Jason Stephens | February 9, 2024 | Car Accidents

Why Is Physical Therapy Necessary After a Car Accident?

After a car accident, you may be left with muscle strains and sprains, soreness, reduced range of motion, and weakness. Physical therapy (PT) helps your body relearn how to move the way it should. Over time, it helps strengthen muscles, improve mobility, and alleviate pain. 

Physical therapists use various targeted treatments and techniques to safely increase the range of motion, build strength, and improve physical function without causing new injuries. 

Here’s why car accident physical therapy is important for your long-term health and how it can affect your personal injury case. 

The Benefits of Car Accident Physical Therapy

There are many important reasons to pursue physical therapy after an accident. Here are some ways PT can help you heal and move forward with your life. 

Faster Recovery After Your Accident

One of the most important benefits of physical therapy is supporting your recovery and even helping you heal faster. 

Physical activity aids recovery better than rest by triggering the body’s healing response and improving blood flow. The sooner PT can begin, the better. Early intervention reduces the amount of time your body is compensating or using improper movements, which can lead to issues like inflammation and poor healing.

Preventing Long-Term Damage and Re-Injury

Physical therapy helps prevent muscle loss and improves blood flow to the injured area to help it heal faster. Without PT, you may be left with long-term effects of your injury that could be avoided, like reduced range of motion, stiffness, and chronic pain. 

By strengthening muscles around the injury site, improving function, and addressing inflammation, physical therapy also helps you avoid re-injury. The injured area is already weakened; without effort to strengthen supporting muscles, it’s much easier to injure the same area again. 

PT can also help you avoid re-injury in an overlooked way: by offering an effective alternative to opioids. Prescription pain medication may increase the risk of re-injury, especially in seniors who are at an increased risk of falls and fractures while taking opioids.

Reducing Pain During Recovery

Physical therapy has been found in multiple studies to reduce pain while improving function. Several studies have also found it reduces short-term and long-term use of opioid medication. The CDC suggests PT as an effective pain management solution rather than opioids, which may only mask pain rather than addressing the cause. 

Potentially Avoiding Surgery or Improving Post-Surgery Rehabilitation

For many injuries, invasive surgery can be avoided when function and mobility are restored through physical therapy alone. While it isn’t possible for all injuries, PT can at least help your muscles stay strong before surgery to improve recovery. 

Physical therapy is often ordered as post-surgical rehabilitation, especially after orthopedic surgery. PT is recommended to prevent excessive scar tissue formation, reduce pain, and regain normal function after surgery.

Restored Range of Motion and Mobility

One goal of PT is increasing strength and improving stability in the injured area. This also helps reduce your risk of re-injury. 

A scientific review found that just four to eight weeks of balance or gait training had positive effects for up to 12 months. This PT also reduced falls for up to one year and improved walking ability and gait performance for up to six months. 

Common Issues Addressed By Physical Therapy

Physical therapy can help with many types of car accident injuries as well as aggravated pre-existing conditions. It can also improve secondary issues related to your crash, like weakness or instability after a long period of immobility. 

Common injuries and conditions that may be improved by physical therapy include: 

There are many specialized PT programs to treat these and other types of injuries.

Physical Therapy and Your Car Accident Injury Claim

PT sessions improve your recovery and minimize the long-term effects of your injury. If you are going to pursue a personal injury claim after your accident, there are additional benefits to going to PT. 

Physical Therapy Costs Can Be Included in Your Claim

If your car accident was caused by another driver’s negligence, you are entitled to seek full compensation for all your damages. This includes all medical expenses related to your injuries. Your car accident physical therapy can be included in your injury claim, allowing you to demand payment for the cost from the at-fault party. 

Attending PT Sessions Establishes a Pattern of Medical Care

After your accident, it’s important to follow your doctor’s orders and complete treatment. If you fail to follow your physician’s course of treatment, the insurance company may use it against you. 

Attending your physical therapy sessions helps establish a pattern of care. It demonstrates that you are following your doctor’s recommendations.

It Demonstrates You Are Mitigating Your Damages

If you suffer losses caused by someone else, you still have a legal duty to mitigate damages. This means you need to take reasonable steps to reduce the harm you have suffered and keep damages from worsening. 

The insurance company may claim you failed to mitigate damages if you: 

  • Do not seek medical treatment soon enough after the crash 
  • Fail to follow your doctor’s orders 
  • Stop going to physical therapy before completing a program

Failure to mitigate damages can potentially reduce the amount of compensation you recover. This is because it shifts some of the blame for your injuries and damages from the negligent driver to you.

Physical Therapy Shows the Severity of Your Injuries

Finally, PT helps to demonstrate that your injuries were as severe as you claim. A common insurance company tactic is downplaying the severity of a victim’s injuries. Completing your PT program is evidence that you were as injured as you claim, especially if a physician recommended it.

Contact a Fort Worth Car Accident Attorney For Help Pursuing Compensation For Physical Therapy and Other Damages

Do you have questions about paying for medical care after a collision, or are you ready to explore your legal options?

Contact our Fort Worth personal injury lawyers at Stephens Law Personal Injury | Wrongful Death | Truck Accidents to schedule a free consultation.

Stephens Law Personal Injury | Wrongful Death | Truck Accidents
1300 S University Dr # 300
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 420-7000

Stephens Law Personal Injury | Wrongful Death | Truck Accidents
109 York Ave Suite #201
Weatherford, TX 76086
(817) 663-0758