Can I Have A Right Shoulder Injury If I Was The Driver In A Motor Vehicle Accident

Video Transcription

A patient that I just had seen was a patient involved in a motor vehicle accident. In my practice, we see all types of patients. We see patients from workers compensation. We see patients on Medicare. We see patients through insurance, such as Blue cross.

We also see patients who are involved in a motor vehicle accident or litigation, and this particular patient was involved in litigation. She was injured back in 2014, which had carried through into 2015. She was diagnosed by three different providers in two different practices that she had a tear to the right rotator cuff which was with a tendon in her right shoulder. This patient was a driver and she was seatbelt on and had a front impact collision.

So the first point I’d like to point out is, is that we’d seen… some people have been contacting me asking if, and had been asking me, can they have a right shoulder injury, in regards to motor vehicle accident, when they are the driver having a seat belt on. They have been having a lot of the insurance company adjusters, non-medical people, trying to tell them, tell the patients, and tell their representatives that they can’t possibly have a right shoulder injury. In our practice, I can tell you it’s easily 50% right shoulder and 50% left shoulder injuries, that are real injuries given how the car is hit.  The million or billion variables that would go into motor vehicle accident, clearly in our practice clinically shows, no distinguishing amount between right and left. So make that clear, we see equal number of right shoulder injuries to left shoulder injuries.

The patient that I just seen would be a perfect example of that. She had a right shoulder, rotator cuff tear. So don’t let anybody confuse you about what can… is and is not possible in a motor vehicle accident. Going on a little further with this particular [patient] you can see that this is now February 22nd of 2018. This is back from the mid portion of 2014. This particular patient was diagnosed with a rotator cuff tear, and it was recommended in mid portion of 2015 that she would need surgery. And the patient was unable to gain access to medical treatment, surgery for various reasons, her work, finances, insurance coverage. So this patient who had been taken through litigation, meaning she’d have to go through the court process. And so she lives with her pain all through this process. Now mind you she is a, happens to be a warehouse worker. She’s been employed at the same facility for seven years, all through this process and had her job changed. She’s a great worker for them, is why they’ve kept her on, and she does a light duty job. But she continues to have significant pain, pain in her daily life, work life, simple things, putting her clothes on, doing her hair, cause her continued pain as would be imagined with a tendon tear. This patient, I just saw back today, continuing to have shoulder pain. It’s continued in a repeat MRI, magnetic residents image, continuing to show damage to her tendon, which you would expect, and her symptoms have not changed for many years.