common knowledge, a research done by members of the University of Alberta found out that you should not let these negative emotions dominate during your recovery. The research found out that those people with whiplash injuries who had positive outlook with their respective recoveries would recover over three times faster than those who did not. Another study done by a another colleague from the University of Alberta gathered the finding that those people who are positively eager to go back to work also had a 42% faster chance of recovering than those who had negative outlook with their recovery. Also, Lena Holm, a Swedish researcher working at the University at that time of the research had the finding that the study participants in Sweden who had low to very low expectations of a holistic recovery were four times more likely to feel the symptoms of a whiplash injury six months later. The conclusion that could be drawn out from these researches is that it doesn’t necessarily follow that if you have a whiplash injury that is in its worst degree you have to go through a long, tedious recovery. The researchers would like the public to know that if you have a positive outlook with your recovery, you won’t be suffering as much and it wouldn’t take that long. In addition, making that whiplash claim would be very much worth it, with your whiplash compensation backing you up and helping you to a steadfast recovery.
BRACE for Your Life
Whiplash compensation claims are especially wanted these days because up to three million car accidents or crashes occur every year and most of these have people who are afflicted with a whiplash injury. Whiplash is common because it could occur in a rear-end collision with a speed of at least 12 mph which is slow. Sometimes even if there are no dents in the rear, you may still have a whiplash injury. Whiplash claims must be made to acquire a whiplash compensation. This would support or help the victim cope with his recovery with minimal worry about medical expenses and loss of salary due to his absence at work.
Car crashes may catch you off guard sometimes but there are also instances when you are aware that you are about to crash. How do you protect yourself? Well, there is this manoeuvre is called a brace and this enables you to push or grip against the foundation of the car, enabling you to be “one with the car”. If you are completely aware that you are about to collide into another car or any other surface then this is very advantageous for you. By pushing your head back your neck will be somewhat immobilized and a whiplash injury is unlikely to happen. Here is the procedure, step by step:
1. 1. Lean your head against the head restraint,
2. 2.Push your body back into the seat,
3. 3.Then stretch your arms out to push on the steering wheel (this will push your body back),
4. 4. press firmly on the brake pedal and then the other foot will be on the floor.
If you follow these easy steps then surely you will have the least chance of getting a whiplash injury from a car crash accident.
Now that you hear about whiplash practically from everywhere, you must be wondering how it actually occurs. It has been a word of mouth among medical practitioners, researchers, victims and other people concerned that the mechanism of whiplash is still undergoing research but at present, it already has a clear explanation. Studies conducted by medical experts, most recently Kaneoka and Ono on 1999, have found out that instead of the old theory that this injury is due to the rapid hyperextension and hyperflexion of the neck during a bump in the rear, a whiplash injury is actually caused by first rotating the lower neck then flexing the upper neck rendering the neck an S-shaped curvature. This curvature, in effect, damages the delicate nerves, ligaments, muscles and disks surrounding the neck. This would primarily cause a neck pain right after a car accident or sometimes it could go worse like immobility of the neck or temporary paralysis to a body part. That is how deadly a whiplash injury could go. If this would be left without physical therapy or due treatment, then it would progress gradually further degrading your physical ability because this injury does not disappear on its own. If you have ever gotten yourself into a car accident and now you are suffering from neck or back pain then you have to immediately submit yourself for a medical check-up, this may be a whiplash injury. This injury may be as simple as a tolerable pain but it can progress into something worse. Before it goes to that path, you better thing about making a whiplash claim. This claim will eventually give you the whiplash compensation that you’ll need to cover your financial losses and medical expenses.
Whiplash claims are getting rather popular nowadays, adding to that fact is that three million cases of car crash injuries happen every year. There’s no denying that with this statistics, millions of pounds is released as whiplash compensation payout by car insurance companies every single year. However they really don’t have the method of really knowing who’s telling the truth of being victim of this injury. Since its popularity, whiplash claims have been abused countless of times, fabricating evidence or even scams just to swindle money from these companies. A scam, which has been thought to originate from the North West and also with some similar cases in West Yorkshire, has been running since 2005. This scam, if you ever encounter it, will put you at fault for something you’re not liable for even though in truth you are actually the victim. Here is how their operation goes: you don’t see the car in front of you braking so you move with your steady base, suddenly you bump into that car and his brake lights weren’t even on. The people behind this scam use old cars and disconnects the brake from the brake lights, so if he suddenly pushes down the brake pedal, you wouldn’t notice him stopping resulting to a rear-end collision. In some way they will be able to get evidence that they have a whiplash injury then they will be able to make a whiplash claim when in truth, you are the real victim in this situation. Unfortunately, they will be able to get a whiplash compensation usually worth 20,000 to 30,000 pounds. If you ever get into an incident like this, never hesitate to call the police and have them investigate your case.
For years there has been a long debate on whether the whiplash injury really does exist or not. The fact is, so many victims of car accidents have reported similar physical symptoms that are indicative of a whiplash injury but it was thought to be another condition. The truth is insurance companies early on know the truth about these injuries but they deny it so as not to lose so much money. This would seem a little unfair, yes, but it is the truth. So, do not be misled, the whiplash injury really do exist a hundred percent and thousands of people have it one way or another. Like it or not, it has gained the status of being a serious medical condition and it may cause such drastic effects on a person. It may just be a simple neck pain but it gradually progresses into something more.
As mentioned earlier, there are thousands of people who have the whiplash injury. These people may have talked about making a whiplash claim to their respective lawyers. A whiplash claim can be helpful especially if you are quite tight on your budget and your living is enough for your everyday needs. In the end, your whiplash compensation will be all worth the battle. It is said that when you are about to make that claim, it must be followed that the car accident must have happened within the last three years. That’s a pretty long time, isn’t it? So, if you ever suspect that you have a whiplash injury and with medical expertise it is confirmed, then decide on making that whiplash claim as early as today.
Car accidents, though an everyday thing, is almost always traumatic and the people involved in it usually respond initially with a hint of panic. However if you have recently been through a rear-end collision, you must stay calm. Don’t yell at the person at fault or cause a scene, just stay calm while you both wait for the police to arrive. When speaking to the police, speak calmly and tell him, in full detail, how the accident happened without any additions or exaggeration because if you did you can be subjected to a lawsuit against you. Immediately after the interrogation, make sure to exchange insurance information with the liable person and call both of your car insurance companies and notify them that you have just been through an accident. If you think you are experiencing symptoms of a whiplash injury, don’t hold back and bring yourself for a medical check-up. If it is confirmed that you do have a whiplash injury, discuss with your whiplash lawyer how to make a whiplash claim. a whiplash compensation claim is just what you need at a time like this. This whiplash compensation will be able to cover all the present and future medical expenses required for your fast recovery and also your financial loss due to your absence on your job. Make this claim because your whiplash injury does not vanish on its own, in fact about forty percent of the total population who has a whiplash injury can have this as a chronic side-effect, meaning you’ll have chronic neck pain for the rest of your life which does not only potentially disrupts you work and mode of earning but also your whole life in general.
As the rising number of whiplash injury cases soar every day, so is the number of people taking advantage of its trend. Car companies are also taking advantage of this trend and today, two pioneering Swedish car companies, Volvo and Saab, have perfected the whiplash injury resistant car the finished products were tested with dummies and live humans. It is pretty much suggested that buying cars from these companies would be an investment on your future and it has the potential to keep you from suffering unnecessary injuries during a car crash accident. It says that Volvo and Saab have excellent head restraint system that supports your head and prevents it from hyperextending when you encounter a rear-end collision. The trauma journal on 2001 specifically stated that the Saab SAHR system reduces the possibility of obtaining whiplash from a car accident by seventy-five percent. It has also been found out that airbags or SRS (supplementary restraint system), ABS (anti-lock braking system), back-up sensors and traction control are the contributory additions to cars that can help you in driving safely.
Having a whiplash injury is not entirely a hopeless case. Sure there is a prevention but there is also a little hope for you if you already have a whiplash injury. Have you thought about making a whiplash compensation claim? Making this claim would put you on the waiting list for a whiplash compensation that your or the liable person’s car insurance will lawfully give, given that there must be another person at fault and not you. So call your lawyer and think about making that claim.