The Wichita shoulder injury lawyers at Bull Attorneys are experienced in medical-legal diagnosis of various injuries occurring from a car or motor vehicle accident. Our law firm team has a complete medical library on orthopedic injuries that result from car, truck, and motorcycle accidents. Our Wichita shoulder injury trial lawyers are trained to immediately assess our client independently of the doctors to see what injuries you truly have.

The most common injuries to the body following a car or motor vehicle accident involve neck and back injuries. Most of the ER doctors are busy focusing on these two areas to make sure there is not a spinal cord traumatic injury. In many circumstances, they fail to adequately run diagnostic texts like x-rays and MRI on related body parts like the shoulder and arm.

Shoulder injuries happen from car accidents all the time. Car accidents are a traumatic experience, often causing joint pain that can affect your quality of life. It is well known by Wichita shoulder injury attorneys that the majority of car accident victims going to the emergency room after their car accident are not properly diagnosed with a shoulder injury.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) found that following a motor vehicle crash, neck injury is a common injury treated at the emergency department while shoulder injuries often are overlooked, especially subacromial impingement after whiplash.

Shoulder impingement after a car accident can be mistakenly diagnosed as neck pain rather than shoulder impingement from the accident trauma. The Journal of Orthopaedic surgery and Research did a study on the misdiagnosis of whiplash injury to the cervical spine from rear end car crashes. The study found that the seatbelt in the rear end accident caused direct trauma from the seatbelt in 83% of the shoulder injuries in the ninety-three car accident patients studied.

This means that the driver in a rear end car crash or truck accident may have shoulder impingement to the seatbelt on the left shoulder while the passenger can have seatbelt injury to the right shoulder that is mistaken to be a cervical strain, sprain, or whiplash.

Why does this happen? The main reason is that the ER doctors will primarily focus on the neck and back following a car accident. The injury victim may have a hard time distinguishing pain from the cervical neck to the shoulder because both can cause pain down the shoulder and arm. The conclusion of the study was simple. When a car accident patient presents to the emergency room doctor with neck pain also radiating to the shoulder, the ER doctor should consider shoulder impingement as a secondary injury diagnosis.

Because ER doctors commonly misdiagnose whiplash injuries that are actually shoulder impingement it is very important to get a second opinion form an orthopedic surgeon following a rear end car accident. It is important that you list all symptoms in body parts the first time a medical doctor sees you, so they have information to help diagnose the injury.

Our Wichita personal injury attorneys have had hundreds of car accident victims that went to an emergency room only to be discharged saying it is just whiplash missing their significant shoulder injury. This can affect the amount of financial compensation you get from your car accident or other motor vehicle crash.

Bull Attorneys follows a case development methodology that was learned and taught by our founder who trained our lawyers and case managers to do their own medical-legal diagnosis of the patient's symptoms the first time we meet. Once we know you have a secondary injury like a shoulder fracture, impingement syndrome to the shoulder, or strains and sprains to the rotator cuff or brachial plexus tear we immediately get you to a qualified medical doctor to medically diagnose your condition.

The Wichita shoulder injury accident attorneys at Bull Attorneys use our team approach to have the trial lawyer, case manager and legal assistant work together on your case as a team. We find doctors who are specialists in your type of shoulder injury. We set up your insurance claims and then investigate fault and liability to prove your right to compensation for your injuries.

We help you get money and financial compensation for pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical bills, wage loss and surgical costs as well as future medical treatment. We are available 24 hours a day. You can get a free consultation by writing on our contact page or calling us in Wichita at 316-684-4400 and in Garden City at 620-943-2855.

Our results for car accident victims with shoulder injuries are impressive. In many shoulder injury claims, we have been able to obtain settlements of $100,000 and more and in one case we were able to obtain over one million dollars to a seriously injured farm truck accident victim that had to have a shoulder replacement and nerve grafting to try and restore function to the arm.

Shoulder injuries are complex injuries caused from trauma like motor vehicle accidents, workplace accidents and severe falls. Shoulder injuries are frequently caused in farming accidents.

Common types of injury to the shoulder following an accident are shown by the following:

• Shoulder impingement syndrome. Rear end force and trauma in motor vehicle collisions causes the shoulder belt to lock and compress which results in shoulder impingement syndrome.
• Clavicle injuries. This bone connects the arm and chest and when broken or fractured is very painful. It usually needs surgery to put a plate and screws into the fracture site.
• Scapula injuries. This is your shoulder blade and connects to the clavicle to hold the shoulder in place. These injuries are usually fractures that require longtime stabilization or surgery following your car accident.
• Humerus injuries to the head of the shoulder. This is the ball that fits into the socket in your shoulder to keep your arm in place. Humerus injuries are extremely painful, require surgery in most cases and can result in long term permanent disability.
• Glenohumeral Joint. This is where the ball of the humerus connects to the scapula and provides mobility and the ability to lift and pull. It is considered the most mobile part in the body. When injury to this joint occurs from a motor vehicle accident it is likely you have lifelong functional limitations that limit arm movement, lifting ability and cause difficulty sleeping.
• Acromioclavicular Joint. This is where the acromion and clavicle are attached and provides stability to the shoulder. Injuries to this area cause loss of stability in the shoulder and make the use of the shoulder difficult for multiple tasks of daily living and work.
• Sternoclavicular joint. This connects the clavicle to the breastbone known as the sternum. Injuries to this joint create substantial limitations on arm movement.
• Rotator cuff injuries. The rotator cuff includes muscles, ligaments, and tendons attaching the shoulder to the body and includes the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis muscles. Together, the group helps you to raise or rotate your arm in different directions. Injuries to the rotator cuff can be tears to these ligaments, tendons and muscles which require surgical repair. Bursitis is inflammation to the bursa and can be caused by a car accident injury to the shoulder. Tendinitis can be an injury where inflammation of the tendons causes problems in lifting or using your arm and shoulder.