Internal Injuries

Truck accidents can cause a wide array of injuries to those involved, depending on the number of vehicles involved, how fast they were traveling and the angle of the collision. When commercial trucks and passenger vehicles crash, internal injuries are an almost inevitable outcome.

Internal injuries may not be immediately apparent, but they have the potential to be severe or even deadly. These can range from internal bleeding to ruptured organs to broken ribs.

Atlanta truck accident attorney Stephen M. Ozcomert has worked for more than two decades on these type of cases, successfully representing many clients who have suffered severe internal injuries necessitating both emergency treatment and surgery and long-term care. What we understand is that your ordeal doesn’t end when you leave the hospital. There are mountains of medical bills. Lost wages from the forced time off work. Chronic pain and sometimes permanent disability.

The viability and potential compensation available will vary greatly, depending on the circumstances of the crash and the nature of your injuries. While there are thousands of serious truck crashes in Georgia every year, you are more than a statistic to us. Unlike some injury law firms, we will not rush you into a settlement if it’s not in your best interest. We’ll gear up for trial if necessary. We’ll explore the liability of numerous defendants, and the possibility of punitive damages per O.C.G.A. 51-12-5.1.

Georgia requires tortfeasors (wrongdoers) be held accountable when their negligence causes serious injury to others. That’s what we fight for every day.

In truck accidents, some injuries are obvious. There are the broken arms, the lacerations and contusions. But there are often also injuries we may not see right away.

Some examples of truck accident internal injuries that can be life-threatening and potentially life-altering:

• Internal bleeding. This occurs when blood vessels suffer damage rendering them unable to clot or be quickly repaired. Depending on the location of the internal bleeding, this can be an extreme emergency, if untreated resulting in cardiac arrest and death.

• Ruptured spleen. One may suffer a ruptured spleen if the point of impact occurs on the left side of the body. We see this a lot with drivers or back seat passengers seated on the left in T-bone collisions. A ruptured spleen requires surgery because otherwise, large quantities of blood can leak into the abdominal cavity, which is a life-threatening condition. Then, even after the spleen is removed, patient will need numerous immunizations to help prevent serious infections, like pneumonia. People don’t think of a ruptured spleen as being all that serious, given that you can live without this organ. However, when a ruptured spleen results from a violent trauma, it can ultimately be very costly, and may significantly impact your quality of life for some time after a crash.

• Abdominal aorta rupture. This is sometimes referred to as a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, and it’s usually deadly. As noted by researchers from the Stanford Postgraduate Medical Journal, these injuries have an overall mortality rate of 90 percent. It occurs when the stomach is compressed and the aorta ruptures. Most people die within a matter of minutes.

• Broken ribs and torso injuries. More than 3 million people suffer one or more broken ribs annually – a significant number of those from motor vehicle accidents. When a bone in the rib cage breaks or cracks, it can be extremely painful and make breathing difficult. However, it can also be incredibly dangerous if the bone is broken into pieces and jagged edges damage major blood vessels or internal organs, such as the lungs.

• Punctured lungs. This can occur from a blunt force impact or penetrating chest injury, and it results in air leaking into the space between the lungs and the chest wall. It’s a very serious injury, particularly if it results in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Other internal injuries may involve other organs, blood vessels, muscle and tissue.

While causation in may seem obvious in these cases, defense attorneys have been known to call it into question. Typically the bigger issue is which parties are at-fault for the crash. You should know that in Georgia, even if you are partially to blame for the collision, you can still collect damages per O.C.G.A. 51-12-33. The comparative fault law will result in proportionate reduction of your damage award depending on your share of the blame, but you aren’t barred from collecting compensation, so long as you are less than 50 percent responsible.

Because the causes of truck accidents are often complex issues and internal injuries tend to be quite serious, trust your case only to an experienced Atlanta truck accident lawyer.

If you have been injured in a Georgia truck accident, contact Atlanta Truck Accident Attorney Stephen M. Ozcomert at (404) 370-1000.