Ignoring Headachs after a Car Accident... A Big Mistake!!

A case report published in 2007 from the Canadian Chiropractic Association shows us that if you have a car accident, and you have a headache that does not go away, You could have complications requiring more invasive emergency treatment

This case study tells a story of a patient who came to a chiropractic physician's office to treat her spinal trauma from a car accident. She had the usual symptoms that people have when they have a car accident. She had neck pain, back pain and headaches.

She responded well to chiropractic care, as most patients that have whiplash trauma do. However about a month after ending treatment, she started experiencing the headaches again, and they grew stronger. She started developing numbness and tingling on one side of her body. She also had other neurological signs (pointing to a supratentorial lesion of the brain.)

She was reluctant at first to go for more diagnostic tests, but her chiropractic physician insisted that she receive advanced imaging from the local hospital. At the hospital, they did a CT scan of her head, and they found a subdural hematoma. Because of this, she immediately had surgical decompression of the brain by draining the blood from the hematoma. This decompression gave her immediate relief. Because her chiropractor was her primary treating physician for this care, she returned to him for follow-up neurological tests. She was all clear.

This story teaches you important lessons. If you are in a car accident, or other similar type of injury, you need to properly trained physician to take stewardship over your case, and see it through properly. Chiropractic physicians are trained in orthopedic and neurological testing and diagnosis. Chiropractors are trained to efficiently handle spinal trauma from car accident cases, and many of us take advanced courses specific to spinal trauma and motor vehicle accident cases.

In this case, a patient was properly cared for and referred by a trained chiropractic physician. There was no guesswork involved. This story illustrates the neurological diagnosis that chiropractors are trained to perform.

37% of people with a whiplash injury have tension headaches after the injury. 27% have migraine headaches. 18% have cervicogenic headaches. 18% have non-specific headache pain. (European Spine Journal)

Subdural hematomas are very rare, and the symptoms can be very subtle. The symptoms can make it look like a person is having a stroke, but instead of coming on suddenly like a stroke can do, a subdural hematoma comes about very gradually.

No, there's no chiropractic treatment for a subdural hematoma. However, chiropractic physicians at the hub of a person's injury or health can direct care that needs to be done by the appropriate specialist. Many times, chiropractors organize and command care for patients that get put into reports for reviewing doctors or attorneys to look at for a broad overview of the case.

If you have suffered from an injury from a car accident or from spinal trauma from other causes. I encourage you to seek chiropractic care from a chiropractor who specialized in these kinds of injuries.

Article by: Todd Lloyd DC

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