Workers Comp Help
Disabling On-The-Job Injuries
It is somewhat comforting to be able to read for oneself that they are not alone in the fight against the totally corrupt corporate-controlled workers compensation "system" we have in this country. I know all too well the never ending hell that injured and disabled workers in Ohio go through because I have (4) WC claims which have turned into a death sentence for me.
I was originally injured in Feb., 1996 at the Hill & Griffith Mfg. Corp., in New London, Ohio. I received injuries to my left shoulder (torn rotator cuff), a right inguinal hernia, and a back sprain. It took 16 months of fighting with Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC), Ohio Industrial Commission (OIC), Hill & Griffith Corp., and a variety of idiot doctors to finally get surgery performed on the shoulder.
I have lost 60-70% strength and mobility in this shoulder and continuous 24/7 throbbing pain as a result of the original injury, delays in getting medical treatment and unsuccessful surgery. It took another 16 months to get a correct diagnosis and surgery for the inguinal hernia. The result of this surgery was a very painful nerve entrapment. The back sprain required just over a year of rest and chiropractic adjustment to finally resolve itself. As a result of these work injuries, I contracted Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome which BWC refused to acknowledge or allow treatment for.
Less than 24 hours after filing the WC injury claim, I received a certified letter from my employer informing me that my employment was terminated allegedly due to absenteeism. Any work hours I missed were due to medical appointments and treatment and simply being in agonizing pain to the point of not being able to work. Hill & Griffith Mfg. fired me as a means of retaliation for the filing of the WC claim. Several other injured employees were fired in the same manner.
It is illegal for an employer to fire an injured employee in retaliation for filing a WC claim but I have never yet heard of a company actually ever being charged or fined for doing so. Enforcement of federal and state employment laws are a farce in Ohio. I had to fight my cutthroat employer and Ohio Bureau of Employment Services (O.B.E.S.) for (3) months just to get any unemployment benefits.
When these benefits ran out I somehow survived the next (9) months on Zero income. My total income for 1997 was less than $1100! It is very difficult for me to write about what I suffered through during those 15 months after being injured and illegally fired. During the winter of '96-'97, I had my utilities turned off several times and suffered terribly from the cold, no running water, hunger, illness and depression. I was routinely denied emergency disability assistance and medical treatment from Huron County Human Services (welfare) because of so-called eligibility issues.
This was about the time that the state of Ohio began strongly pushing their "workfare" (aka "workfarce") down the throats of injured, ill and disabled people who were desperately in need of help. Huron County Human Service case managers were just too lazy to request a medical examination which would have clearly proved eligibility. I actually went to a meeting with one of these morons a week after the shoulder surgery (arm in sling, bandages, medical report and documents) only to be told that if I did not participate in "workfarce" I would remain disqualified!
I began work at Monode Marking Products (formerly Waldorf's) in New London, Ohio in late Oct. '97 until early June of 2000. During my employment there I underwent the hernia surgery but could not afford to take off the 2 weeks from work that my doctor strongly suggested. Doing so would have meant facing utility shut-offs and hunger again. Instead, I was off 3 days and returned to work in a great deal of pain. I managed to get around and perform my work duties with the use of a cane and convenient chair.
It took a long time to recuperate from what is usually a 2-3 week period of healing. My work performance reports at Monode Marking were always among the very highest because I gave my best efforts at work. However,in May, '99 when I was forced to file a second workers comp. claim due to work related carpal tunnel in both hands and wrists, I was soon discarded as most injured workers are.
Despite availability of other work I could perform, my employer refused to provide reasonable accommodation and soon cut my work hours down to a on-call as-needed basis. This meant perhaps 10 hours work one week and Zero hours the next two weeks. This was just another typical ploy by another cutthroat employer to harass and get rid of an injured employee. Refusal by an employer to provide reasonable and available work accommodation to an employee with a disability is illegal under the American Disability Act.
I soon found out what a complete waste of time filing a complaint with the Cleveland EEOC was. EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) refused to take any action against this employer and discredited any and all information I provided documenting my complaint. EEOC does not even follow ADA regulations within their own agency (particularly age discriminations). I once again filed for unemployment benefits (knowing all too well that I would likely never receive wage loss compensation or medical treatment. O.B.E.S. denied payment of these benefits because I was not considered physically able to work a 40 hour week.
I wasted very little time searching for other employment despite injury, illness and lack of safe affordable transportation. The prospect of facing hunger, utility shut-offs and no income (or wage loss compensation) provided plenty of incentive!
I had read that Goodwill Industries of Akron employed persons with disabilities so I applied for a full-time porter/baler position at the Ashland Goodwill store in Ashland, Ohio. I began work there on June 9th, 2000 and soon discovered that Goodwill Industries of Akron placed a far greater importance on profits instead of providing a safe work environment for employees. As a result, I was once again re-injured on Aug. 25, 2000 while assisting a coworker with a large bulky roll of donated carpet. No lifting devices or small portable cranes were provided to help employees move large items around the store. I suffered another inguinal hernia (left side this time) and another torn rotator cuff (right shoulder).
Surgery was performed on to repair the hernia with the very same results as the previous hernia surgery (nerve entrapment). I was required to take 2 weeks off work after this operation (no sick pay or wage loss compensation as usual). I declined surgery on the right shoulder due to the risk of having both shoulders a ruined mess.
When I returned to work I was instructed to return to my usual work duties which I could not physically do. Goodwill management refused to acknowledge or accept (two) doctor's lifting/work restrictions. After bringing some pressure to bear upon my employer from calling BWC and my doctor's, I was eventually reassigned to so-called "light" work duties.
To harass me, my work hours were cut from 40 to 30 hours per week without any plausible explanation. This meant a huge loss of income during the winter of '00-'01. Once again I faced utility shut-offs and extreme hardship. Imagine this type of treatment from an alleged charitable organization as well know as Goodwill! Goodwill Industries of Akron have a public relations dept. that generates a great deal of lip service as to what a great job Goodwill is doing in Ohio communities and how they go to such great extents to help employ, train and rehabilitate the disabled and unemployed "disadvantaged" persons. What a complete fraud a
On April 10, 2001, I was ordered once again to resume my original job duties. I continued to have a valid medical/lifting restriction which Akron Goodwill management continued to claim was no longer in effect. My doctor had not released me to return to my original job duties I tried to avoid anything even resembling heavy lifting or repetitive lifting while attempting to reach my BWC claim rep and my doctor by phone. While trying to push aside a small glass display case which was blocking a main walk area, I felt a sharp pain in my back which nearly caused me to pass out. A trip to the local hospital emergency room was a waste of time. I later found out that I now had (4) herniated discs. When I was able to at least show up at work a few days later (with a heavy dose of pain medication), I was finally placed in a truly light duty work position on the sales floor.
Even this was too painful. I was unable to stand, sit or walk for more than 5 or 10 min. due to agonizing pain. The herniated discs were (and still are) pinching the nerves/muscles in my back, left hip and entire left leg. It feels like I'm standing on a red hot poker constantly. I now must take heavy duty narcotic pain medication 6 times a day which provides hardly any relief. My employer, their MCO (Careworks) and BWC continue to fight anything resembling fair compensation, authorization (payment) of medical care, rehabilitation or a fair settlement. Even the BWC "independent" examiner (doctor) has stated that I am now totally disabled and can not return to any type work.
The medical treatment that this examiner strongly suggested is still being denied by Careworks and BWC. I was forced to go through 5 weeks of torture for so-called vocational rehabilitation which was I was barely able to participate at all in. As a result, I lost all the hard won progress and slight improvement I made during physical therapy. When will this torture stop? All of the doctors I have seen have told me that I should apply for social security disability as so
It may be all for nothing because I very likely will end up homeless a week before this Christmas due to my thieving money grubbing brother and his new wife. They have been trying to steal my mother's estate and evict me from the property where I have lived the past 20 years despite the fact that my brother signed a quit claim back in '99. Last year (the day after Christmas) I received a certified letter informing me that I was to be evicted within 30 days. I spent nearly all my savings from disability checks to get that case dismissed. Now they have filed a debt claim for my parents funeral expenses against the estate (which I was not able to get probated due to the poverty, injury and illness I have suffered from nearly (7) years now).
I will lose my home and be on the street if I do not somehow come up with $15,000. before Dec. 6th. I have absolutely no place to move to and I do not yet qualify for the veterans home. Subsidized housing takes a year or more to qualify for and get into. Therefore I have only a rusted out barely running '79 Ford pick-up truck for a possible residence. It is very unlikely I would be able to survive long living in a junk truck during a typical Ohio winter therefore I have decided to make my last stand right where I'm now at until the police break down the door and drag me out.
Obviously when a worker becomes injured and disabled for life the vultures soon begin to circle and feed! When I look back over all the misery, pain and extreme hardship I have suffered the past 6 years and 9 months, it's hard to believe I've survived this long. I pray to a merciful God that I will be soon released from this living hell on earth. My advice to those people (injured or still healthy) living here in Ohio is to cut your losses no matter how drastic and and get out of this hell-hole state as fast as possible!
Please excuse the very long length of this story but I felt that I just had to relate this to all interested readers while I still could.