People who have been injured in accidents sometimes have headaches that feel like a migraine headache. It is possible that the headache is a post traumatic migraine. Post traumatic migraines are a well recognized medical injury. Here are the symptoms which may mean that such an injury has been suffered.
A migraine headache can start after the back of a person’s head hits the headrestt of their vehicle in a rear end impact. This impact can be easily overlooked and missed in all of the commotion after an accident. At the end of this article I tell the story of the case I had where the emergency room doctor missed the head impact but the nurse recorded it. . Here are some of the signs to look for:
The migraine headaches usually start within one or two hours of the head impact. It also usually starts at the back of the head, where the head hit the headrest. It may spread to other areas of the head. It will usually last one to two hours after it starts.
Post accident migraines have nausea associated with them and may sometimes involve vomiting, Bright lights, loud noises and some smells can bring them on. The injured person can suffer frommental confusion and may have memory problems. The injured person usually needs to go to a dark room and curl up into a ball to control the migraine. The migraines may come intermittently for several years.
Here is the story of what happened to my client. My client had post accident migraine headaches, She could not remember hitting her head on the back of her headrest. I read the emergency room records. The examining doctor’s report made no mention of my client having headaches or of hitting her head on the headrest.
I kept looking in the records . Finally I found one nurse’s note that indicated as follows: “Patient has pain at the back of her head where it hit her headrest. Patient’s pain is at a level of 6 with 10 being the worst pain possible and 0 being no pain”
It was clear from that record that there was a mechanism of injury to my client’s head and brain to cause the migraine headaches she was having.
If you have a problem with accident caused migraine headaches please call me foe free at 949-496-7000 or toll free at 877-320-1338. You can also e mail me at john@johnburnslaw.com.
Please feel free to contact me. I help people with these types of problems every day. It’s what I do.
John P. Burns
Attorney at Law