At Clark and Steinhorn, LLC we have handled all manner of car and truck accident cases but generally certain categories of injuries recur. One of the more frequent injury areas involves knees. Legs are overall quite durable and unlike say necks and backs, legs are not subject to whiplash like forces in a routine crash but knees are more susceptible to injury and often require some level of surgical intervention.
The actual mechanism of injury often involves the knee coming into forceful contact with hardened components of the car including the steering column, dashboard and door. Your knee may not whip forward and back in as dramatic a fashion is your neck but the forces visited upon a knee in a big crash can be very significant.
Some injuries such as knee strains, sprains, bursitis, tendonitis and contusions can be painful and even temporarily incapacitating but rarely require surgical intervention. Torn menisci, tendons, and ligamentous injuries are frequently resolved through surgery.
The so-called "dashboard injury"may push the shin in above the knee thereby producing a torn posterior cruciate ligament. A variety of factors can produce a torn meniscus and a torn anterior cruciate ligament injury is another level beyond.
The medico-legal issues involving knees typically are focused on degenerative changes that exist in many people's knees as they age particularly where they have long athletic histories. Knee MRIs often reveal torn mensci and other injuries but also often show degenerative changes that insurance companies often attempt to blame for the need for surgery.
Maryland law would in theory eliminate such an argument as the at fault party takes the victim as they find them at the time of the accident. Which is to say that if you have degenerative changes in your knee (or any other body part) and you are injured in a crash and the knee becomes symptomatic, it is irrelevant whether your knee was perfect and without underlying pathology or banged up. your problems only arose when someone else crashed into you.
Knee and leg injury cases require sound medical documentation to support the relationship between the car crash and necessary treatment. As a result do not delay in getting your knee properly evaluated in the aftermath of a crash by a trained professional.
