Riding public transportation is essential for many residents of New York, so much so that many individuals face difficulty operating their lives at all when public transportation experiences difficulties or serious delays. While most passengers on public transportation consider the most pressing dangers of the experience to be other passengers on the train or bus, these busses and trains present very real possibilities of physical harm from a traffic or line accident.
If you experience some sort of collision or other accident while riding public transportation, you should make it a priority to seek out a professional medical examination as soon as you can. While you may not believe that you suffered any kind of injury, it is possible that you received an injury that does not cause pain immediately, often known as a delayed onset injury. A thorough medical examination can help you identify these problems and address them before they cause major harm or possibly turn deadly.
Delayed onset of abdominal injuries
After any kind of collision, if you begin to feel pain in your abdomen, it is very important to seek medical attention from a licensed professional as soon as possible. In some cases, waiting a matter of hours may cost you your life.
Delayed abdominal pain may arise if you suffer either organ damage or internal bleeding, with internal bleeding presenting two distinct threats. Like any kind of bleeding, if you lose too much blood too quickly, you may die of blood loss, whether the bleeding is internal or external. Also, if the area where bleeding occurs develops an infection, then the infection can travel through the bloodstream to many areas of your body, poisoning your organs.
Organ failure, on the other hand, is a slow and painful way to die. Initially, damage to an organ may not cause the organ to fail, but simply overwork the organ. However, if the body cannot repair the organ sufficiently, it may fail. Once one organ fails, other organs will probably fail soon after, which is not at all a quick or easy death.
Head injuries and back injuries
A blow to the head or damage to the back can also easily occur in a collision, leaving you with delayed onset injuries. A blow to the head is concerning on a number of fronts, because it may either cause a small brain injury or may even contribute to a stroke, which can seriously alter a person's functional abilities.
Likewise, if the accident results in a back injury, you may not feel it until hours or even days later. This may be soft-tissue damage, such as whiplash, or it may involve damage to your spinal column and the nerve that the spinal column houses. If left untreated, you may suffer ongoing pain from pinched or severed nerves.
You may not think that your public transit accident resulted in any injuries, and hopefully you are correct. However, it is always wise to seek professional medical care as soon as you can, to identify any hidden injuries and understand the grounds you may have for a lawsuit to cover your medical expenses and other losses caused by the injuries.