What To Do When An Injury Leaves You With Chronic Pain

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Broken bones, lacerations, burns and other forms of personal injuries people suffer as a result of a car accident, a slip and fall, or a dangerous product can be readily identified. Some injuries that cannot be seen during an examination and do not appear on an X-ray or MRI may cause a person to experience debilitating pain. If another party’s negligent or reckless conduct causes you to be injured and experience chronic pain, proving its existence to recover compensation from the responsible party can be a challenge that personal injury lawyers must meet.

What is chronic pain?

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario defines chronic pain by referencing the time usually associated with the healing process for a particular injury. Pain persisting in excess of six months beyond what is normally considered to be the time within which an injury should heal is classified as chronic pain. When chronic pain causes a marked disruption in a person’s ability to enjoy a normal life, the WSIB classifies that disruption as chronic pain disability.

Chronic pain, which is also referred to as fibromyalgia, is usually associated with a soft tissue injury, such as whiplash. The injury may cause ligaments and muscles to stretch and tear resulting in an extremely painful condition that could last for months or even years after an accident.

Because a victim’s complaints of pain and discomfort cannot be confirmed by the usual diagnostic methods, including X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, proving the existence of chronic pain can be difficult. Insurance companies and defense lawyers tend to be skeptical about accident victims whose injuries cannot be verified through an independent medical examination or through diagnostic testing. It is easy to dismiss the complaints of pain by a person injured in a car crash, in a slip-and-fall accident or in a work-related accident as being imagined or exaggerated when the pain cannot be seen or identified as readily as a bone fracture.

Effects of chronic pain

A person forced to live with chronic pain may experience physical and emotional effects from it, including:

• Impaired ability to move about
• Fatigue and lack of energy
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Loss of appetite

Resuming a normal life and returning to work may be difficult or impossible for someone injured in an accident who suffers from chronic pain.

Recovering damages for chronic pain

Proving the existence of chronic pain and its relationship to an accident requires detailed evaluations by the physicians and other medical professionals treating the injured person. Reports and other evidence from medical professionals specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain in patients is essential to establish the normal healing time for the type of injury caused by the accident.

A personal injury lawyer might supplement the medical evidence with testimony from friends, relatives and employers about the effects of the injury and the chronic pain on the person’s lifestyle and ability to perform work-related tasks. The purpose of the medical and nonmedical evidence is to establish a condition for which an accident victim should be compensated by the party whose negligence caused the accident and resulting injuries.

Obtain help from an Ontario personal injury lawyer

If you have been injured in an accident that causes you to suffer from chronic pain, the injury lawyers at Diamond and Diamond have years of experience successfully handling claims for compensation on behalf of people injured in accidents at or away from work. Learn more about your right to recover compensation for chronic pain by speaking with one of our lawyers. Call the Diamond and Diamond 24/7 injury hotline at 1-800-567-HURT or visit our website to speak to someone now. We have offices located throughout Ontario offering free consultations and case evaluations to injury victims and their families.