Broken bones are at the same time relatively serious injuries and also injuries that people assume will heal in a straightforward manner. Modern medicine has made broken bones more of an inconvenience than a dire medical concern, most of the time. In most cases, people can have fractured bones set within a matter of hours and could recover within several weeks or a few months. They may be able to work or attend school despite their injury. However, not all broken bones heal quickly with minimal intervention.
Especially after severe trauma, like a car crash, people are at risk of a fracture causing significant medical complications. In fact, there are two types of fractures that frequently require surgery for someone to recover.
After a comminuted fracture
In struck-by collisions, such as where a driver hits a cyclist, and other highly violent crashes, the bone that breaks may not simply snap into two pieces. Instead, it may shatter into many small pieces, which will make it very hard for doctors to set the bone.
Comminuted fractures often require extensive care to realign the bone and often the implantation of a support device, like a metal rod or a pin, for the bone to heal. Those with fractures involving multiple small pieces of bone may have a lengthy recovery ahead of them in addition to requiring more extensive trauma care.
After an open or compound fracture
Sometimes the force of a trauma that breaks a bone will also break the skin. When a bone exits the skin, surgical correction is almost always necessary.
It is typically prohibitively painful for doctors to set compound fractures without anesthesia due to the tissue damage involved. Beyond that, surgical procedures are necessary to adequately clean the tissue and minimize the risk of infection after an open fracture related to a car crash.
Given the amount of treatment required, victims of extreme fractures may benefit from filing insurance claims after sustaining harm. If that harm was caused by another’s negligence, recklessness or intentional wrongdoing, filing a lawsuit after a crash may also be warranted.
