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Nausea & Vomiting?
Why It Could Indicate More Serious Problems
Nausea and vomiting after a car accident may be signs of severe injury.
You should seek medical treatment immediately for these symptoms and prepare for the possibility that your car accident caused nausea may be a symptom of a more serious underlying injury.
While the shock and andrenaline of a wreck can understandably produce nausea, secondary symptoms can develop days or weeks after the crash.
If left unattended, a brain bleed and swelling could lead to a severe long-term injury or impairment.
This is what we've learned after reviewing thousands of claims nationwide about nausea after an auto accident, and to help you understand the potential legal impact on compensation recovery.
Below, you’ll learn what the secondary symptoms are to watch out for, why they may not appear until weeks after the crash, and how your lawyer can help protect your future.
Secondary Injuries Sustained During a Car Accident
A collision can result delayed injuries which do not exhibit symptoms immediately. The whipping of the head in a crash, blunt trauma impacts with the vehicle dashboard, steering wheel, or windshield all can result in bodily harm which may not present symptoms initially. Secondary injuries occur as the result of the damage sustained in the accident.
Nausea & Vomiting May Be a Symptom of Underlying Injuries to the Head
"You can expect the insurance companies to do everything in their power to limit what they pay victims in an injury claim..."
Delayed head injuries (a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) with few early symptoms) are some of the most dangerous. Painful headaches after your car accident may be indicative of swelling. Car accident victims may feel no pain at all while the brain is experiencing expanding bruising. Your cognitive ability may continue to decline over weeks after a wreck, affecting the following: [1]:
- Short and long-term memory
- Emotional control
- Concentration
- Logic and reasoning skills
- Body regulation
- Balance
The final two, in particular, are likely to result in nausea that interferes with your life. A traumatic brain injury sustained in a auto accident can lead to lifetime impairment, and most injuries require immediate treatment to limit the extent of the damage.
You should never use a lack of symptoms as an excuse not to seek medical attention. Permanent injuries don’t always present symptoms immediately. Medical professionals can detect asymptomatic damage using medical knowledge, tests, specialized scans, and X-rays.
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Adrenaline & Shock After an Accident
Disorientation, dizziness, vomiting, and nausea are not uncommon after being involved in a serious car wreck and can be confused with indicators of more serious injuries. Always seek medical attention from a professional following an accident.
That means you shouldn’t ever hold off being examined for internal injuries after a crash. Even light abdominal pain combined with nausea may mean you’ve sustained serious car accident injuries.
You may also want to consider speaking to a therapist early after an accident to assist you in managing your trauma. Even psychological symptoms can worsen and require years of expensive treatment to resolve.
The costs of your treatment or recovery may follow you for the rest of your life. However, with a lawyer’s assistance, you can attempt to claim compensation. If your nausea symptoms and related injuries result from another driver’s neglect, that driver and their insurance company may have to cover some of your costs.
You’ll need to schedule a consultation with a lawyer to determine what’s possible in your case. If you are considering legal action, you should speak to a lawyer early after the event.

Common Causes for Nausea After a Car Accident
Long-term injuries resulting from car accidents are unfortunately common. The following severe injuries can occur in collisions, and all of them may have nausea as a symptom:
- Broken bones or fractures
- Soft tissue injury
- Whiplash
- Concussions
- Whiplash
- Seat belt injury
Schedule a full examination with your doctor to check for these and other injuries as soon as possible. This is the first step you need to take to protect yourself legally, even before you’ve spoken to a lawyer.
A full examination is necessary for several reasons, including some that are important to get the compensation you deserve.
- First, you should seek medical attention for your own sake. Your injuries may become more severe if ignored for a short time, even just overnight.
- Secondly, your urgency in seeking care may be considered in court. If you wait a few days or weeks to seek care, it may be used as evidence that your pain or disability isn’t as bad as you claim. This argument may sway juries or judges to reduce the awards.
- Finally, you should seek medical care as soon as possible, since not all symptoms of severe injury appear immediately. Nausea may also develop days or weeks after the original collision. When nausea appears as a delayed symptom, it can point to other serious problems.
Potential Related Injuries Nausea May Indicate
If you experience nausea as a delayed symptom, it may be related to one of the following types of injuries: anxiety, PTSD, internal organ injury, or stomach or digestive system injury.
Nausea may point to a serious injury when it is paired with other symptoms such as:
- Bloating
- Neck pain
- Back pain
- Dizziness
- Panic attacks
How Delayed Injuries Can Impact Your Compensation Claims
You should get an attorney for compensation soon after a car accident because urgency will give your lawyer a better chance to prepare your claim to maximize your financial recovery. Secondary injuries need to be diagnosed, accounted for, and added into recovery claims.
Insurance adjusters will do everything they can to limit their financial responsibility and settle quickly for less than you may be legally entitled.
Headaches, nausea, joints "giving out", persistent back pain, mobility difficulties, should not be ignored. Inform your attorney.
The compensation your lawyer can claim for you may depend on how well you can prove the negligence of other drivers or how early you can begin documenting your injuries. All of these reasons make it important to speak to a lawyer quickly if you plan to pursue compensation:
- Lawyers need time to gather evidence
- It may become impossible to prove errors in witness statements or police reports
- You may fail to request the right tests to prove your injuries (and your doctor may forget to recommend them)
- Evidence can be lost (for example, nearby security video of your accident may be erased or taped over if it isn’t requested soon enough)
- Valuable witnesses can forget details, leave the area, or change numbers and addresses
- Lawyers can help you protect your assets during the case if you experience joblessness because of your injuries
Give your lawyer the best chance to represent you - it's important because your family's financial safety may depend on it. Your injuries may place you out of work for a long time. This lost income may affect you at the same time as high medical bills.
What You Say to Insurance Companies Can Hurt Your Claim
Lawyers also need time to instruct you on how you should respond to requests from insurance companies (even your own). Making some statements about your injuries, even if they are said off-hand, as a joke, or sarcastically, can be used as evidence against you.
When Nausea Points to a Serious Injury
After you receive medical attention, start working with an attorney as soon as possible. Nausea can point to serious and long-term symptoms, and it is not less dangerous as a delayed symptom. We commonly encounter delayed head injury claims which can be life-threatening if left untreated.
Get examined and start following your treatment plan. Work with your lawyer to determine the best the next steps. Your lawyer will need adequate time to gather evidence, review the police accident reports and witness statements to build a strong compensation claim for you.
Give your accident injury lawyer the best chance to help secure a successful outcome by scheduling your consultation immediately following a collision.
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