Eye Floaters: An Injury Often Gone Untreated After a Car Accident
After a car accident, the body can sustain various types of damage. Some of the most common injuries include head trauma, broken bones, soft tissue wounds, whiplash, and broken bones.
However, there is another injury that often goes untreated and overlooked: eye floaters. Those with eye floaters need to go to an eye doctor for proper treatment as soon as possible after the car accident. Here we talk further about what eye floaters are and how they are caused.
What Eye Floaters Look Like
Floaters are specks of vitreous gel that have broken loose within the eye. This vitreous gel is supposed to remain attached to the wall of your eye, but it can be pulled away for many reasons. Floaters can appear in your vision like little blurs, small black dots, or threads with a tiny flash of bright light. Floaters move along with the eye, so they will seem to follow along with your line of sight. If you rest your eyes, then the floaters won’t be as noticeable.
Why Floaters Go Untreated
People who were recently in a car accident and suffered sudden trauma may overlook the floaters in their eyes because they think it’s temporary and not serious. But, “seeing spots” after a car crash isn’t normal and must be treated by an eye doctor. In some instances, these floaters will settle near the bottom of the eye and become unnoticeable. For other cases, these floaters will negatively impact a person’s vision and can be so severe that eye surgery is required.
How Floaters Impact Your Car Accident Claim
If you have eye floaters after a car crash, then inform your eye doctor what you recently endured. Your doctor can give you copies of your medical assessment so you can present this to your car insurance company or lawyer if you are filing a lawsuit against the other driver for damages. If you don’t get floaters taken care of promptly and add it to your claim or lawsuit, then you may end up having to pay out of pocket for medical bills. To protect your right to receive compensation, it is encouraged that those with eye injuries or floaters take the following action:
- See an eye doctor right away if you notice squiggles, threadlike movements, blurs, flashes, or spots in your vision after the car accident. Be sure to inform your eye doctor that you were recently in a vehicle collision.
- Schedule follow-up appointments with your eye doctor to evaluate the impact that the eye floaters are having on your vision. Do not close your car accident claim until your eye treatment has concluded.
- If the eye floaters are still observable after several months, you may need to see a retina specialist, who can talk with you more about whether surgery can reduce the number of floaters you see every day.
After a car crash, you must take steps towards protecting yourself from financial loss. Seeing an eye doctor shortly after a car accident if you are experiencing eye-related symptoms is strongly advised. After you consult with a doctor about your injuries, it might be best to speak with a car accident attorney Des Moines, IA from a law firm like Johnston Martineau, PLLP to get a better understanding of what kind of legal options you might have.
