Treating Road Rash After Motorcycle Crash
I’m Ed Smith, a Roseville Motorcycle Accident Lawyer. While motorcycles are a great tool for experiencing the freedom of the open road, they can also lead to some tragic accidents, including injuries such as bone fractures or even a wrongful death. One of the most common problems that people riding motorcycles can face after an accident is road rash.
Defining Road Rash
On an annual basis, thousands of people experience motorcycle accidents for a variety of reasons and a significant number of people will get a condition called road rash. This term is a colloquial term that has been used to label the scrapes, bruises, and abrasions that people who ride motorcycles can suffer if they slide along the pavement of a road. While it can vary widely in degree and severity, some of the defining characteristics include long scrapes where some of the skin has been removed, bleeding from these sites, and occasionally signs of asphalt that have been lodged in or under the skin. Sliding along the asphalt could also lead to brachial plexus injuries or a shoulder dislocation.
Treatment Options for Road Rash
For people who have experienced a mild case of road rash or other injuries caused by car accidents or motorcycle accidents, it is important to wash and clean the area of injury as soon as possible. This means placing the area under warm (not ice cold or boiling hot) water and cleaning it with soap or a similar material. After this, it can be helpful to apply an antiseptic ointment over the area. The skin is the body’s first line of defense against infection. Therefore, cleaning this area as soon as possible after an accident can help to prevent infection. After the cleaning and antiseptic application, people should bandage the area to protect it. It isn’t necessary to bandage the area to a point of being airtight. In fact, access to oxygen (sometimes called letting it “breathe”) can help to facilitate healing. It is always possible that these traumatic injuries could lead to chronic pain.
Do I Need to Seek Medical Attention?
There are a few reasons that people should seek the attention of a medical professional. If people can see exposed tissue underneath the injury, such as fat, bone, or muscle, people absolutely need to seek attention from a medical professional immediately. The injury could bleed profusely or quickly become infected. In addition, if the area appears infected, it may require treatment with antibiotics and people should seek the attention of a physician. At the visit, the physician may ask the patient to classify their pain. Any delay in seeking medical care could lead to permanent damage to the muscles, nerves (such as facial nerve damage), and blood vessels underneath. This could lead to neuropathic pain and require rehabilitation of peripheral nerve injuries.
Contact an Experienced Motorcycle Accident Attorney
I’m Ed Smith, a Roseville Motorcycle Accident Lawyer. Road rash can be both a medically and aesthetically challenging condition to deal with. Anyone who has been injured in a motorcycle accident should contact me at (916) 921-6400 for friendly, free advice. I have a toll-free line that people from outside the local area can use at (800) 404-5400.
I am a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum of California. As a group of some of the top-rated trial attorneys in the country, we have each won million or multiple million-dollar injury verdicts for past clients.
See some of my verdicts and settlements here.
Past clients have given helpful ratings and reviews on Avvo (the attorney ranking service), Yelp, and Google.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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