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Being involved in a car accident is terrifying for anyone, but especially traumatic for children. Their safe and secure world is shattered in an instant because of an event they’re unlikely to fully comprehend. When a child suffers significant injuries, the pain and suffering they experience—physical, mental, and emotional—has the potential to disrupt their young lives during years of critical development. The trauma might alter their futures permanently.
In this post, we will take a look at how parents can and should protect their children’s rights to be made whole following a traffic accident.
What Parents Need To Know
Children are at great risk of serious physical injuries in a car accident due to their smaller frames and developing bones. And because they are still growing, significant injuries have the potential to affect them long-term or permanently, especially if they don’t heal completely. Meanwhile, a traumatic brain or spinal injury could leave a child dependent on their parents or medical caretakers for the rest of their lives.
This is why parents must get their child examined thoroughly right after a car accident and should take them to any recommended follow-up appointments. Always follow medication, physical therapy, and other treatment regimens closely and request copies of all medical records along the way. Your attorney can then use these reports to assess the extent of your child’s injuries, anticipated length of recovery, need for ongoing rehabilitation, and prognoses. In turn, your lawyer will formulate a strong, fact-based case ensuring that all medical bills, now and in the future, are covered by those responsible for your child’s injuries, along with the assigned monetary value for their pain and suffering.
Injuries from car accidents may not all be physical. Children can be traumatized by a serious crash that injures them or costs them someone they loved. Mental and emotional symptoms may not be as obvious in kids as adults, so it is important to actively monitor your child for several months or longer after the crash. Along with the help of their doctor, and if necessary, a qualified mental health professional, watch for indications of mental and emotional disturbances, such as:
- Excessive clinginess (or the opposite, isolating from friends and family)
- Loss of interest and enjoyment of favorite activities
- Grades slipping in school and inability to concentrate on schoolwork/homework
- Destructive behaviors like vandalism, shoplifting, skipping classes, and fighting
- Worsening or rapidly shifting moods
- Self-harm, expressing thoughts of death or suicide and hopelessness
These and other changes in your child’s mood and behavior that continue for two or more weeks and cannot be alleviated by talking or previously effective distractions may be signs of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or other serious concern. Your child needs and deserves treatment for these conditions. The person or entity responsible for the accident that triggered your child’s mental and emotional decline should be held responsible for ensuring you can afford all treatments your child needs to recover.
A Car Accident Lawyer Can Help Protect Your Child’s Rights
It is heartbreaking to see a child suffer because of a preventable car accident. Make sure yours gets everything they need to recover physically, mentally, and emotionally to the furthest extent possible by calling Scott J. Corwin, A Professional Law Corporation, today.
Contact our office today by calling (310) 683-2300 or filling out the online contact form to discuss the details of your case and learn more about how we can help you. We offer free consultations, so there’s no reason not to reach out to someone from our team right away.