When you become the victim of a car crash, you risk sustaining a crush injury that could prove devastating to your health and wellbeing. By definition, a crush injury occurs when some part of your body, usually an arm, a leg or your chest, gets caught between two hard surfaces and pinned there.
The Orthopaedic Associates of St. Augustine caution that you may exhibit one or more of the following symptoms after sustaining a crush injury:
- Extensive bleeding from your wound(s)
- Fractures of the bones in and surrounding your injury site
- Severe pain at your injury site
- Numbness radiating outward from your injury site
- Severe bruising around your injury site
- Damage to the cells, muscles, tendons and tissues affected by your injury
Consequent complications
While your crush injury itself can cause severe damage to your body, perhaps the true horror of crush injuries is the further bodily damage they can lead to. For instance, they commonly result in one or more of the following:
- Raging infections, not only at your injury site, but also throughout your body
- Compartment Syndrome; i.e., muscle death around your injury site
- Necrosis; i.e., tissue death around your injury site
- Rhabdomyolysis; i.e., toxins entering your bloodstream due to the death of your muscles and tissues
- Amputation of one or more of your limbs due to the extensive damage your crush injury caused
- Paralysis due to your injury crushing one or more of your vertebrae
It goes without saying that you should receive immediate emergency medical treatment after sustaining a crush injury. Only such intervention and treatment can minimize the negative effects of your injury.