The other type of doctors you may see if you’ve been in an auto accident are orthopedic surgeons. Orthopedic surgeons do surgery on the shoulders, knees, hips, ankles or wrists. There are sub-specialties under orthopedic surgery such as hand specialists that will handle certain aspects of your hand as well as doctors who specialize in hip and knee replacement and general orthopedic surgeons who do all of the above. There are even a growing number of doctors who actually do arthroscopic procedures on the hip which is a relatively new advancement in the medical field.
An additional type of doctor you may see in an auto accident is a neuro-psychiatrist. Neuro-psychiatrist are medical doctors who treat patients who have an emotional or physical issue or closed head injuries and injuries of the brain. Many people involved in an auto accidents will have either a mild closed head injury or moderate to severe head injuries. This means that while the scull is intact, the movement of the brain inside the scull may have caused some damage to the brain. The human body was not designed to absorb the forces involved in a car crash or accident and even a relatively minor accident can cause the brain to move in such a way that could cause injury.
The primary purpose of these doctors is to assess whether a patient has a closed brain injury and then whether that person can receive treatment to get them back to the level of comfort and normalcy they had before the accident.
Some of the signs or symptoms of a closed head injury are trouble remembering things that they use to remember easily. This doesn’t mean that you can’t remember something it but it takes more effort or time for you to remember. Additionally, you could also black out, have speech problems, have short, mid or long term memory loss or other signs and/or symptoms of a mild to moderate or severe head injury.
