I had a front impact wreck and am having chest and rib area pain after airbag deployment, am I okay?

Question

I wrecked after going to sleep with my seatbelt on head on into a phone pole going about 35 mph in a Chevy Lumina. I am still after five days having severe pains in my chest and ribs with no bruising there, pain upon moving from a lying flat position or sitting upright comfortably. I did not seek medical attention. I am worried something is broken or is this just typical soreness?

Answer 1

anytime you are involved in an automobile accident you should seek medical attention-regardless of how severe the accident was.

an airbag deploys at a MINIMUM of 65mph and can cause serious injury-especially to the upper abdomen and chest area.

eventhough you can't SEE any bruises on the outside of your body, doesn't mean that you are fine on the inside.

you could have fractured your ribs, which could eventually puncture one or both or your lungs-cause serious respiratory distress or cause you to stop breathing. you could also have internal bruising on your lungs or other internal organs which could be causing internal bleeding.

i strongly urge you to go to the nearest emergency room to be checked out-do NOT drive yourself. if you have no-one to take you-CALL 911.

i work in trauma icu and 95% of my patients were involved in auto accidents and alot of them are like yours-low rate of speed w/air bag deployment.

some of the other injuries that i see often that you could have are:
-liver laceration (force of impact of the crash OR the air bag deployment causes small or large cuts in your liver-causes internal bleeding-most common symptom people feel is pain-especially when trying to sit up)
-spleen laceration (organ that stores your red blood cells-cause of this injury is the same as above)
-collapsed lung due to rib fractures (chest tube insertion is needed to drain the fluid and blood that has gotten into the lung when it collapsed-you can die if this is not treated)
-fractured pelvis
-bruised kidneys

PLEASE PLEASE get seen immediately. soreness is normal after any accident but you really need to be seen to make sure you don't have internal injuries

Answer 2

Airbag Injuries Chest

Answer 3

It has been three weeks since I was hit with an airbag. I went to the ER and had an EKG and chest xrays. I did not break anything and heart is ok but I still cannot cough and though finally off the codeine meds I still have deep pain, stabbing sometimes, but better. I try to lay down awhile every day for awhile. This is going to take at least a month or more to get over. You must get medical attention whenever an air bag deploys.

Answer 4

Get thee to a doctor, now.

S/he will run a few test, take an X-ray or two and maybe a CT-scan. Your body absorbed a good bit of punishment and that punishment could have easily resulted in serious injury. I have seen people killed by less than you absorbed and I have seen people with no injury after absorbing twice the impact. You decelerated from 35 MPH to 0 MPH in a time span to small for most humans to understand. Then you took an airbag in the chest and face. All that is a very violent episode. That's enough on that subject. Just get yourself to a doctor as soon as is reasonable possible.

Answer 5

Hi, if it is like a sudden stabbing pain like when you breath in you might have broken a rib or you could have suffered a blunt trauma injury but I think after 5 days you would know because that involves internal bleeding sometimes. If your rib is broken, unless it is a potential threat to your lungs or other internal organs, they well probably wrap you with a tight ace bandage and tell you it will heal on its own.

Answer 6

you may want to seek medical attention. you could have a cracked sternum or severly bruised your ribs. its nothing to be ashammed of, we all at some point in our lives have done somthing stupid. I'm glad no one was hurt. But please seek medical attention, the doctor can help you alot more then people on yahoo answers. Plus he can give you some medication for the pain.

Answer 7

a friend of mine rear ended a toyota pickup with his jaguar at about 45. Afterwards he had chest pain similiar to yours but also hurt to cough. Turns out he cracked his sternum and bruised his lungs and heart. there was nothing he could do except rest and try to not do anything that hurt. He said that sleeping sitting up helped. Do see a doc though.

Answer 8

Sounds like a bruised rib.

Answer 9

The impact probably cracked a few ribs in your ribcage, go see the doctor. You never, it could lead to one of them puncturing your lungs. Veeeeeery serious.

Answer 10

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