Can crush injuries occur during car crashes?

On Behalf of | Jan 10, 2022 | Motor Vehicle Accidents |

When getting into a car accident, you could suffer from injuries that do not normally occur in most people’s day-to-day lives. Crush injuries fall into this category. Though they can occur any time a heavy object is involved, these incidents are rare outside of certain fields of work and car crashes.

But what are crush injuries? How serious are they and why should you seek immediate treatment for them?

Crush injuries in a crash

Medline Plus takes a deep dive into the repercussions of crush injuries. First, crush injuries occur when any part of your body gets crushed by another object. Most often, these objects are much larger or heavier than your body, resulting in you getting pinned or suffering from catastrophic damage upon impact.

Crush injuries can affect your torso and trunk, as well as your limbs. In a car crash, examples of truck injuries to the limbs include your legs getting pinned beneath a crumpled dashboard. A crush injury to the trunk or torso may involve your car landing on top of you after you have gotten ejected from it.

The risks of crush injuries

These crush injuries have some different risks, as well as shared risks. For example, you risk the possibility of amputation with a crush injury to the limbs. You risk organ failure with a trunk crush injury. Both injuries come with the risk of blood poisoning, infections like gangrene, or sepsis.

It is important to seek immediate medical care after a crush injury due to the severity of these wounds. There is no such thing as a “mild” crush injury, and you need medical care to ensure you limit the amount of permanent damage you suffer and avoid the possibility of death.