Right after a semi-truck crash, the cacophony of the collision subsides, leaving a quiet and unsettling atmosphere. However, this calmness fails to reflect how serious the problem is. Unlike usual accidents, these involve strong forces that almost always cause serious and sometimes hidden injuries and can change a person’s life. After the chaos settles, victims must receive quick and specialized medical care to recover.

The information below focuses on the key treatments needed after a semi-truck accident, so survivors and their families know how to recover their health and well-being.

Seeking Immediate Medical Attention After the Crash

After a semi-truck collision, people often feel confused, and their bodies release adrenaline to help them respond to the danger. Even though the “fight or flight” response makes pain go away and makes the victims more alert, it can hide the full extent of the injuries. Hence, if you have been in a crash, you must see a doctor immediately, even if you believe you are unharmed. If you have internal bleeding, a concussion, or soft tissue damage, these issues often show up hours or days later, so it is important to visit an ER to have a medical checkup. If evaluation is not prompt, some serious conditions could worsen undetected and lead to severe complications later.

Be clear and detailed when you are communicating with the ER staff. Mention that you were involved in a semi-truck accident because these collisions are often very severe. Include every difficulty, regardless of how small you think it is. Never minimize how you feel. It is best to chronologically record all your symptoms as you notice them on your phone, as this will create a timeline that can help with the diagnosis and references in the future.

Common Injuries from Semi-Truck Accidents

Being hit by a semi-truck at high speed greatly increases the chances of serious and hard-to-spot injuries. Knowing the different types of injuries can help you identify the symptoms and seek proper treatment. Some of the common injuries include:

  1. Injuries to the Head, Neck, and Spine

Some Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) are mild, while others are incredibly severe, and both types are surprisingly prevalent. Some symptoms include:

  • Constant headaches
  • Feeling dizzy
  • Problems with memory, concentration, or mood
  • Changes in sleeping habits

If the head moves forcefully backward and then forward, it can cause whiplash, leading to pain, neck stiffness, headaches, and pain that spreads to the shoulders or arms. When one of the soft discs between vertebrae ruptures, it can lead to excruciating symptoms, along with numbness, tingling, or weakness in the limbs. A truck crash can cause the body to jerk violently, which increases the risk of these debilitating conditions.

  1. Internal and Soft Tissue Damage

Besides the apparent physical harm, truck accidents can cause internal injuries that first go unnoticed. Internal bleeding in the abdomen could occur because of damaged spleen, liver, or kidneys, and this can lead to symptoms like abdominal pain, swelling, dizziness, faintness, or unusual bruises.

Even though torn ligaments and other soft tissue injuries are not noticeable at first, they can seriously affect stability, how much a joint can move, and cause joint pain. As adrenaline levels drop and inflammation begins, the injuries can become clearer, which is why keeping an eye on the patient after the accident is necessary.

  1. Psychological Trauma

A semi-truck accident often leads to serious physical injuries and also causes significant emotional distress.

After an accident, many people experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which leads to intrusive thoughts, recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, intense anxiety, and avoiding anything that reminds them of the accident. Driving anxiety, even if it is only a little, can seriously affect daily living.

Even though psychological injuries are not apparent, they affect people just as much as physical injuries and should be treated by specialists.

The Medical Team You Will Need After a Truck Accident

Treating the results of a semi-truck accident calls for a team of doctors and nurses who are highly trained in this area. After the first emergency visit, specialists provide the best care and rehabilitation. You should focus on finding the right doctors, which is vital for your recovery.

The likely specialists you will need for your injuries include:

  • Primary Care Physician (PCP) — Your PCP coordinates your medical treatment. They will look after your overall health, review the initial ER reports, and direct you to the right specialists. Sharing information with your PCP helps integrate and effectively manage all your health care needs.
  • Orthopedist — An Orthopedist is important for treating issues that involve bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Orthopedists handle and treat conditions like fractures, dislocations, sprains, strains, and tears using treatments that could involve non-surgical methods, injections, or surgery. They are essential in ensuring that the musculoskeletal system works and is stable again.
  • Neurologist — If brain, spine, or nervous system problems occur, your team will need a neurologist. They manage conditions like concussions, brain injuries, spine damage, and nerve damage by performing in-depth neurological tests and examinations.
  • Physical therapists — Physical therapists and chiropractors are important in helping people recover and regain their function. Physical therapists usually design exercises that match each patient’s needs to increase strength, flexibility, balance, and mobility, and often add methods to decrease pain and inflammation.

On the other hand, chiropractors use techniques to adjust the spine and muscles, hoping to relieve pain and improve the function of the nervous system, which is especially helpful for treating whiplash and back injuries. With their teamwork, specialists focus on relieving pain, helping with movement, and supporting patients' recovery to their previous condition.

Treatments You Should Expect After a Semi-Truck Accident

A semi-truck collision is much more serious than a basic fender bender. It can seriously change your life. The force involved regularly causes severe, both visible and hidden, injuries that need proper care and treatment. The standard medical procedures include the following:

  1. Diagnostics

The recovery process after a semi-truck accident starts immediately with a detailed and essential diagnosis. Though not a treatment, it is a necessary initial medical procedure. This first step aims to know the exact extent and type of your injuries, which will help create your unique treatment plan. Because truck collisions are severe, doctors will use advanced imaging to identify injuries that are not easy to spot.

Be prepared to undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs). They are invaluable for seeing soft tissue damage, particularly injuries to ligaments, tendons, muscles, and the spinal cord. During a semi-truck accident, when sudden shifts and twists can happen, injuries like whiplash, herniated discs, and torn rotator cuffs are often detected with an MRI.

You could also be sent for a CT scan. These scans offer detailed cross-sectional images of your bones, organs, and blood vessels, making it easy to detect fractures, internal bleeding, or harm to your organs, which could be fatal if not caught in time.

The information gathered from these diagnostic steps is critical, since it helps your doctors judge what type of trauma you have and choose the proper medical intervention for your injuries.

  1. Rehabilitation

When immediate risks are handled and your injuries are diagnosed, the primary goal of your treatment shifts to active rehabilitation. This step plays a key role in recovering from a semi-truck accident by helping you regain lost abilities, build strength, increase flexibility, and relieve most of your pain.

In this phase, the main priority is physical therapy, customized to your injuries and recovery. Your therapist could offer:

  • Exercises for your muscles
  • Manual therapy to ease joint tension, and
  • Treatments with heat or ice to manage your pain

You will also be taught good body habits and safe movements, while chiropractic adjustments for the spine and nerves can be beneficial if you have spinal misalignments or whiplash injuries.

The effort you put into rehabilitation is important, as it strengthens your body and helps you recover so you can resume your day-to-day activities and reach your pre-accident functional levels. At this point, you need to keep up with your exercises, even if they are tough.

  1. Pain Management

Dealing with the pain that can be very strong after a semi-truck accident is an important and constant part of your recovery. Pain management strategies are necessary to help you feel better mentally and physically, and to encourage your involvement in rehabilitation programs. If someone is not given adequate pain control, it can be challenging to carry out physical therapy or even do daily tasks.

Having a pain management doctor on your medical team is often very important. Usually, they begin with non-narcotic treatments such as:

  • Anti-inflammatory drugs for swelling
  • Muscle relaxants to relieve muscle spasms, and
  • Medications for nerve pain, which is a common symptom after severe trauma

If conservative medication does not provide enough relief, your doctor would recommend interventional pain management techniques. Examples include:

  • Epidural steroid injections, which can help reduce nerve swelling around the spine and relieve pain in the back or neck
  • Doctors use nerve blocks to block pain from specific nerves for a period, allowing the patient to do more intense physical therapy
  • For some chronic pain issues, radiofrequency ablation can be used to disrupt nerve function for a longer time

By carefully using these treatments, your doctor hopes to help you use fewer addictive opioids and still provide adequate pain relief so that you can take part in your physical therapy and live a better life.

  1. Surgical Options

Most post-accident injuries are managed with conservative treatment, but some require surgery, which can have a significant impact on your life.

When less invasive treatments are insufficient to help your injury, or your condition requires immediate surgery to avoid more harm, restore function, or save your limb or life, your doctor would recommend surgery.

For some severe fractures, the bones might not heal well with casting, so surgery is done to support them with plates, screws, or rods. When major joints like the knee or shoulder have torn ligaments or tendons, surgery is generally needed to make them stable and functional again. If a herniated disc pinched a nerve so much that it led to major weakness, numbness, or loss of function, you may undergo surgery.

Moreover, if the force of the impact causes significant instability in the spine, spinal fusion surgery will be necessary to secure the vertebrae.

Deciding to have surgery is significant, and your doctor will carefully talk to you about all the risks, possible benefits, time needed to recover, and what the future might look like after surgery. Although surgery can be life-changing for some injuries, it also brings additional challenges, sometimes requiring a prolonged period of rehabilitation after the operation. This stage needs you to be very patient and adhere to the advice given by your surgeon and therapist.

  1. Mental Health Support

While the serious injuries can be seen, truck accidents can also have a powerful effect on a person’s mental health. These emotional harms can have equally severe, or even worse, consequences of a truck accident than the physical ailments. As a result, you might experience ongoing anxiety, intense depression, PTSD, a strong fear of something specific like driving, and poor sleep.

Therefore, mental health care is a key aspect of your full recovery that is not always given enough attention. Getting therapy for trauma, for example, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), or traditional talk therapy, gives you valuable ways to cope. These therapeutic interventions support you in dealing with the traumatic event, controlling extreme emotions, and gradually lessening the effects of unwanted thoughts and memories.

Working on these invisible wounds is necessary for your recovery, so you can feel better emotionally, manage the fears and anxieties linked to the accident, and resume your daily life with more strength.

After a semi-truck accident, your recovery should focus on helping your mind as much as your body and finding peace again. Asking for support is a strong decision necessary for a full recovery.

Insurance Coverage and Legal Claims in California for Essential Treatments Related to a Truck Accident

You may face major injuries and significant financial losses if you are involved in a truck accident. Handling medical expenses and seeking fair compensation is crucial for your recovery and financial health. You can have your treatments paid for through insurance payments or by filing a lawsuit.

Using Insurance

You will likely worry about your medical bills as soon as a truck accident occurs. Luckily, you have several ways to obtain the care you need, and MedPay is one of them if it is included in your auto insurance policy. MedPay or Medical Payments coverage can help pay for medical bills after an accident, regardless of fault, up to policy limits. You can use it immediately to pay for emergency room visits, rides in an ambulance, and first treatments, which helps you avoid paying out of your pocket.

Your health insurance will usually be the first to cover your medical costs after a truck accident beyond MedPay. Whether you have private health insurance, Medi-Cal, or Medicare, your medical bills will often be covered by insurance up to your deductibles, co-pays, and policy limits. However, it is important to remember that your health insurance company may have the right to be reimbursed from any settlement or judgment you receive from the person at fault.

In cases where insurance is insufficient or providers prefer direct payment from a future settlement, using a medical lien for personal injury can be very helpful. A medical lien is a contract that ties you and your healthcare provider together. The provider will not send any bills directly to you, but will be paid out of the settlement or judgment you receive for your injury. In this situation, the doctor or hospital agrees to provide medical care without asking for payment until your case is settled. This means you will not have to skip crucial medical care because of your finances.

Pursuing a Legal Claim

While insurance assists with short-term medical bills, you may need to file a lawsuit to recover full compensation for the damages and injuries the accident caused, including uninsured damages. The complexity of truck accident claims comes from the fact that more than one party may be responsible. In some cases, you might have to sue the truck driver together with the:

  • Trucking company
  • Truck owner
  • Cargo loader, or
  • Manufacturer of defective truck parts

Since each entity may have its insurance policies and lawyers, these cases are difficult to handle without the help of a skilled lawyer.

You should closely document your losses if you want to build a strong case. The most crucial evidence is regular medical care, which shows the extent of your injuries and why you need treatment. You should also document your doctor’s visits, hospital expenses, medication, physical therapy, and special treatments.

Equally important is documenting lost wages due to your inability to work. Keep a clear record of days you could not work, your lost income, and any impact on your earning ability.

Keeping a track of your pain in a journal can help a lot. This personal log can help you keep track of your daily pain, how your injuries affect your everyday routine, and any emotional suffering you go through, giving a clear account of the damages caused by your pain and suffering that California law allows you to claim.

You can ask for two main types of damages if you are pursuing a legal claim:

  • Economic damages — These are the financial losses you can calculate directly from the accident. All these costs include your medical bills, past and future lost wages, loss of earning ability, property damage, and additional out-of-pocket expenses.
  • Non-economic damages — On the other hand, non-economic damages are losses that cannot be easily measured but are just as impactful. Examples are compensation for your pains, emotional stress, physical changes, inability to do some tasks, and the loss of happiness.

It is also important to have the Statute of Limitations in mind. In most cases involving personal injury, including truck accidents, you have two years from the accident date to file a lawsuit in civil court. Not filing your lawsuit within the two years almost guarantees that you will not be able to seek compensation, regardless of your case’s strength.

Find a Personal Injury Attorney Near Me

Recovering after a semi-truck crash is tough, as it requires the right treatments, physical and psychological healing, plus handling the legal claims and bills that come with the incident. You need an expert's help to ensure you are protected and paid correctly. Having a legal expert by your side can make this journey less difficult.

If you or someone you care about was hurt in a semi-truck accident in California, contact Truck Accident Injury Attorney Law Firm now. We will explain your rights and support you throughout your recovery, ensuring you receive the complete care and justice you require. Contact us at 888-511-3139.