Workers Comp Help
Burns and Wrist Fracture in Factory Accident
Dec 10, 2000. A day that will live in my wife's mind for a long time to come. I suppose this letter is part gripe and part praise. Praise part first. The Columbus Ohio Workman's Comp office has been somewhat patient and helpful for my wife regarding the injuries, she sustained. Her doctors, Yes/no.
My wife worked as a factory worker. Machinist. On that fateful morning, after her shift was over, and while going to the cleaning closet to get the normal cleaning supplies (broom, dust pan, etc), unknown to her (but her employers knew about it), a vat of chemicals/acid was leaking out onto the floor. My wife stepped into it, slipped and, well you can guess the rest. She landed on her backside and her bent wrist, which fractured the wrist, causing the nerves and tendons to be damaged.
After being helped to her feet, other co-workers noticed that the seat of her jeans were smoking. Seems the chemicals were cancer causing agents and the acid had started to eat into her flesh. She was rushed to the hospital screaming in pain as the acid literally ate her flesh away. Her employers refused to disclose the contents of the chemicals to the doctors, so they could not treat her right away. (Some chemicals don't react very well with water). Another employee got fed up with the company refusing to give up the chemical compound to the doctors, and hand delivered the chemical compounds to the hospital so that my wife could be treated. She was treated for the burns, broken (fractured wrist) and released.
Fast forward now to the present day. It's taken over a year, multiple doctor's, to multiple diagnosis's to be finally sent to the leading hand doctor in the state, who within 5 minutes informed her what was wrong. Workman's comp finally approved her surgery to ATTEMPT to have her hand fixed. (Since the accident, her thumb just falls and she can't grip anything, Remember, her tendons were damaged). One surgery has since been completed to ATTEMPT to get her hand working again. No luck, her thumb has dropped again with no gripping power. Another surgery will need to be conducted on the other side of her hand (Her entire wrist was fractured, not just one side), to still attempt to regain SOME partial ability in her hand. We're keeping our fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, while all of this has been going on, we have attempted to get a simple form faxed to the workman's comp office from the doctors office for over 2 1/2 months. The form continues to be lost, or the doctor is always gone to sign it. Tomorrow, I go personally to GET the form to fax it myself. Otherwise, my wife will continue to NOT receive the money she is owed.
The ups and downs to all this, I suppose is, that if not for that simple form needing to be signed and faxed, the doctor's office has been helpful.
Workman's comp? Well, let's see. The case worker has made the comment to my wife, (I don't understand why you can't just go back to work with ONE hand instead of getting compensation). Now that's a mighty callous thing to say. I don't see why he doesn't cut off his own hand and then do his job one handed. When asked about the burns on my wife's backside (remember the acid), the workman's comp guy told me, what about it? I was basically informed that she would have to file a claim, go to hearings, etc, but basically, since the burns can't be seen, the chances of getting any type of compensation for it, is slim to known. Let's get real here. If my wife would have fallen face first into the acid and been Physically disfigured (her face melted off), then they would compensate her, BUT, since it's on her backside, to where clothes cover it, no one will notice that it's there.
Since when has this become a position of anyone's vanity at check? My WIFE knows it's there and she can touch it. I Know it's there and I can touch it, (She now refuses to dress in front of me out of shame of her scars on her body). She didn't ASK to slip in leaking acid from a vat that the company knew was leaking but refused to fix. She didn't ASK to lay in a hospital screaming as chunks of flesh melted from her backside while the company refused to disclose information to the treating emergency room doctor's. Yet, throughout all this, she has been treated as the Offending party, not the VICTIM. My wife would much rather forget it ever happened. She didn't Ask to spend over a year fighting a system that is set up to protect the employer, instead of the employee.
In closing. Am I FOR Workman's comp or against it? Well, both. I'm for it, to give employees a way to get paid and to receive treatment for injuries that they sustain while on the job, but, against it, because it gives the Employer an easy out for their negligence. In my wife's case. The Employer NEVER disputed that the vat leaked, never disputed that they KNEW it leaked, never disputed that the injuries happened at work, so why all the hassels? Because the company can get away with saying "Sorry for your luck, but just because we screwed up and got you hurt, we've got workman's comp to cover OUR backside"
Well, my wife's only got her clothes now to cover hers. Can we Sue? Nope, that's why workman's comp is there, so that we CAN'T sue her employer for the year of her life that's been thrown away, so that we can't sue for her being in shock as her skin melted away, so that we can't SUE for the reoccurring nightmares she wakes up screaming from.
Thanks Workman's comp, or should I say? Thanks for nothing?? You tell me.