The first road safety lesson every child learns is looking both ways and crossing the road only when it is clear. However, you could still be at the risk of an accident even when you have done everything right.
According to the Governors Highways Safety Association, 3,441 pedestrians were struck and killed by drivers in the first quarter of the year 2021. Thousands more suffered injuries in varying degrees during the same period.
If you have been hurt in an accident, ensuring your recovery should be your main priority. But worry not, as this post highlights several tips to help you recover faster after a pedestrian accident.
1. Get Expert Legal Help: The Compensation Could Pay For Your Treatment and Recovery
If your injuries result from another person’s negligence, you are eligible to recover compensation for all resulting damages. However, the claims process in Chicago can be very demanding. It includes moving from place to place, collecting evidence, talking to witnesses, etc.
Unfortunately, doing all these can be counterproductive to your healing process, so you need to have someone, preferably a Chicago pedestrian accident lawyer, do all the hard work.
2. Seek Immediate Medical Attention
You may have seen a case where a person involved in an accident got away seemingly unscathed, only to be rushed to the hospital hours later in critical condition. This usually happens because some injuries can take some time to manifest, or when they do, they are confused with something else.
For example, a concussion can present as a minor headache at the scene of an accident, meaning a person can dismiss it by taking some pain medication. In other instances, the adrenaline released at impact can mask the pain leaving someone thinking they are fine while they are not.
Unfortunately, some injuries get worse with time, so you have to ensure you see a doctor whether you exhibit symptoms of an injury or not. Getting early medical intervention can significantly affect your recovery. Besides, you will need the medical records to create a connection between your injuries and the accident.
3. Follow Through With the Doctor’s Advice
Seeking medical attention is a good thing. However, it must be accompanied by following through with the doctor’s directives and recommendations, such as taking your medication, getting enough rest, and attending follow-up appointments.
Unfortunately, most people stop following the doctor’s recommendations when they start feeling better.
The problem with failure to follow recommendations from your doctor is that it can affect your recovery process by reversing the gains made over the treatment period. Also, it can hurt your case if the at-fault can find evidence of your failure to follow treatment requirements.
4. Eat Recovery Foods
It is important to eat healthy at all times, but the need to eat healthy goes a notch higher if you are recovering from an accident.
First on your menu should be water. Your body will dehydrate faster when it works to recover from injuries, so you need to stay dehydrated by taking at least eight glasses of water per day.
Fruits and vegetables play a significant role in reducing inflammation, so you may need to have plenty of them in your diet. A Protein-rich diet is necessary for building muscle mass, so you may want to have plenty of protein-rich foods such as chicken and fish in your diet too.
5. Peace of Mind
Your body and mind work as a team. This means that what you think ultimately affects how you feel and vice versa. Studies show that a positive mind produces chemicals that can help hasten the body’s recovery, such as gamma globulin which boosts the body’s immune system, and endorphins, natural pain killers.
Staying positive after an accident is not easy. But the earlier you can get at peace with your situation, the faster your body will heal. One way of getting peace of mind is leaving most of the work in your Chicago pedestrian accident lawyer’s hands.
Besides offering legal help, your lawyer can be the shoulder you need to cry on. Also, they can offer help in solving some of the problems that could be wearing you down, for example, making arrangements for contingency-based medical treatments and access to funding from available litigation funders.
6. Seek Help to Recover From Emotional Trauma If Necessary
Sometimes injuries sustained in an accident go deeper than physical injuries to cause psychological and emotional trauma. It is common for accident victims to exhibit symptoms of PTSD, which involve reliving their traumatic experience for months or even years after an accident.
Under such circumstances, you will need more than a lawyer to heal. You may want to explore other options such as getting professional help from a counselor, sharing your pain with relatives and friends, getting medication from a qualified psychiatrist, etc.
7. Never Accept First Offer Without Legal Advice
Severe injuries often result in pretty high payouts that the at-fault party may not be willing to part with easily. Sometimes they (or their insurer) will even reach out to you with an offer before filing a claim.
That offer is almost always a bad deal, and you should not take it. Besides, the offer may not include future medical expenses if your doctor recommends further treatment procedures at a later stage.
Therefore, let your lawyer handle all negotiations to ensure you get what you deserve. A favorable settlement has to adequately cover all damages, including current and future hospital bills, medication costs, walking aids, other equipment necessitated by the injuries, and home modifications.
It should also cover all non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, disfigurement, disability, and loss of life’s enjoyment.
8. Be Patient
The recovery process can be long and expensive. However, you should be able to recover damages at the end of the claims process, which can take a few months to two years, depending on the complexity of your case.
The good news is that your lawyer can help you access a personal injury lawsuit loan as you await compensation.
While these loans are often payable upon recovering your damages at an agreed-upon interest rate, the interest rates can be relatively high. This is because of the high risks as the lender only gets their money back if you win your case.
