I have seen hundreds of patients in my practice who have been injured in car accidents. Many people who have come in for treatment of a condition seemingly unrelated to an accident have experienced a remarkable recovery after their injuries are treated. After listening to too many stories of years of pain and suffering, I made up my mind to put together a systematic way of helping my patients recover.


Injuries from motor vehicle accidents are a complicated topic. In the last ten years, we have learned a great deal more about the damage they can cause to the human body, even at low speed, and even when there is no damage to the car. Despite what some would have you believe, even a low impact motor vehicle accident can wreak havoc on your life.

We have also learned that injuries to the neck that are common in car accidents - often called “whiplash” injuries - can mimic many of the symptoms of concussion or traumatic brain injury. In fact, there are many excellent resources by physicians and by patients of healing from what they thought was a concussion, but was in fact a neck injury. Dr. John Leddy of the University of Buffalo has been a pioneer in helping practitioners sort out whether concussion-like symptoms in fact arise from a neck injury.

When evaluating a patient who has been in a car accident, a thorough history and physical are critical to determining the extent of injury. As with other trauma, there are three keys to helping patients heal from a motor vehicle accident:

•Removing the Shock of Injury
•Controlling Inflammation
•Restoring motion to injured joints and organs

Once these goals are accomplished, healing can be very dramatic. I go into much more detail about why car accident victims suffer so intently for so long and my approach to treating these injuries in Healing Pain and Injury.

You can click below to read about some of the most important questions patients ask.

If there’s No Damage to my Car, Why do I Hurt So Much? Meet Jennifer, the World’s Unluckiest Driver

Top Ten Things You Can Do to Help Yourself Recover from a Motor Vehicle Accident