Donahoe Kearney Blog

Nurses and healthcare workers exposed to chemo at work

Many nurses are injured at work every day - from lifting patients, turning patients, moving them from the OR table to a bed. The CDC has now indicated chemo contaminates the workplaces of many nurses who administer it to cancer patients.

After a D.C. injury, workers comp adjuster schedules FCE

After a D.C. injury, the workers comp adjuster wants to clarify the injured workers work restrictions or limitations, so he attends a functional capacity evaluation or FCE and what do they say?

"Independent" Medical Exam? Try Insurance Medical Exam

Sooner or later, someone hurt at work with a workers compensation claim will get a letter from the adjuster or nurse case manager sending them to an "Independent" Medical Exam. I call these "insurance medical exams" or litigation exams. There's nothing independent about them.

Unsafe Workplace

Dangerous working conditions still exist - putting working people at risk for serious on the job injuries and work related fatalaties.

Insurance adjusters take advantage of injured workers

One workers comp insurance adjuster takes a recorded statement from an injured worker and then won't give him a copy. Another tells a man hurt at work that he can't get benefits because his employer (the adjuster's client) made a mistake on a form and "you can't amend a legal form." Both are taking advantage of injured workers.

16 work related deaths per day

Simply reporting for work shouldn't put your safety at risk.  But at some job sites, that's exactly what happens.  

While OSHA and various state laws and occupational safety departments at the state level require safe workplaces, check out this alarming video that tells the tragedy of preventable workplace deaths at http:/16deathsperday.com

Workers compensation death and injury benefits may help an injured worker or the family of a worker killed on the job, but the real issue is preventing workplace fatalaties and injuries in the first place.

Protect Your Rights: The Injured Worker's Guide to D.C. Workers' Compensation

This is the title of my new book about how to protect your rights when you get hurt at work.  The book shows you how to protect your rights and those of your family when you are hurt on the job.  Its based on my years of experience representing injured workers.   

I wrote it for working people because there is so much misinformation about D.C. workers compensation and work injuries.  Some of it comes from the injured worker's co-workers, friends and family - well intentioned but still wrong.  And some of the misinformation is intentional - it comes from insurance companies who want to force you to see one of their doctors or go to one of their clinics, or want you to file a claim in a different state, or don't tell you you're entitled to benefits for a permanent injury.

Protect Your Rights:  The Injured Worker's Guide to D.C. Workers' Compensation will be published this fall.


 

Workers Comp Death Benefits

A widow who was denied workers compensation death benefits after her late husband died following his on the job injury is trying to change Virginia law - for the better, in my view.

Claire Pierce's husband, Arthur, a trucker, was found beside his truck at work, unconscious and bleeding.  An accident reconstruction determined he fell 12 feet onto concrete from the rig in his employer's lot, while he was on the clock.  He had sustained brain damage.  Unfortunately, he never regained consciousness and died 16 months later. 

Sounds like his widow would get workers compensation benefits, right?  In D.C. and Maryland, the widow would receive workers compensation death benefits, which replace a portion of the deceased employee's earnings, and pay for medical and funeral expenses.  But not in Virginia.

Unfortunately, Virginia is one of a handful of states that have a presumption that death is covered if the employee is found dead on the job site (for example if he dies instantaneously from a fall or accident).  But since the injured worker wasn't able to testify and his fall was unwitnessed, the commission ruled there wasn't enough evidence to award benefits.

Mrs. Pierce is trying to get legislation passed that would change this law - a bill did not make it out of committee apparently.  I'm contacting my state reps telling them to support a change that is good for Virginia workers and their families.

What is the insurance industry's response?  In typical fashion, they don't see a need to change the law because it would lead to "fraud" - as if an injured worker could fake brain damage and a coma for 16 months? 

 

Work Injuries: Heat Stress and Workers Compensation

We all know Washington summers are hot - and can be dangerously so to workers.  Workers who earn their living outdoors, on construction sites, and those who work around machinery and in confined spaces, such as mechanics, steamfitters and plumbers can be at risk for heat stress.  Heart disease, high blood pressure and some medications may increase the risk of heat stress.

What is heat stress?  Its heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat cramps and heat rash.

The most serious classification is heat stroke, which can cause death or permanent injury and disability if not treated.  According to the Centers for Disease Control symptoms include hot, dry skin without sweating, hallucinations, chills, headache, high body temperature confusion or dizziness and slurred speech. 

If a co-worker shows these signs, the CDC recommends calling 911 and moving the injured worker to a cool, shaded area, and cooling the worker by showering or spraying them with water, soaking their clothes, or fanning them.

The CDC recommends workers take precautions against heat stress, such as wearing light loose fitting clothing, drink ing water frequently and scheduling heavy work for the coolest part of the day.

A worker injured due to heat stroke or heat stress on the job should notify his supervisor as soon as possible.  Injured workers are entitled to workers compensation benefits in D.C. as long as the heat stress or heat stroke was related to their job.

For more information on heat stress, go to www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/ 

Worker's knee surgery authorized

Just before Christmas, based on a litigation doctor's bought and paid for opinion, a mechanic's workers comp benefits were stopped because the hired gun doctor didn't think he needed arthroscopic surgery.  This surgery - designed to diagnose as well as fix a problem - is used to diagnose and surgically repair meniscal tears in the knee and rotator cuff tears in the shoulder.  

Glad to report, the surgery was authorized and benefits re-started before the hearing.  This means the mechanic will get his work related knee injury fixed sooner and hopefully he'll be back to work sooner as well, with less recovery time and restrictions.  

Dollar Tree denies death benefits after employee is killed on the job.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported the Dollar Tree and its workers compensation insurance company were denying workers compensation benefits to an 11 year old child of one of their employees killed on the job.  The employee, an African American clerk who was stocking shelves, was attacked - apparently because of her race - and died of her injuries.  The Dollar Tree says that because the attack was racially motivated (the employee did not know the attacker) it did not arise out of her employment with the store.

Isn't a store clerk supposed to help the public?  Isn't she subjected to the risks associated with dealing with the public?  Didn't her horrible death arise out of that employment?  Of course. 

A chilling example of what some companies do to deny legitimate workers compensation claims.

My kids love to shop at this store to buy cheap Christmas gifts for each other.  Not this year. 

Read the entire article at www.sfgate.com

Workers compensation insurance company cuts off a worker's benefits because insurance company doctor says he doesn't need surgery.

Insurance companies do it all the time.  An injured worker's benefits were terminated because the insurance company doctor doesn't think he needs an arthroscopic surgery for his documented work related knee injury.  The insurance company doctor "examined" the injured worker for about 5 minutes a couple of months ago (and was paid about $500 for that exam I suspect).  That doctor later reviewed an MRI report - not the actual films - didn't re-examine the injured worker or speak with his treating physician, but just wrote another report saying the surgery wasn't necessary.

What is arthroscopic surgery?  As the insurance doctor knows full well, its a procedure that is diagnostic as well as therapuetic.  In other words, it will help the treating orthopaedic surgeon determine the extent and cause of the worker's knee problems - and fix those problems if necessary.

What do you think the insurance doc would say if it was his patient?

What can this worker, who was hurt on the job do now?  He has to request a hearing and have a D.C. administrative law judge decide whether he needs the surgery and whether his workers compensation benefits will be reinstated.