Back injuries affect over 600,000 Americans every year, costing the nation’s economy as much as $50 billion dollars per year.
As the workforce ages and medical costs increase, the financial effects of a work injury will continue to become more apparent. You may work for an incredible organization with tremendous managers, yet once you document your work comp claim the insurance agency will be in charge. It is important for an injured worker to realize that Insurance companies exist to make money, not to pay claimants like you.
Common workplace back injures include:
- Lower back strain
- Bulging, herniated, and slipped discs
- Damaged vertebrae
- Pinched nerves
- Spinal cord damage
Every year, a significant number of workers’ file work comp claims as a result of a lifting injury.
Why Your Back Hurts
Back pain from a work injury can have numerous causes. It can emerge out of a solitary event, such as lifting a crate that is excessively heavy, or from a continuous, strain on back muscles, tendons, and the discs securing your vertebrae.
Constant movements such as lifting, pulling, pushing, stacking, and sitting can cause your back to degenerate or get stressed.
Vertebrates
The spine is made out of twenty-four moving vertebrae and nine fixed vertebrae. In the middle of each moving vertebra is a liquid-filled pocket called a disc. Vertebrates go about as safeguards, isolating and padding every vertebra.
Discs
A back injury can make at least one disc herniate. Without the padding discs, vertebrae rub against one another, and spinal nerves become aggravated, causing pain.
Tendons
Bands of thick tissue called tendons encompass your spine to keep the spinal section set up while permitting it to curve and move. At the point when the spine is seriously overextended, the tendons can stretch or tear, causing extreme pain.
Muscles
Your back has a lot of muscles stretching out all over the spinal segment on the two sides of the vertebrae. Back muscles help with lifting, pulling or pushing overwhelming burdens. Like muscles anyplace in the body, overextension, injuries, and tears can occur.
Spinal Cord
The spinal segment encompasses and secures the spinal cord. The spinal cord has a huge number of nerve endings that send messages between the mind and body. A spinal cord injury can be life-wrecking and may prompt loss of motion or even death.
Treatment for Back Pain
Treatment for back injuries at work ranges from gentle (applying hot and cold packs), to broad (medical procedure if all else fails). Your doctor may prescribe medications to lessen pain and irritation, for example, acetaminophen, anti-inflammatory medicine, ibuprofen, or other non-steroidal calming drugs (NSAIDS).
To control extreme pain, you might be prescribed opiate painkillers, for example, Vicodin, Percocet, or other strong prescriptions. Opiate pain prescriptions can have numerous side effects and must be monitored cautiously because of the high danger of narcotic addiction for back pain victims.
Extra treatment can incorporate chiropractic care, rub, ultrasound treatment, and whirlpools.
What to Do After a Back Injury at Work
Injured workers are qualified for workers’ comp benefits. Those advantages pay for your clinical and treatment bills, cash-based costs, expenses of transportation to and from treatment, and roughly 66% of your lost wages.
Get Immediate Medical Treatment
If you suffer an abrupt back injury, look for clinical treatment right away. This isn’t an ideal opportunity to show how strong you are.
Try not to wait to see if your back will feel better in a couple of days. The insurance agency will utilize any postponement in looking for clinical treatment against you and may even deny your case by contending the injury didn’t occur at work.
Report the Incident Promptly and in Detail
The work comp procedure starts when you first report your injury to your boss or assigned supervisor. Be explicit while portraying your back injury. Wisconsin law states that a work injury, which was caused by years of labor is covered.
Be as explicit as could be expected under the circumstances:
“I was lifting a crate of parts into the truck after lunch on Tuesday when I felt something pop and tear in my back on the left side close to my belt line. It hurt so terrible I was unable to stand upright.”
Be careful with Pre-Existing Conditions
It’s important to rehash how you hurt your back to each clinical practitioner who sees you. Do not expect that the nurse or doctor has read your past medical records.
Subtleties of the conditions around your work injury are particularly important in the event that you have any preexisting conditions of the spine. In the event that you think about a prior condition, don’t conceal it.
Notwithstanding, expect to learn after your physical issue that you are very brave related crumbling in your back.
Ensure your primary care physicians realize your back injury happened at work, and that you didn’t have intense problems before the work-related incident that caused your issues.
What can you Expect from the Workers’ Comp Insurance Company
In the wake of filing your claim, the work comp company may try to direct you to one of their doctors. At Tabak Law we readily advise our client’s to see a doctor of their choosing that they trust. The state of Wisconsin allows injured workers to pick their doctor.
On the off chance that your primary care physician has decided you’ve arrived at Maximum Medical Improvement, which means your physical issue won’t show signs of improvement with further treatment, or you’re assigned with some degree of permanent partial disability, the insurance agency will probably expect you to attend an Independent Medical Exam (IME).
Meaning of Workers’ Comp Disability Categories
Total Temporary Disability
The injured worker is entirely off work due to restrictions that the employer cannot accommodate. Paid at 2/3 of your average weekly wage.
Temporary Partial Disability
The injured worker is able to work part-time and is due 2/3 of his/her average weekly wage for the hours that they are not working.
Permanent Total Disability
The injured worker can never return to work and may be due lost wages for the remainder of his or her lifetime.
Lasting Partial Disability is a perpetual physical issue that mostly disables your capacity to work.
Workers’ comps will pay all your injury-related treatment and, a part of your lost wages, and in case you’re permanently debilitated by your back physical issue, you might be qualified for a settlement to cover future lost wages.
If you have been injured at work and would like to speak with a skilled workers compensation attorney contact Tabak Law today at (414) 351-4400.