Understanding Personal Injury Law

Things Your Personal Injury Attorney Wants You To Know About Recognizing Rib Injuries

8 June 2016

Celina Nichols

Accidents can lead to many types of invisible and internal injuries, and some of them can be difficult to identify. It can be easy to overlook problems like some rib injuries until they become severe, at which point you won't have the documentation to connect it directly to the accident you were involved in. After all, even waiting a few days to seek treatment can lead to questions about when your rib injuries were sustained. The insurance company may question whether or not they were actually part of the accident since more time passed where you could have been hurt somewhere else. Here are some things you should know about rib injuries so you can recognize when medical attention may be necessary.    

What Kinds Of Rib Injuries Are There?

There are several distinct types of rib injuries. Understanding each of the primary types may help you identify the problems that you're experiencing.

Soft tissue rib damage involves wounding the tissue around your ribs. If your ribs aren't broken but the tissue around them is bruised, strained or even separated from your rib, that's an indication of soft tissue damage.

Fractured ribs can occur from any kind of direct impact on your rib area. Fractures are usually thin, hair-line breaks in the rib. You may have visible bruising in the tissue around a fractured rib, but would require an x-ray to determine if the rib itself is actually broken.

Flail chest injuries, on the other hand, are much more serious and significant. Flail chest injury is the term used when you have three or more ribs located adjacent to each other and broken in different places. Sometimes, this causes the ribs to separate from the chest wall. 

What Are The Symptoms Of Rib Injuries?

Some rib injuries, like flail chest injuries and significant fractures, may be obvious right away. Others won't become apparent until the muscles start to tense up and hurt. Sometimes, it's hard to identify the source of the pain you feel, because it can radiate around your chest and into your back.

Whether the rib is just bruised or fractured, you'll likely feel some persistent pain around your rib cage and some shooting pain when you move your ribs. If the rib is actually fractured, you might even feel some grinding sensations in your chest when you move. That feeling is caused by the edges of the bone rubbing together at the point of the fracture.

You might also experience some persistent burning, tightness and other discomfort around your chest and rib cage area. In severe cases, you may find that you struggle with breathing or even feel a bubbling-like sensation inside your chest. All of these things can indicate rib injuries of varying degrees.

No matter which symptoms you might be noticing, medical attention is essential if you suspect a rib injury of any kind. Not only can ignoring rib injuries lead to further complications, but failing to get care may prevent you from being able to seek restitution through a personal injury case if you cannot directly connect the injuries to your accident. By obtaining an evaluation with a medical professional at the scene or right when pain becomes apparent, you'll have a greater chance of securing the documentation necessary to connect that injury to the accident in question.

The more attentive you are to the symptoms you feel after an accident, the more likely you'll be to spot a problem before it becomes severe. Understanding the signs of rib injuries is important, because these are often some of the most common invisible injuries you can sustain. If you have a rib injury and want to seek restitution, a personal injury attorney (such as Greg S. Memovich) can help you evaluate the case.

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