Soft Tissue Injury

When you think of injuries that occur in the workplace or in motor vehicle accidents, you might think of broken bones and damages to the hard areas of your body. They happen most frequently, right?

Many people forget that they could obtain soft tissue injuries as well, which are injuries that cause damage to the soft areas of the body – like the muscle or tendon in your arm or the ligaments of your leg.

These injuries are more common than you think, including a wide range of aspects like strains, sprains, and muscle tears. Have you been injured due to another party’s negligence and now you are suffering from soft tissue injuries? We can help you pursue the compensation that you deserve.

Types of Soft Tissue Injury

Depending on where and how you are injured in an accident, you could obtain one of many soft tissue injuries. Some of the most common injuries include ankle sprains, back sprains, calf sprains, tennis elbow, and hamstring sprains.

You could also obtain many different types of soft tissue damage from an overuse injury.

Overuse injuries occur when you do a specific task in the workplace over and over again, which adds repeated stress to that area. Perhaps you are doing the same motion over and over, such as typing on the computer or lifting heavy boxes many times throughout the day.

Stress can cause soft tissues to weaken, which means that you could experience certain aches and pains or decreased speed when you are attempting to do your job. Some of the most common overuse injuries include:

  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: When pressure is put on the median nerve, which leads to symptoms like tingling, numbness, and reduced strength in that area
  • Tendinitis: Inflammation or swelling of a tendon, such as that of the rotator cuff, hips, and torso that lead to pain and limited mobility of the area
  • Bursitis: When the bursa cushioning the tendons, bones, and muscles become inflamed, which causes pain and more at the site
  • Herniated Discs: Overuse and stress on the spongy tissues that cushion bones of the spine, which can damage them significantly and lead to pain

If you have been involved in a car accident, you may have even experienced a type of soft tissue that is most common in these accidents – a whiplash injury. These injuries most commonly occur when your head is snapped back and forth very quickly, most commonly in rear-end collisions.

The problem is, many people tend to put off the fact that they have a whiplash injury because they don’t feel any symptoms right off the bat. This could change many weeks or months down the line, causing serious pain and extensive medical treatment. This is why it is important to act as soon as possible when you have received one of these injuries to an affected area.

Symptoms and Effects

When it comes to soft tissue injuries, there are different stages of recovery, which include the following:

Stage 1: In 24-72 hours, you should always protect the injured area and never move the injury in ways that cause more pain to aggravate the injury.

Stage 2: This stage takes place when you reduce swelling and stiffness.

Stage 3: This is the stage where you return to your normal, everyday activities. It could take quite some time to get here, and recovery time is different for everyone.

You will know when you are dealing with a soft tissue injury and should act quickly to gain the compensation you deserve and protect your rights. You want to understand the symptoms of these injuries so that you can act quickly and preserve your case. Those who experience soft tissue injury could experience bleeding and swelling in the injured area, blurry vision, stiffness, jaw pain and tingling, or concussions. Other times, it could cause behavior-related symptoms like restlessness, a feeling of anxiety, tension, or problems concentrating.

Many people believe that they will experience a short recovery time and not understand just how serious a soft tissue injury can be and the tissue damage it could cause. Recovery will be different for everyone. Even the most minor cases of tissue injuries can cause substantial amounts of pain, even after the injury is well on its way to healing.

This tends to be most common in cases where scar tissue has formed because it can irritate the nerves in your body. You may experience muscle spasms, narrowing of space between discs in your spine, and so much more as a result. These are effects that you could feel for the rest of your life.

Proving Your Claim for Damages

You may find that one of the most difficult parts of your case, aside from the pain you feel on a daily basis, is proving your case. Most of the time this happens because of the insurance adjusters in your case who tend to deny claims or give you less than you deserve because they do not understand just how debilitating these cases can be.

If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident and sustained whiplash, for example, it is not uncommon for an insurance adjuster to wrongfully claim that you are trying to fabricate your injuries so that you can obtain more than you deserve in compensation, even if this is far from the truth.

It becomes even more difficult to prove your claim when your pain is invisible and the injury doesn’t always show itself through testing such as x-rays or through diagnostic tests like CT scans.

This is why it is always important to gain as much evidence as possible to make your claim so that you can establish that there is an actual link between your accident and the symptoms that you are experiencing.

Let us help you in a claim where the insurance adjuster wants to argue over the facts of your case and whether or not you are truly dealing with serious injuries, as we have experience in these cases and can stand up for your rights every step of the way.

At the McGuire Law Firm, we understand that you are suffering significantly due to your soft tissue injuries, and we want to help. We understand that the effects of these injuries can be debilitating and want to lend you a helping hand. Contact us call immediately to get started at (405) 513-5658.