Son in car accident

paying3tuitions
Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:19:37 +0000

Can part of his checkup be to have a spine xray around his neck? To be sure there was no whiplash or chipping/fracture of vertebrae around the C3-4-5 neighborhood. (c= cervical spine). This can manifest itself a few years down the road with spine decompression and press on the nerves that exit the spine.
I’d feel better knowing they found no bone injury inside the neck. The seatbelt doesn’t help so much with this, although maybe now with the chest belts it’s somewhat better. Obviously I’m going on old info from an old accident.
Actually, I had injuries that weren’t evident with the regular stationary xray but were revealed with a more sophisticated “moving fluoroscopy” xray…alll this from 30 years ago.
Somehow in modern medical lingo, before you settled with insurance (as I did…)see if the doctors want to order up an xray…the deep kind if it’s there technologically. This might rule out (or in, but you hope not) any whiplash damage. Whiplash is usually a b.s. insurance game, but in my case it was real and the bone/nerve injuries didn’t manifest until years later. If I had gotten the right xrays when it all happened, perhaps I could have gotten a lot of subsequent care taken care of by insurance.
Sorry to worry you MORE. I just always pipe up with this whenever I hear about a young person in a car accideent who feels “fine” soon after, as I did, but there was damage deep inside in the neck vertebrae bones (fractures, chip). Years later I had an operation once the right xrays were taken and they fused 3 vertbrae right there at that location. This operation solved a lot of muscular weakness around the neck and under the shoulder blade that just wouldn’t go away by itself. But of course I was young and had to sign a settlement to get the money freed up to get my car fixed and operating again. At the very least, before he signs any settlement agreement, be sure he has been checked out deep in the bone level for things not readily manifest at the muscle/skin/tissue level.
Doctors might think I’m overboard here. I only have one lived experience, not a medical practice, knowledge base etc. to know if this is good aedvice to pass along.
ABOVE ALL, I’m thankful for your son’s overall safety.

EDIT: IF the doctors find any validity in this direction of inquiry, perhaps not just neck but a total spine xray is appropriate, as the same kind of thing might have happened in his lower or middle back, I’m theorizing.

POSTSCRIPT: Now I know why every mom wants one kid to become a doctor.