Car accidents can cause many different types of chest injuries. The manner of the accident is one contributing factor. Higher-speed accidents, head-on crashes, broadsides, and side-impact collisions can all cause chest injuries. How the driver or passenger reacts is another factor. Drivers who come into contact with the dashboard, steering wheel, or other car occupants are more likely to experience chest trauma. Airbags that deploy after an accident are another known cause of chest injuries.

According to an article for the National Institute of Health titled, “Blunt Trauma Related Chest Wall and Pulmonary Injuries: An Overview,” there are six life-threatening conditions that need to be addressed – “airway obstruction, tension pneumothorax, open pneumothorax, massive hemothorax, flail chest, [and] pericardial tamponade.” These conditions require immediate treatment. Injuries that could be life-threatening include pulmonary contusion, tracheobronchial injuries, diaphragmatic injuries, myocardial injury, thoracic aortic disruption, and esophageal injury. Pulmonary conditions/injuries are considered the most serious because they affect the victim’s ability to breathe.

Normally, doctors need to examine organs and tissues when a car accident victim is injured. About 10% of blunt chest trauma patients require surgery. The other injuries can usually be treated with “appropriate airway assessment, oxygen support, tube thoracostomy, volume resuscitation, pulmonary toilet, and adequate pain control.”

Car accident victims should seek immediate medical care. Blunt chest trauma injuries can be fatal.

Chest wall-related injuries due to car accidents

Per the NIH article, car accidents can cause the following injuries:

• Thoracic cage injuries. This injury involves rib fractures. More than 1/3^rd of chest trauma injuries involve rib, sternum, and clavicle fractures. Thoracic cage injuries may be fatal if they are accompanied by damage to “lung tissue and pleura and damage to the pneumothorax, hemothorax, pulmonary contusion and parenchymal laceration, etc.” The first two ribs of the thoracic cage are hard to break. When these two break, the injuries are often fatal. “Fractures of the midzone ribs are often associated with injuries such as pulmonary contusion, laceration, hemothorax, and pneumothorax.”
• Flail chest. This condition involves three or more contiguous ribs that are broken in at least two parts. “Basically, flail chest occurs when a segment of the chest wall is disconnected from the rest of the chest wall.”
• Pleura related injuries. The pleura is a critical part of the respiratory tract. The pleura “cushion the lung and reduce any friction that may develop between the lung, rib cage, and chest cavity.”
  • Traumatic pneumothorax (a collapsed lung). According to the NIH, about 40-50% of blunt thoracic trauma involves pneumothorax. Pneumothorax “is a clinical entity that is caused by the presence of air between the visceral and the parietal pleura.” Pneumothorax can cause mild chest pain. It can also cause cardiac failure and death.
  • Traumatic hemothorax. This condition is “defined as the fluid between visceral and parietal pleura to be 50% or more of peripheral blood hematocrit.” The most common cause of hemothorax is trauma.
• Pulmonary parenchyma and airway-related injuries.
  • Pulmonary contusion. Pulmonary contusion is defined as “pulmonary destruction with alveolar hemorrhage, which usually occurs as a result of blunt chest trauma without laceration…. Pulmonary contusion is common, especially in high-speed trauma caused by motor vehicle accidents, and is usually associated with rib fractures. Three-quarters of patients with pulmonary contusion have accompanying rib fractures.”
  • Pulmonary laceration. This injury occurs in the parenchymal tissue of the lung.
  • Tracheobronchial injury. “Tracheobronchial injury is the injury to the trachea, bronchi, and tracheobronchial tree. Although tracheobronchial injury is rare, it is the most severe form of chest trauma and has a fatal course.”

The primary care for trauma patients, including blunt chest trauma, involves examining the car accident victim’s airway, breathing, circulation, disability, and exposure (ABCDE). Other treatments depend on the patient’s injuries and many other factors.

Other blunt or penetrating chest trauma injuries, according to Merck Manuals, include:

• Aortic disruption. Signs of an aorta rupture include “asymmetric pulses or blood pressure, decreased blood flow to the lower extremities, and precordial systolic murmur.” The treatment is often to repair the rupture or the use of stents.
• Blunt cardiac injury. This heart injury “causes contusion of myocardial muscle, rupture of a cardiac chamber, or disruption of a heart valve.”
• Cardiac Tamponade. This heart condition involves the “accumulation of blood in the pericardial sac of sufficient volume and pressure to impair cardiac filling.” The treatments are usually immediate pericardiocentesis or pericardiotomy.

Chest injuries may develop numerous breathing and other complications during a car accident victim’s lifetime.

Why you want a Knoxville car accident lawyer on your side after a wreck

Car accident victims who suffer chest trauma often live with permanent injuries that cause chronic pain. The victims often find it difficult to sleep, eat, dress, work, move, participate in daily functions, and enjoy life. Many chest trauma victims need care from specialists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and other healthcare providers. Most chest trauma victims also need daily medications to manage their pain and their symptoms.

Drivers who cause chest injuries due to speeding, distracted driving, or other causes deserve to be held liable for the injuries and deaths they cause. At Banks & Jones, we are respected by former clients, insurance companies, and the legal community for our ability to prepare your case, show how the accident and who is responsible, work with experienced physicians, and fight for all the compensation you deserve.

We demand compensation for all your medical expenses, physical pain and emotional suffering, lost income, scarring and disfigurement, loss of bodily function, and loss of quality of life. Please call us or use our contact form to schedule a free consultation about how you can assert your rights.