Shoulder injuries are somewhat commonly caused by traffic collisions. 2 common causes of shoulder injuries in traffic collisions are:
- Seatbelts; and/or
- Vehicle door.
1. Seatbelts causing shoulder injuries
Particularly, it’s the shoulder harness portion of the seatbelt that can cause shoulder injuries. Upon impact, seatbelts are designed, when they function properly, to lock up. Your body’s velocity being jolted by a locking shoulder harness can result in a variety of should injuries.
2. Side door impact
Many traffic collisions cause a person’s shoulder to crash into a side door, which can result in a variety of shoulder injuries from rotator cuff injuries to a crushed scapula to a shoulder tear to a dislocated shoulder to the onset of tendonitis.
Shoulder injuries aren’t only caused by traffic injuries
Shoulder injuries can result in from all kinds of trauma events such as slip and falls, assaults, being hit by objects, and many other trauma incidents.
About shoulder injuries
We’ve acted for many people with many types of shoulder injuries and as a result of our experience, we’ve come to know 4 things about shoulder injuries:
- Shoulder injuries are painful and debilitating;
- They can be difficult to treat;
- They can take a long time to heal (that’s if they heal); and
- There are many types of shoulder injuries.
1. Painful and debilitating
You don’t realize how often and how much you depend on your shoulder until you injure it. When injured, it becomes apparent that a shoulder injury is painful and can be highly debilitating. It’s painful because it’s hard to avoid using your shoulder. Moreover, it’s easy to bump your shoulder in everyday life. Think about walking through a crowd with an injured shoulder – you’ll bump it frequently.
It’s debilitating because an injured shoulder can disable your entire arm. We’re highly dependent on the use of both arms. When the use of one arm is taken away, it has a debilitating effect on your life.
2. Can be difficult to treat
Treatment for shoulder injuries may include a variety of treatment modalities such as ice, heat, anti-inflammatories, rest, use of a sling, massage therapy, physiotherapy, injections, and/or surgery. Often shoulder injury victims go through several modes of treatment over the course of their recovery period.
When a shoulder injury doesn’t heal with physiotherapy, a treating doctor may recommend an MRI of the shoulder to investigate any complicating conditions.
3. Long time to heal
This isn’t the case for all shoulder injuries, but it can be the case, partly due to the fact that it’s hard not to use the shoulder. We instinctively move our arm in many instances.
Moreover, the shoulder is a complex part of your body. Think about the range of motion and strength you have with your shoulder. It’s an impressive part of the body and equally complex. Therefore, sometimes treatment, whether surgery is performed or not, shoulder injuries can take a long time to heal.
A shoulder injury can be considerably more complex if there’s nerve damage. Generally, nerve damage is often a difficult injury to treat, and equally so if you have a nerve injury in your shoulder.
4. Many types of shoulder injuries
Shoulder injuries vary considerable. A few common shoulder injuries are:
- Rotator cuff tear
- Fractured shoulder
- Dislocated shoulder
- Tendonitis
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of shoulder injuries, but it goes to show you that trauma to a shoulder can result in any number of injuries. Sometimes, you can sustain a combination of shoulder injuries.
Shoulder injuries from traffic collisions are seldom isolated
To make matters worse, shoulder injuries are often accompanied by other injuries such as neck and back injuries. In some cases, shoulder injuries are accompanied by fractures and a brain injury.
Shoulder injury treatment
The personal injury lawyers in our office work with many treatment providers and medical specialists who have experience treating shoulder injuries of all types. If you sustained a shoulder injury from a traffic collision or some other cause, call us to meet with an experienced personal injury lawyer in our office.
When you call or fill in the Contact Form to the right, just mention you want the $250 discount off your legal fee (paid only if we recover compensation for you).