Workers Comp Help
Sheet Metal Fabricator Suffers Back Injury
The date of my injury is 1/21/98, herniations of the spine at T12-L1 and L5-S1 with degenerative disk disease.
I was employed at Rayco Mfg. in Wooster, Ohio working first shift for four years and second shift for seven. Second shift was ten hours a day four days a week and overtime, I was the only second shift employee in this department. As a Sheet Metal Fabricator at Rayco, I was depended upon to run numerous machines such as metal shear, press brake, NC punch presses, cutoff saws, plasma cutter, grinders and metal press.
Three years before my back injury, I expressed my concern to my foreman, Mike Vance, about the demands and expectations the company had of me. I could not continue to do the work alone because I was in fear of get hurt from all the heavy lifting, bending and twisting. In Nov. 1997 I began feeling pain shooting down my left leg and went to my foreman about the pain and he sent me to the safety director, Rich Ball. Rich Ball tried to get me to file my injury with my medical insurance but I refused because I felt it was a work-related injury.
Rich Ball agreed to let the doctor determine if it was work related or not. A few days later I went to see Dr. Perry Williams at the Center for Occupational Medicine here in Wooster. Dr. Williams asked me a few questions about where the pain was do some stretches and felt my spine. At the end of his exam he determined that my injury was work related but said it was a sacral strain. I went the therapy for it for about four weeks at Wooster hospital. After a few visits, my therapist started to believe I did not have a sacral strain but a possible disk herniation. My therapist did not agree with the way Dr. Williams always sent people to them with sacral strains without a more through exam. About the third week of my therapy, I missed my Dr.'s appointment with Dr. Williams and rescheduled with Dr. Flanagan the following day.
At my appointment with Dr. Flanagan, he looked at my chart and examined my back, as did Dr. Williams. Dr. Flanagan. My next visit with Dr. Flanagan was short. Dr. Flanagan told me he was unable to follow up because I was Dr. Williams's patient. In the manner this was expressed to me I believe Dr. Flanagan, so to speak, stepped on toes. Dr. Williams had contacted my employer and told Rich Ball I didn't need the MRI. My foreman and I agreed with Dr. Flanagan and pushed to get the MRI. After about a month I got the MRI done. Also, My therapist went to Rayco and did an on site evaluation of my job duties. Kathy and April couldn't believe the way the work was being done and told me I should have been hurt long before I was. They gave my employer information to correct the hazards of my job but did not listen to them.
Dr. Williams and I had a few heated arguments in his office about my back injury. I told him I believed it was more than a sacral strain. After about a week the results from the MRI were in and it showed a mild protrusion at the L5-S1 disk and mild signs of degeneration. Dr. Williams proceeded to tell me this was not what was causing my pain.
By this time I had done enough research to argue with him about the injury. He insisted the herniation was due to my ridding street bikes. I expressed my thoughts to my therapists about Dr.Williams opinion of the herniation being due to street bike and they said it was not and that my street bike was therapeutic to my back because of the ridding position. Because of the problems I had with this doctor I made an appointment to see a specialist at Crystal Clinic in Fairlawn, Ohio. At this appointment Dr.Greenburg told me within 30 seconds what was causing my pain and that there are two herniated disks and the injury is work related.
Dr. Greenburgs report was sent to Dr. Williams in which he no regard for. Dr. Williams told me that he had spoken to Dr. Greenburg via the phone and Dr. Greenburg changed his opinion, which I never received any change of information. By this time I was so stressed out from dealing with Dr. Williams and the harassment from my employer that I decided not to return to Dr. Williams for exams.
Workers Compensation told me I had to have a physician of record so I asked Dr. Flanagan if he would be my physician of record. Dr. Flanagan agreed and things went a little better but not much. He prescribed more physical therapy again and put me on a permanent weight restriction of 50 bls.
My employer showed no sympathy for my situation. The plant manager, Jim Miller and I went around many times about how I would do my work. Rayco showed no regard for my weight restriction. I was threatened many times about the work that was not being done. Even though I had a weight restriction I was being manipulated into doing work that irritated my injury. I asked Dr. Flanagan to take me out of work until my pain stopped but he said he was unable to do this that it was something I had to work out with my employer. I was at the point I wanted my disks to blow out so I didn't have to deal with the harassment from my employer.
I tried to deal with workmens comp and my employer for many months. Workmens Comp was not helping me with my employer and my employer was not working with me.
My employer had me in the office yelling at me many times in the following six months. I decided to file for compensation for my injury to my back. The BWC sent me to Dr. Costarella M. D. in Canton for an evaluation. This doctor was very unprofessional, I had to keep correcting his statements he was making into his recorder. I felt as if I was doing my own evaluation. He looked at my MRI films as if it were in a foreign language. Dr. Costarella had me touch my toes, walk on my toes and heels, felt my spine and asked me questions about my pain. The result of this evaluation was no percent of disability and no compensation for my injury. Because of this I told the plant manager, Jim Miller, I needed to get an attorney to deal with my claim. Jim laughed at me a said " Go ahead and get an attorney, you won't win. You don't have the money to fight this company!" At this point I contacted an attorney and asked them to represent me.
Tablack and Associates sent me to a doctor in Youngstown, which is the same town my attorneys are in. Dr. Hartwig D.O. looked at my MRI and explained the same things Dr. Greenburg explained and also had me touch my toes, walk on my heels and toes, felt my spine and asked questions about my pain. After this he showed me a book with the BWC guidelines on my condition. The chart showed what percent of disability I have and he added two percent for the pain. My total was twelve percent. The information from Dr. Hartwig was sent to BWC with my appeal to no percent of disability. It was submitted to the Industrial Commission and they decided to give me 6 percent disability, four percent below what the BWC guidelines say. I was awarded $2100 for this injury. I felt rapped when I receive the information on the outcome of this. I did not understand how the Industrial Commission could come up with this figure with ten percent being in their own guidelines. My attorney also dec!
ided to send me to a new physician of record in Youngstown, Dr. Morrison and Dr. Paris. Both are my current doctors.
I enjoyed my job just not the problems in the shop. I always gave 110% in everything I did. My x foreman's from Rayco, Joe Willson and Mike Vance can tell you this. Seemed like no matter how hard I tried to work with my employer and do more then my doctor ordered I was always in the dog house. Rayco started holding my doctors appointments against me, said I didn't need to go to Youngstown for a doctor, and told me all the time I had a bad attitude. There was one point were I was in tears because Jim Miller was yelling at me because I was unable to perform the way I did before my injury. Every doctor I had gone to had told me to get out of that department because of my injury. When a bid came up for welding I decided to bid on it and my foreman helped get the position. It took my employer two months to move me to the welding department. By this time it is late September of 1998 and things became a little better because of the group leader I had in the welding department but it only lasted about a year when they moved this group leader to a different department. They replaced him with one of the plant managers buddies which is also the owners nephew.
This group leader was not going to help me in any way. I was back to the same harassment as before. I was being told to do things that were hurting my back and that if I didn't I would be in trouble. My foreman tried to stick up for me many times but my employer threatened him. He was told that if he didn't stop defending me they would fire him. The owner of Rayco, John Bowling used to think very highly of me until my injury too. Jim Miller filled his head full of lies and I was told from John Bowlings nephew, Brian Kurtz, that when I got an attorney I was doomed because I was a financial threat.
I delt with the harassment from my employer for three years. I had even gone to the personnel manager to complain about the way I was being treated and Tom Chia told me "Stop using your back for an excuse!" I felt as if I was being pushed out the door. A few months later there was a layoff and this placed me on first shift where this started to get even more stressful. I was being accused of screwing around all the time and being pushed to do things that were bothering my injury. I was to the point when I walked in the door at 7am I would have anxiety attacks, sick stomach and headaches until I left at 3:30pm.
I finally reached the point in January of 2001 to quit because of the mental stress was more then I could handle and I was afraid someone would get hurt, whether it be me or someone else. My employer even used my attitude and restriction as an excuse not to give me a raise my last year there. It got to the level that I didn't want to go to work because of the lies from other employees and me getting into trouble for doing things I was told to do. I was having anxiety attacks and felt sick all the time while at work. There is so much that went on with my employer I can not type it all up. I still can't believe I quit this job with 11 year invested making $13.25 an hour!!!!!!!!!!
When I quit Rayco in January of 2001, I told everyone it was because I found a better job. This was not true! I quit, 1/22/01, because of the MENTAL HARASSMENT I was being put through and concerns of my injury. I started a new job a week later in Medina, Sharon Companies. It was the same line of work just building Industrial Stair Systems. I jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The work was hurting my back and the fact that I told the plant manager, Harvey Beckworth, there was nothing wrong with my back. I had to now deal with the fact that I lied to get this job and it was harder on my back. This job was well over my weight restrictions and 50 hours a week. I had to go to my doctors appointments in Youngstown and started missing work because of the appointments and the pain. I stuck it out for three months and had an anxiety attack and quit. Before I quit I was looking for a different job. Employers where either not hiring or didn't want me because of my disa!
bility. Now I am without a job and a mental and physical wreck.
Sheakley Unicomp, the MCO told me to file for Major Depressive Disorder so I did. My attorney sent me to Dr. Lagortus the latter part of 2000. He was very professional about his evaluation and recorded the interview. His findings were that I suffer a Mental Disorder due to the stress from the events of my injury. His report was submitted to BWC and they wanted more evidence from their doctor. I was sent by the BWC to Dr. John Quinn in Beldenvillage. The first part of the interview I had to fill out a form with a few questions on it I can't remember. The second part was they stuck me in a little room for about 30 minutes with a book with 370 questions on it. These questions stand out in my head because they had nothing to do with the situation I am in. Two of the questions were; " Would you kill your neighbor?" and " Do you hate your father?" Dr. Quinn came into the room and asked me to step into his office. He asked me to remember three objects and then asked me !
a few questions. These questions lasted about ten minutes and I could only remember two of the tree objects. Dr. Quinn scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper and sent me back into the room to finish the questions in the book. It took me about ten minutes to finish it. I returned to his office to talk to him and he was eating his lunch and spoke to me with food in his mouth. He told me I was free to go and would get the report sent over to BWC. I received my copy of the report and about had a stroke. It was very unprofessional, Dr. Quinn couldn't even keep my name the same within three sentences. There are lies in the report about what I did and did not say. The final outcome for my Major Depressive disorder was disallowed by the Industrial Commission. It was appealed three times with everyone being rejected. Again, I don't understand how the Industrial Commission can make a decision based only on a BWC doctor!
I filed for unemployment and was denied. I explained to the unemployment office why I quit. My mental stress, the drug use by the employees at Sharon Companies, my back injury, my restrictions and even told them the reason I quit Rayco. I went to Sharon Companies and explained to Harvey Beckworth my situation with my back and the drugs being smoked right next to me at Sharon Companies, but it still didn't help me with unemployment. Unemployment believed the information that Sharon Companies submitted, That I quit because I didn't like the work. Now I had to charge my bills on my credit cards to survive until I found work.
Dr. Morrison prescribed Voc Rehab for me and I began to receive living maintenance. Also Dr.Morrison place another restriction on me not to return to my line of work in. Now I was in need of training for a different line of work and still make a wage of $13.00 an hour to pay my bills. In January I checked into truck driving school but didn't have the money for it and Workmans Comp would not pay for it. The state of Ohio gave me the money for the training, which I went through from July 23 2001 to August 17 2001. As for my Voc Rehab through Parman and Associates, It was a joke. They wanted me to look for 15 jobs a week and it didn't matter to them the rate of pay or what I would be doing. Barb Deleone, my case manager, was threatening to cut me off if I didn't do exactly what she wanted. She told me to lie about my Comp claim and wanted me to travel to cities outside of my area for much lower pay. She had also told me that 10 job contacts a week would be ok, now its being used against me in my appeal to being cut off from living maintenance. With my restrictions and the way the economy is it is really hard to find the job that is adequate for my life. Companies in this area are not hiring
and are laying workers off or going out of business. I was also supposed to go to counseling for my depression and do independent therapy but was unable to do it because Barb Deleone was always giving me grief. I have a new singlewide home in a trailer park, two vehicles and a family to feed. Because of all this I have had to change around my financial setting and now I'm about to loosing everything I own. Mike Williams was the guy I had to meet bi-weekly. He understood what my goals were and told he would not interfere. Parmans services I feel were fraudulent, because they did nothing to help me find work, just harassed me. I would say three quarters of what the program was to be wasn't done. Having my CDL now doesn't help any because I'm in the same situation. Companies are asking me about my back and I don't believe I should lie to them about it because they will find out someday that I have a back problem and fire me because I lied on the application. I have to de!
al with this everytime I fill one out. I have had six companies in the trucking industry turn me away because of my comp claim. One company even called the school I went to and said I called them and cursed them out for not hiring me. I told the administrator I never did anything of the sort. To this day it is on my record at school and it was submitted to the MCO and used against me in my appeal to the cut off of living maintenance.
At this point November 29, 2001 I have a job that a friend gave me because I have no income. He is an owner operator that pays me $35 a load and I average 12 loads a week with a total of 55 hours a week as a truck driver hauling lime stone from Bucyruc, Ohio to Orrville, Ohio. This job has no benefits at all and leaves me the choice to either pay the bills or put food on the table. I am still seeking employment on my own at my pace. I wanted to settle this claim but it was also denied. This Claim is destroying my life.
I have argued with Buzz R. at BWC so much he won't speak to me anymore. He has told me to call my attorney if I have any questions and the same goes for Sheakley Unicomp. Both BWC and the MCO, Sheakley point the finger at each other.
I am so tired of everyone in the system telling me I need to find a job. It's just not that easy. Sure I could go flip burgers but that still keeps me on the same down hill fall I'm on now, WELFARE!!!! I worked my butt off to get where I am now and I'm about to lose it all because I did what I was told at Rayco and got injured doing it. I'm the one that has to deal with the physiological scares and the pain. I am not the only one that is being destroyed by the system. There are many, many people in this state and across the country that are losing their families, homes and lives because the system fails the injured worker. It's not right that people go to their doctors and get an evaluation and the BWC doctors can lie and the injured work suffers.
Rayco hired a woman to do my old job about 9 months after I left the sheet metal department, funny how they helped her. She didn't have to lift anything over 20lbs and they even got her a rubber mat to stand on by her press. It was ok for her to take the days off for PMS. One time they asked her to do some painting in the sheet metal department with a paint brush on the poles holding to roof up, she didn't want to do it because the paint stunk and didn't want to get paint on her. She didn't have to do the painting.
This is my story. It's the best I can do at this point in my life. I do not see much of a future for myself, my family or any other injured worker that is being abused by the BWC.
P.S. Currently 4/13/02 Rayco has appealed my Wage Loss Compensation!
Thank You
Jeff Schlund