Road rash is painful and potentially serious. Don’t ignore it, treat it. If you’ve ridden a bike for some time, you undoubtedly have experienced some degree of road rash. It can be very painful, and it can be a very serious injury.
What Is Road Rash
The term road rash doesn’t even begin to describe what it really is. When you think of a rash, you think of redness and itchiness. Not so with road rash except the red part, road rash occurs when your skin makes contact with the pavement after a motorcycle accident. It can be minor like an abrasion or it can require surgery and skin grafts depending on how many levels of skin got sheared off. It’s very much like a burn injury. If you opt not to seek medical care, here are a few road rash tips that can help you.
Road Rash Tips
1. Seek medical attention, if you have even the slightest doubt about the severity of the injury.
2. Keep an eye out for possible infection areas, that are not healing, prolonged pain, debris inside the wounded area and fever.
3. Always keep the area clean. To avoid bacteria entering the skin and causing infection, apply an antiseptic ointment to help prevent infection. For minor pain consider something like Tylenol, apply a hydrocolloid bandage to the site or wrap the area lightly in clean non-stick gauze.
4. Keep the area lightly covered until it starts to heal. After healing apply a moisturizer on the area to keep the new skin from cracking. Wearing appropriate motorcycle gear like leathers thick jeans and gloves are helpful but there are times that even the best protections are not enough.
5. Unless the road rash is relatively minor, the best treatment is at your doctor’s office or a hospital. Again, seek medical attention for any signs of infection, including redness and warmth in the injured area plus any odor from the wound, swelling, fever or excessive pain.
Unfortunately, no matter how responsibly you drive, motorcycle accidents do happen. If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident that wasn’t your fault, please give me a call or text me at Mike Lombardi Personal Injury Attorneys, so we can discuss your case and answer any questions you might have. We want to help you in any way that we can.
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