Workers Comp Help
Injured At Work While Removing Fence Posts
I am a state employee working for the state of Delaware, at a large park on the Cape, at Cape Henlopen. On May 18th 1999, while working at this facility I was removing damaged and broken fence posts from our dune areas, when I pushed over a rusted snow fence support post. This is when I got hurt.
I had already removed approximately 20 to 30 posts myself and the crew with me had taken out many more. Some of these posts were covered with sand from years of exposure to the beach winds and the shifting of dunes over the years since this particular park was a military base during the 2nd world war. If we couldn't dig the posts out due to the depth of the the sand, we would break them off below sand line. These posts were easily broken by pushing them over using your foot and stepping forward. However this last post I removed snapped off like all the others but in the process I hurt my lower back.
My job requires me to do a lot of physical labor, and anyone who does this type of work for a living understands that you do get hurt from time to time. In the process of performing these duties over a long period of time you accept the occasional injury and deal with the pain and just go back to work. I am 55 years old and have worked for the state of Delaware for 16 years and have no thoughts of taking advantage of my injury to get out on disability. I have a new home and car payments and must work until I am 65 to 67 years old in order to be financially able to afford retirement. Anyway at the time of my injury, I fell to my knees and suffered severe pain and had to be helped up to the standing position. I was sick to my stomach, with pain on my right lower back and loss of power in my right leg.
My testicles ached clear to my upper chest and I had a hard time standing and could not straighten up at all. It was at the end of the day so I figured I would be ok once I got home and took a hot bath. I took aspirin when I went home and soaked in a hot bath for an hour or so and I felt a little better. I couldn't sleep through the night and had a rough time getting out of bed each morning. My wife who is a nurse at the local hospital kept telling me to try another doctor, and gave me the name of a new doctor she knew from the hospital so I made an appointment. After examining me this doctor ordered Xrays and an MRI and scan.
After reviewing this information she had me scheduled for a CT Mylogram which I had done at the local hospital. PMA had refused to pay for the doctors visits and the tests that I had taken and would not cover the days I had missed from work and they made the decision that my injury was not work related. This last surgeon told me that my condition could not be helped with surgery but she would send me to a Neurologist who worked in pain management and that this doctor might help with the pain part. I was examined by him and he found a problem with my sacrum and advised me to see his associate for injections to the sacrum joint. I went to another hospital in another town in Delaware and was injected using the floroscope to visually see where the needle intersected the joint. I believe the area I am speaking about is the Illiac Crest. This set of needles did seem to help the crippling pain that was shooting down my leg and I went back to extended physical Therapy for 6 weeks more. In the process I was bombarded nearly every day from collection agencys and doctors offices and hospital groups due to nonpayment by the state authorized workers' comp group ( PMA).
I was not sleeping well and everything had taken a toll on me both emotionally and physically so I went to my family doctor for help. He reviewed my situation and supported me and prescribed medications to help me with the depression and inability to sleep. I am at the end of treatment with my pain management doctor and with the medications I am taking I can make it through the day more comfortably than before. My family doctor is treating my ailments now and although I still have my pain and discomfort I can survive day to day.