The Legal Rights Your Children Have if Injured in an Accident
Parents always try to keep their children out of danger but sometimes situations go beyond the control. Accidents happen and your minor may face an accident. As accidents come uninviting, you should immediately hire an accident attorney to know the legal rights when children are seriously injured.
A Car Crash Claim for a Child
In Oklahoma, according to law, you can claim for an injury to your child. The children generally get injuries by vehicles like cars, buses, trucks and bicycles as a passenger or as a pedestrian. When a child gets over from an accident, he/she legally can get the claim. The minor child cannot get the claim on their own; they need help of their parents to go through the legal process.
Medical Concerns of an Injury
There are a lot more differences between an injury of an adult and a child. A child needs more care and caution after an accident than an adult. The injuries should be attended medically be expert doctors otherwise it may leave long-term impact on the life of the child as an adult. For an example, if a child gets an injury to the growth plate, that should be corrected surgically to ensure the right bone growth further. If it is an adult, treatment for bone set would be enough alongside a brace on the limb. Since the child could be in a growth stage, ill treating the injured area can bring in more complexities later and seek higher treatment costs.
The common injuries that children suffer from an accident are brain injuries, broken bone, crushed bone, lung injuries, organ damage, chest and spinal injury, burns etc.
Steps after an Accident
Check your child, if he/she is unconscious or seem severely injured, do not take him/her out of the car on your own. Let the responders come and allow them to do it to avoid further injury.
You should seek for immediate medical attention for the medical emergencies like traumatic brain injury, internal organ damage, spine injury that are visible immediately after an accident. Moreover, infants often cannot express their pain like an adult or they do not understand the severity. Therefore, you should take the children to a specialist and do a thorough check up. Monitor your child on the upcoming weeks after the accident.
Replace the car seat after the accident. It could be damaged after the accident or it was already damaged. To prevent similar incidents later, you should change the child seat of the car.
Hire an experienced accident attorney as soon as possible after the accident. The attorney will help you to collect the evidence you need to prove negligence.
**Disclaimer: The above article does not imply a relationship between attorney and client, nor is it legal advice.