Workers Comp Help
Injured By A Psych Patient At Work
On March 21, 1987, I went to assist a coworker who was being attacked by a psych patient. She screamed out, "Look out, he's going to kill us all". I ran to the door as he bounded after me. After choking, hitting and throwing me against the wall, he got one good kick in to my leg, I went down, hitting my head against the doorjamb rendering me unconscious.
A police ambulance took me to a private hospital. While lying on the stretcher, bleeding, I heard the ER doc talking to my employer. He stated, "Well, we have to xray her to avoid liability but after that.....". They sent me home. While driving home, I forgot where I lived and stopped along the parkway to vomit. Still bleeding, I stopped at a nearby hospital. They called the previous hospital and refused to treat me. They gave instructions to my house and told me to drive home.
Since then, I have been denied medical treatment and financial help from Liberty Mutual. It took six years for an approval for an MRI. For two years, they even denied it happened. I am still fighting for medical treatment. They regularly "forget" to send me my checks. I have been diagnosed with 6 herniated, degenerated, or ruptured discs in my neck and lumbar spine, retinal scarring, broken nose and facial bones, leaking spinal fluid, bruised kidney, concussion with post-concussion syndrome and PTSD.
I've lost my car and house. At one point, I was homeless. I now can only walk for short distances with the use of two canes. I have had 3 back surgeries. It took ten years to fight for the first one. Two more to fight for the third one.
Liberty Mutual sent me to 28 of their doctors, so far. At one point, they scheduled one during a blizzard and then gave me the wrong address. They sent me to one of their doctors who was extremely drunk. He made all sorts of racist statements about my own physicians and told me "to start getting American doctors". They, also, sent me to a psychiatrist that was noticeably deaf. And to one that had lost his license for "conviction of a crime involving moral turpetude, having false medical credentials, Medicaid and Medicare fraud" I was told by one of Liberty Mutual's claim's examiners, "Why don't you do us all a favor and commit suicide?". She stated this to me a week after we found out that my coworker had committed suicide because she couldn't take the harassment from my employer.
Liberty Mutual's final "medical exam" was to a "physician" that was borrowing a chiro's office. He almost attacked me because I asked to be allowed to tape record the exam. He wouldn't continue until I handed over the recorder and he examined it to make sure there was no tape. At the hearing about a week after the exam, Liberty Mutual's attorney claimed that this "physician" had classified me as permanent partial and that I could go back to work for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week with a minor weight restriction. However, he refused to produce a medical report.
The judge ruled me classified as permanent total. He wrote a two paragraph decision detailing his reasoning. I then found out weeks later that Liberty Mutual was appealing it based on their own "physician's" report. However, they refused to give the report to the NYS WCB, my lawyer nor the appeal's unit. I called Liberty Mutual and stated that I was going to make a complaint with the NY Dept. of Health for their denying me a copy of the report.
Within 15 minutes, I was faxed a copy of their "physician's" report. The first 6 pages documented why I met each point of NYS WCB law for permanent total. Page 7 stated I was permanent total. I called Liberty Mutual's lawyer and stated I needed a copy to write a rebuttal of their appeal. I was sent the same 6 pages but page 7 had been torn off and rewritten. It now stated I could work 4 hours, 5 days a week.
Such is the fraud Liberty Mutual committed. They faked a medical report. However, they continued appealing it based on the fraudulent medical report. They finally lost all appeals after delaying it for another year. I am now approaching my 14th year of fighting for medical and financial payments. I would settle tomorrow for 2 million dollars because I feel that is how much my life is worth, but, that will never be in workers' comp where the highest settlement is $150,000.
Liberty Mutual still won in the end, because they destroyed my life.