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Delayed Symptoms After Virginia Car Accidents


People who have been involved in car, truck or motorcycle accidents do not always realize they were injured at the crash scene. In some cases, symptoms may set in hours or even days later. Victims of car accidents should be aware of the dangers of delayed symptoms after Virginia car accidents.

The fact pain or discomfort is not immediately obvious after a car accident does not mean you escaped without serious injuries. Traumatic brain injuries are not often obvious after a car wreck.

You should get yourself checked out by a doctor after you have been in a car accident. A medical professional may notice symptoms and risks you are unaware of. The following are seven symptoms you should look out for that may not appear until a few days after a crash.

Back Pain serious problems like nerve, ligament or muscle injury. In more serious cases, you may have suffered damage to a vertebra in the spine.

Headaches

It’s not uncommon for a headache to develop days after a serious vehicle accident. You should be aware headaches can indicate a serious problem like a concussion, a blood clot on the brain, a neck injury or another form of head injury.

Pain or swelling in the abdomen

Any swelling or ongoing pain in the abdominal area warrants a visit to the doctor. If you also suffer from dizziness, bruising, nausea, and fainting, you may be suffering from internal bleeding, a serious medical condition.

Numbness

Numbness in the days after a car accident is another potentially serious delayed symptom after a car crash. Loss of feeling in the victim’s arms and hands is a sign of a whiplash injury. Damage to the neck or the spinal column may lead to a loss of feeling. As many as one in five people who are involved in a car crash suffer from whiplash.

Personality changes and mood swings

Brain injuries are complicated. If you suffer cognitive issues, mood swings, or personality changes in the days or weeks after a wreck, this may be indicative of a brain injury.

Memory loss, sensory issues relating to vision or hearing, aggression, mood swings and impaired concentration can be signs of a TBI.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Painful memories, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, nightmares and reliving the accident weeks of months later are signs of PTSD. Children often suffer symptoms like flashbacks. The Mayo Clinic offers advice about how to deal with PTSD.

Neck or Shoulder pain

Ongoing neck and shoulder pain are fairly common in people who were involved in a car crash. Whiplash is a well-known delayed symptom associated with accidents. When you are at the accident scene, the adrenalin is often pumping and it masks the pain.

Whiplash is typically associated with rear-end collisions. The injury is known as whiplash because it is caused by the head and neck snapping quickly backward and forward during a crash.

Although this injury often heals in a matter of weeks, the symptoms of whiplash may be ongoing and lead to other serious complications. Whiplash often requires MRIs, X-rays, and scans for a correct diagnosis. If your whiplash symptoms last for more than six weeks, you should seek the advice of a specialist.

Delayed Symptoms After Virginia Car Accidents – See a Doctor Right Away

The possibility of delayed symptoms after a motor vehicle wreck is another reason why you should see a doctor right away after a car wreck. Ideally, make an appointment with your medical provider who is familiar with your history.

If you feel discomfort immediately after a wreck, the symptoms are likely to get worse. Even if you feel no pain, you should consider seeing a medical provider, particularly if the accident was at high speed or involved considerable property damage.

Your doctor is in the best position to tell you whether you sustained any potentially serious injuries in the accident. A doctor will also advise you of the symptoms of complications that may be associated with the accident.

The Dangers of Ignoring Symptoms After a Car Accident

You should never ignore symptoms such as lingering head or back pain after a car accident. These may be warning signs of a more serious condition.

If your doctor diagnoses an injury after a car wreck and you start treatment, continue the course of treatment until the doctor ends it. 

Your medical provider is in the best position to determine how seriously you are injured and to prescribe the best course of treatment for your injuries.

The records of your doctor and hospital visits are the best way to verify and document your course of treatment which is essential after a car accident injury claim.

Insurance companies will look for any excuse to withhold payment. If you ignore symptoms of an injury and hope they will go away, the insurance company will claim you were not seriously injured.

Call an Injury Lawyer for Delayed Symptoms after Virginia Car Accidents

At the Smith Law Center, our attorneys have helped people with serious injuries to obtain the compensation they deserve for decades. In some cases, we have helped clients identify problems such as mild traumatic brain injuries.

If you are concerned about delayed symptoms after a car accident in Virginia or another injury, please call us today for a free consultation at (757) 244-7000.

 

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If you or a relative had a severe reaction to military housing mold, it might be time to talk with a toxic mold lawyer. Mold is everywhere, and can be dangerous. Researchers have linked mold to serious respiratory illnesses in some individuals.

Smith Law Center may be able to help if a property owner failed to keep you safe from mold in your military housing. We are one of Virginia’s oldest and most successful firms. We know how to hold negligent property owners responsible, especially when the military is involved.

Call us at (757) 244-700 or contact us online to set up a free consultation. There’s no fee for learning more about Virginia mold laws, your rights, and your legal options.

Mold in Military Housing

Black mold in military housing became widely known when Reuters published an investigation in 2018. Since then, the Department of Defense and the housing providers were supposed to take steps to improve the situation.

Unfortunately, a 2020 audit by the DoD Office of Inspector General found many issues, including the need for mold remediation, still persist.

Monetary Awards in Military Housing Toxic Mold Cases

If the property owner lets toxic mold run wild and continue to cause you harm, talk with our toxic mold attorneys about filing a lawsuit.

You may receive financial compensation for:

Service members and their families do not receive different types of damages than civilians. These are civil lawsuits in traditional courts of law.

Military Housing Mold Toxicity Symptoms

The Institute of Medicine discovered there was evidence connecting exposure to indoor mold with:

  • Upper respiratory tract symptoms;
  • Coughing;
  • Wheezing;
  • Asthma symptoms in individuals with asthma; and
  • Hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals with weak immune systems.

There is also limited evidence that mold causes respiratory illnesses in healthy children or causes people to develop asthma.

Understanding Exposure to Toxic Mold in Military Housing

The topic of toxic mold is complicated. This Is in part because the term “toxic mold” isn’t accurate. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains mold isn’t toxic or poisonous. However, some molds are toxigenic, which means they produce toxins called mycotoxins.

Mold is common in military housing because it’ll grow anywhere there’s moisture. That includes on and inside walls, carpet, upholstery, wallpaper, and heating and air conditioning systems. This is especially pronounced in humid conditions such as those present in Virginia.

Some people have no difficulties around mold, even large infestations in their homes. Other individuals are sensitive to molds, including those that produce mycotoxins. Someone can have a severe reaction when exposed to a large amount of mold indoors.

People may be more likely to experience mold toxicity symptoms if they have:

  • Allergies,
  • An underlying lung disease,
  • Immune suppression,
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder,
  • Asthma, or
  • Another chronic respiratory disease.

Common Types of Military Housing Mold

When you’re trying to learn more from the CDC and other resources, you’ll see the word “fungus” a lot. Mold is a type of fungus, which is something that exists all around us. Fungi are living organisms different from animals, plants, and bacteria. There are over 200,000 types of fungi and over 100,000 types of molds.

If you discovered mold in your military housing, it could be Cladosporium, Penicillium, Stachybotrys chartarum, Aspergillus, or many other types. Stachybotrys is what everyone knows as black mold. Aspergillus is a common indoor fungus, which releases mycotoxins and can cause illness. Your symptoms may resemble common allergy or asthma symptoms.

Who is Liable for Military Housing Mold?

Since 1996, most military housing has come under the management of private companies:

  • Belfour Beatty Communities: Fort Eustis and Fort Story/li>
  • Lincoln Military Housing: Dahlgren, Little Creek, Naval Station Norfolk, Northwest Annex, Oceana, Portsmouth, Quantico, and Yorktown/li>
  • Hunt Military Communities: Fort Lee and Langley AFB

Outside of Virginia, Lendlease and Corvias Military Living are two more housing providers. Together, these five companies formed the Military Housing Association.

Military families living in on-base housing must take their complaints to their private management company — not the military. The company is responsible for providing habitable conditions and making repairs, including mold remediation.

If you’re unsure about your rights, review your state law and local ordinances about mold. In general, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to provide a habitable unit, which means it has to be safe to live in. A unit isn’t safe if it’s causing a tenant health issues due to mold.

The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to disclose if there’s mold in the written report of the move-in inspection. If a tenant discovers visible mold in the unit, then the Act requires the landlord to remove the mold and relocate the tenant until it’s gone at no additional cost to the tenant.

Unfortunately, many families find their housing providers aren’t receptive to complaints. Attorney Stephen M. Smith has handled many mold lawsuits against military housing providers who fail to abide by their lease terms and the law when it comes to mold remediation and other hazards.

Other Hazards in Military Housing

Many service members and their families deal with uncomfortable, if not hazardous, conditions in privatized military housing, including:

Lead Paint: Lead-based paint can cause headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, seizures, organ damage, and in extreme cases, death.

Asbestos: Exposure to asbestos harms a person’s lungs, and can lead to lung fibrosis (scarring), lung cancer, and mesothelioma.

Radon: Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. It naturally forms underground, however cracks and gaps in buildings lead to over-exposure indoors.

Poor Water Quality: Dozens of military sites have water with detectable levels of harmful chemicals.

Other issues involve rodent or insect infestations, pesticides, and faulty electrical wiring.

What Happens When a Lot of People Get Sick?

Sometimes mold exposure impacts a single individual or family. However, when the mold spreads throughout military housing, it can impact hundreds or thousands of people.

Occasionally, a large enough group of people are injured to allow for a class action or mass tort lawsuit. A class action lawsuit is one where a class representative acts as the plaintiff on behalf of the group of hurt individuals. Not every victim participates in the lawsuit. There are rules about when a group is big and similar enough to create a class action.

Mass tort lawsuits are different. When there are fewer plaintiffs who have their own set of circumstances, each person files a lawsuit. For efficiency’s sake, one or a couple of law firms may represent most plaintiffs, and the lawsuits are consolidated in a federal court.

Call the Military Housing Mold Lawyers at Smith Law Center for Help Right Away

Mold cases come about in a few ways. You or a loved one may start getting sick, and after weeks or months of struggling to find answers, you finally realize your military housing has a mold infestation. In other cases, you struggle with visible mold and then become ill.

Once you connect the illness with the mold, it’s time to talk with a toxic mold lawyer. Reaching out to an attorney early helps you build a strong compensation claim. We know how to collect evidence, identify who is liable, and craft a successful argument for a settlement or court award.

Attorney Stephen M. Smith has decades of experience handling injury claims and has been internationally recognized for his work. He has litigated cases involving catastrophic injuries and complex legal and scientific issues. In 2019, he was inducted into the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame.

You’re in good hands when you come to Smith Law Center for help. Reach out online or call (757) 244-7000 to schedule your 100% free consultation.

Military Housing Mold Lawsuits: FAQs

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Use the simple form below to send a message directly to our lawyers. We will respond within 1 hour or less during business hours.

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