Knee injuries are among the most common and debilitating injuries you can suffer in an accident. Whether you were injured in a car accident, a fall, or an activity it’s important to take the next steps very carefully. How you handle yourself and the choices you make immediately after your knee injury can impact any insurance claims and the strength of your personal injury suit against the person or party responsible for your injury.
Today, we’re here to highlight the top ten tips for anyone who has recently experienced a knee injury. These tips will help you get the best possible support from either your insurance company or a personal injury case.
1) Don’t Try to ‘Walk it Off’
When you were young, your parents probably taught you to get up and walk off any non-fatal injury. There’s a conviction in our independent-spirited culture that if you can walk-off an injury, you should. But if you have a knee injury, ‘walking it off’ is exactly what you shouldn’t be doing.
Knee injuries are often much worse than they appear and the pain you experience initially could be indicative of long-term damage that might get worse if you put weight on it instead of seeking immediate medical attention. For the sake of your knee and eventual recovery, let others help you to stay off the injured knee until a doctor officially clears you to put weight on it again.
2) Have Post-Accident Photos Taken
Immediately after the injury, before your knee is wrapped up in bandages, try to snap a few pictures. Insurance companies and personal injury defenses usually try to downplay the severity of an injury. They will highlight pictures of the knee after treatment, when the damage has been iced and packaged to speed up your recovery rather than considering the actual damage done during the accident.
Pre-treatment photos will give a realistic representation of the injury and any swelling or bruising that is a direct result of the accident. If you can, ask a friend to snap a few quick pictures that will help to protect your case whether you need to prove the injury severity to your insurance or someone else’s.
3) Have a Doctor Look at Your Injury Right Away
Immediately after the injury, you or a friend should call 911 or otherwise arrange to get you to the emergency room. Knee injuries can be permanently disabling, especially if they are not treated quickly after the initial accident. If there is a medical professional on site, ideally they will take over in providing medical assistance and advice on how safe it is for you to move after the incident. Otherwise, get to the hospital as quickly as possible for prompt treatment and damage-prevention measures like wrapping, icing, and x-raying to identify damage below the surface.
4) Write Down Your Experience Before the Memory Fades
If possible, you may want to record your experiences in writing before the details of the accident fade from your mind. While you are seeking medical attention, there will likely be a few lulls in activity where you will have time to write down, or possibly dictate, your account of the event so that you can review and work with these details in the future. Later on, you may forget something critical about the situation, your actions, or another person involved in the accident. Try to put it all down while your mind is still fresh. No one else needs to see these notes, but they may be helpful to you in the next few weeks or months.
5) Keep Records of All Medical Advice, X-Rays, and Test Results
As your knee treatment and recovery progresses, you will want to keep records of everything. Both insurance and personal injury cases tend to pick apart the details and many defenses hinge on the concept that you are A) less injured than you say or B) not going through the proper treatment procedures. Make sure that both of these accusations can be proved patently false with detailed medical records. Ask doctors for copies of everything, including their observations and any x-ray photos taken of your knee during the initial and follow-up assessments.
You also want to get -in writing- an assessment of how long your recovery will take and how fully your knee may recover.
6) Take Good Care of Your Injured Knee
In the aftermath, it is very important that you do everything you can to promote recovery. This can be challenging for injured parties because on one hand, you need to show how bad your injury is. But on the other, as a person, you need to give your knee every possible chance to recover without disability and to mentally ‘walk off’ the traumatic experience. So take all of your doctor’s advice.
Wrap, ice, elevate, and manage your bandages exactly as instructed. Rest when you need to, and participate with physical therapy sessions. Don’t let a stressful personal injury case keep you from recovering to your best ability.
7) Do Not Agree to Insurance Assessment Interviews
If an insurance company (yours or theirs) asks to do an interview, you should almost always refuse. There are very few circumstances where an insurance interview is necessary or that it will turn out well for you. You see, neither insurance company wants to pay for your medical expenses and lost wages. So no matter whose insurance it is, it is within their best intersests to ‘trip you up’ by finding some bogus basis to reject your claim. So in general, do not agree to insurance interviews no matter how friendly they seem.
8) Consult with a Personal Injury Attorney
In a knee injury case, your best ally is a personal injury attorney. Insurance companies don’t want to pay out, and the liable party certainly doesn’t want to see you win.ย But an experienced personal injury attorney is on your side and no one else’s. They will help you figure out what your best options are and how to build a strong case proving that you were injured, that the other party was responsible, and the appropriate amount in damages to seek based on your medical needs and lost wages.
A personal injury attorney can help you face the complicated and trap-riddled path of receiving the compensation you deserve for your knee injury.
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If you have suffered a knee injury that someone else was responsible for, the Swor & Gatto team is here to help. For more information about what to do after your knee injury or to consult with us on the unique circumstances of your case,ย contact usย today!