By: Russell Keener  —  February 9, 2011
 

Con­sult a Med­ical Pro­fes­sional; Do Not Refuse Treat­ment if You Think You May Be Injured

You may think you are doing the respon­si­ble thing to refuse an expen­sive ambu­lance ride to the hos­pi­tal after a car acci­dent. Maybe you feel some dis­com­fort, but think the pain will go away soon. Often, imme­di­ately fol­low­ing a car acci­dent, back and spine injuries, whiplash injuries, rota­tor cuff tears, car­ti­lage and lig­a­ment tears, and other soft-tissue injuries are not fully appar­ent to car crash vic­tims. The full onset of the pain may not cul­mi­nate for 24–48 hours or more. At this point, you will wish you had swal­lowed your pride and accepted that ride to the hos­pi­tal. No mat­ter how bad your pain later becomes, the insur­ance adjuster will use your ini­tial “refusal” (their term) of med­ical treat­ment against you when you ask to have your med­ical and pre­scrip­tion bills paid and your lost wages reim­bursed. They will try to deny you pain and suf­fer­ing, say­ing your injury “must not have been that bad” since you “refused” to see a doc­tor. Though it may be unlikely, they will try to claim that you were injured some­how else — in some other acci­dent or fall — in between the time of your real injury and the time you first saw a doc­tor for the injury.