Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
Last week a person called and told me about their car accident. It was pretty serious accident which took place at high speeds. The photos of the damage to the vehicles were frightening. Air bags deployed, cracked windshields, crushed bumpers, crumpled hoods and side panels. You couldn’t recognize the makes or models of the vehicles involved in the crash. It was like a scene out of a demolition derby, only it wasn’t an organized event for sporting entertainment. . It was real life. Everyone involved in the crash were luck to be alive.
The people involved in the car accident were rushed by ambulance to hospital. The x-rays and other digital imaging didn’t show any objective injuries. So, the doctors discharged the accident victims telling them to take some Tylenol or Advil, go see their family doctor, and to look in to getting physiotherapy. This might seem strange for some people who aren’t familiar with how car accident cases work, or with how Ontario hospitals work. But as a personal injury lawyer, I see this discharge routine all too frequently. If there isn’t anything broken, or which shows up on any scan or test, people are discharged from hospital fairly quickly in order to make room for the next patient to arrive. The responsibility is then on the client to see his/her family doctor, and arrange for physiotherapy.
But how do you go about arranging for physiotherapy, and who will pay for it?
These are great questions! It sounds easy enough to get physiotherapy, but it isn’t as easy as you would think.
The easiest way to get treatment after a car accident is to find a clinic near your home. Going to a clinic that’s hard to get to isn’t convenient for regular attendance at physiotherapy which is generally what’s required to see results. Once you’ve found a clinic nearby, the easiest way of getting treatment is paying for it out of pocket right there on site.
But that’s not fair considering that you weren’t at fault for the car accident; and considering that you have car insurance which is supposed to pay for this sort of treatment. Paying out of pocket also isn’t always an option due to financial constraints and because paying for regular treatment over the course of time gets very expensive.
