What Does It Mean To “Go Into Shock” After An Accident?

After a major accident, it often is not the actual injury that is the most deadly aspect of what happened to you. It’s often the body’s reaction to the injury. It’s called going into shock, and while TV and movies have shown us that going into shock is a bad thing, most people don’t know what that actually means.

What is Shock?

Shock is actually not a specific medical term, but rather, describes your body’s physical and emotional reaction to severe injury. Specifically it relates to your body’s reaction to lowered blood pressure, but it’s much more serious than that sounds.

Biologically after an accident, your body senses serious injury. In reaction, it “shuts down,” which is really a survival mechanism, because it is trying to preserve blood to protect the organs, and it slows blood flow to a large extent. But in trying to do that, the body is lessening blood pressure — often to a dangerously low level. It actually means that in typing to protect itself, the body is actually causing itself potential harm.

Of course, blood pressure can also be lowered by simply losing blood, which is also why, when there is an accident and a major injury, people go into shock.

Damage to the nervous system, or parts of the body that operate the nervous system, which helps blood flow throughout the body, can also lower blood pressure and thus, result in shock.

Any type of injury that stops, slows or obstructs the flow of blood, even to just one part of the body, can lead to a massive drop in blood pressure, and thus, often deadly shock. This is especially true if the chest and heart area have sustained damage.

Mental Effects and Trauma

We often think of shock as what happens when we see injuries to ourselves, and that is actually true. In knowing that the body has sustained an injury, the brain tries to protect the body, and thus, slows down the blood flow in the body.

What are the Symptoms?

Of course, in an accident so severe as to cause shock, we often aren’t aware of our symptoms or paying attention to them — our body is in survival mode, and adrenaline may be taking over.

Still, it is worth knowing what symptoms to look for. Symptoms are what you might expect them to be, when blood flow or pressure is reduced — look for pale skin, sweating, dizziness or confusion. The body’s pulse may speed up, nausea may set in, and breathing may get heavier and feel more difficult. If shock progresses, the victim may even experience seizures.

It is normal for people who experience shock, after the accident, to develop symptoms that may sound like PTSD, and to some extent, that’s what it is. The victim may relive the event over and over again, or have irrational fears of the accident happening again, or may avoid situations similar to that where the accident happened.

Did you go into shock after your accident? Contact our Rhode Island personal injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help.

Source:

healthline.com/health/shock