Most clients we see at our law firm, particularly those involved in car accident and motorcycle cases, have injured their backs or necks. Surprisingly, these kinds of injuries often do not develop symptoms until days or even weeks after an accident.  Our clients have told us that they felt fine during the accident, and then, suddenly, they begin to feel worse and worse as the days go by, until finally they have trouble even getting out of bed in the morning.  This is normal.   It's also why you should get immediate medical treatment AND legal advice following a crash, even if you don't have immediate symptoms.

 

Your body will do everything it can to try and heal itself.  The fact is, though, that when you are dealing with your neck or spine, you need professional help.  The Buckman and Buckman Law Firm has partnered with some of the best orthopaedic (spine) doctors, neurologists and chiropractors in Florida to help you, our client, receive the best medical evaluation and treatment available, regardless of whether you have  health insurance or not.

 

When you are in a car or motorcycle accident, even a minor one, thousands of pounds of pressure are absorbed by the spine upon impact, causing internal chaos.  The individual bones of the spine (called vertebrae) are stacked on top of each other in an exact pattern.  In between these vertebrae are small discs, filled with fluid.  These discs resemble small jelly donuts, or soft hockey pucks, and their job is to keep the vertebrae working together without grinding into each other as you move, breathe, bend over, sit at your desk or play with your children.  It is a miraculous and elegant structure, supported by hundreds of muscles, tendons, nerves and cartilage.

 

However, the spine is not designed to withstand the tremendous forces that an accident produces.  Upon impact, the spine and neck are violently rotated and overextended. The discs absorb the shock, causing them to bulge from between the vertebrae.  Often, they bulge into the spinal cord, a small tube running next to the spine which contains all of the nerve connections between your brain and your body.

 

Sometimes, these bulging discs will return to normal by themselves over a period of months.   Left untreated, however, most of the time these discs will continue to press upon the spinal cord, causing numbness, tingling, chronic pain and fatigue.  The injured discs can remain bulged out and lose their ability to cushion the vertebrae, causing more pain in other parts of the spine which have to pick up the slack.

 

Because so much can go wrong when dealing with your spine, it's important that you get an accurate diagnosis.  Contact Buckman and Buckman if you need a referral to one of the area's best medical experts.