Internal Bleeding Can Kill Silently And Quickly

For many people, the amount of blood they can see equates to how serious of an accident there is, or the severity of an injury. But that fails to account for a very serious injury that you may not see: Internal bleeding. Many people may not even know what internal bleeding is, why it’s dangerous or signs to look out for.

Why We Bleed Internally

Many people make the false assumption that our bodies are filled with blood. That is not the case. Blood is carried throughout our bodies in veins and arteries and capillaries. When you cut yourself, you bleed—but not because blood is spilling out of your insides, but rather, because you have cut an artery or vein that carries blood.

So if there is no giant pool of blood sitting inside of you, what is inside of you? The answer is nothing but air. Inside your body, and between your organs, bones, musculature, and everything else, is just air. There isn’t much air—everything inside of you is packed pretty tightly and compactly. But your organs don’t just sit in a pool of blood.

When Organs Bleed

But much like your skin has arteries and veins that bleed, so too do the organs inside of you. Just like your skin bleeds, so too can your kidneys or liver or any other part of your insides.

When your skin bleeds, there is somewhere for the blood to go—it just spills outside of your body. But when an internal organ bleeds, there is nowhere for that blood to go. It is spilling inside your body cavity, filling the already cramped, previously empty crevices between your organs.

That can be life threatening for a number of reasons.

The main reason is because there is nowhere for blood to go when you bleed internally, it ends up putting pressure on your other internal organs. You can suffer organ failure or other organ damage, simply from the pressure of the bleed having nowhere to go.

The other problem is that you are losing blood, but because you are doing so internally, you may not even know you are losing blood.

Signs and Symptoms

That means that you can bleed out very quickly, without even knowing. So how do you know if you are bleeding internally, if you can’t see blood? Some common symptoms include:

-Confusion or difficulty getting words out of your mouth

-Severe bruising

-Difficulty breathing

-Bruising, but in unexplained areas or areas that seem undefined, or bruising that spreads rapidly with no explanation

-Blood when going to or using the bathroom

Internal bleeding can be a silent killer—and if the bleed is small and slow enough it may even be missed at an initial emergency room visit. That’s why accident victims shouldn’t be left alone immediately after an accident, and should go to the hospital if their condition ever worsens.

Call the West Palm Beach personal injury attorneys at Pike & Lustig today if you have suffered an injury like an internal bleed, or any other type of injury to see what compensation you may be entitled to receive.

Sources:

medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320322

webmd.com/first-aid/internal-bleeding-causes-signs