Eye Floaters: An Overlooked Consequences of Car Accidents
Quick answer: Black floaters are small dark spots, threads or cobweb shapes that drift across your vision. They slide away when you try to look right at them. Most come from normal, age-related changes in the gel inside your eye. A hard jolt, like a car crash, can pull that gel loose too. New floaters that come with flashes of light or a shadow over part of your vision need an eye doctor the same day.
There’s an eye condition that people can develop after a car accident that many people may overlook: floaters.
What Do Black Floaters in Your Vision Look Like?
Floaters appear in your vision like small blurs, sometimes with tiny dots or threads in them that will occasionally flash like a tiny, bright light. They move with your eye, so as your eye moves, they seem to lag along in your sight — just slightly behind your actual eye movement. If you rest your eyes, they’ll come to rest also.
What Causes Floaters After a Car Accident?
Floaters are essentially clumps of the vitreous gel that normally fills your eye that has broken loose. The gel is supposed to stay connected to your eye’s wall — but it can suddenly be pulled loose for a variety of reasons.
Sudden trauma, like the abrupt collision of another car into your car, is one of those reasons. However, many people may overlook the damage done to their eye because they don’t notice it right away or think that they’re just literally “seeing spots” after the collision.
In many cases, the floaters will eventually settle toward the bottom of your eye and remain out of sight. In some cases, however, they can adversely affect your vision and may require invasive eye surgery to repair.
When Are Floaters After a Crash a Medical Emergency?
A few floaters that drift and fade are common. Some signs are different. Eye doctors treat them as reasons to be seen right away, not next week.
What are they? A sudden shower of new floaters. Flashes of light, especially off to the side. A dark curtain or shadow moving across part of what you see. Blurry vision or lost vision. Pain in the eye after the wreck.
Why the hurry? Those signs can mean the retina, the thin layer at the back of the eye, has torn or is pulling away. A tear caught early can often be treated. Left alone, it can cost you vision for good.
Go to an eye doctor or the emergency room. Tell them you were in a crash and when.
This is general information, not medical advice. Only a doctor who examines your eyes can tell you what your floaters mean.
How Do You Protect Your Claim if Floaters Start After a Crash?
What should you know in order to protect your right to compensation after a car accident that causes a separation of the vitreous gel in your eye and creates floaters?
- If you see spots, squiggles, threadlike images, flashes or a blur in your vision anytime shortly after a car accident, see your eye doctor immediately and make certain that he or she knows you were in a car accident.
- Make follow-up appointments to discuss the impact that the floaters are having on your vision if they continue to appear in your line of sight. This helps document both the connection to the accident and the scope of your trauma.
- If the floaters don’t disappear from sight within a few months, ask to be referred to a retina specialist — that’s the doctor who can evaluate the need for surgery to reduce the floaters.
Don’t let something like this go overlooked when you’ve been in a car accident or dismiss it as a figment of your imagination. An attorney can provide more advice on how to protect your right to fair compensation for your injuries after a motor vehicle accident.
Frequently Asked Questions About Floaters After a Crash
What causes floaters after a car accident?
The force of a crash can tug the gel inside your eye away from the back wall. Bits of that gel cast shadows on the retina. Those shadows are what you see as spots, threads or cobwebs.
Are eye floaters after a crash serious?
Often they fade and settle. Sometimes they are the first sign of a retinal tear. You can’t tell which by looking, so get your eyes checked and say you were in a wreck.
Can floaters show up days after a wreck?
Yes. Some people don’t notice them until the adrenaline wears off or the bruises start to heal. A late start doesn’t mean the crash didn’t cause them. It does mean you should get checked as soon as you notice.
Why does it matter what I tell the eye doctor?
Because the record is the proof. If the chart says the floaters started after the crash, that connects the injury to the wreck. If the chart says nothing about the crash, the insurance company will say something else caused them.
Related reading: what the numbers say about the general anesthesia death rate.
This article is general information about South Carolina law and is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer about your own situation and your own dates.
Source: www.emedicinehealth.com, “Eye Floaters: Benign Causes” accessed Sep. 20, 2017
