Workers' Compensation Discussion Forums

I work for a major Detroit area hospital and I was injured in 2007 with an inguinal hernia. At that time my OR manager filled out all the rerquired forms for an on the job injury and I received my benefits as expected. However, after a time off of work the insurance people thats I guess represent the workers comp people thought that my recovery time was sufficient and I was told that I could go back to work.

Well needless to say I don't think I was ready. At any rate I returned back to work and I was still in a lot of pain which resulted in me favoring the injured side. As I was picking up some heavy implant trays I felt a pop and a little shooting pain in my back and down my leg. At the time I figured it was just muscle weakness from not working for the period of time I was off. As time went by over the course of a year and a half to two years it became much worse. At first it was intermittent pain and numbness but now it has gotten so bad that I am on FMLA and will undergo surgery to repair a herniated disk and to correct other problems that I feel was a direct result of the initial popping and discomfort that I had felt when I feel I returned to work to early.

Diagnosis is degenerative disc disease and a stenotic nerve which may require rods and cadaver bone graft to fuse the spine.

My question is, am I literally screwed in receiving any help from the comp people as a result of not filling out the incident report?

Like I said, I didn't realize I had to do it. I had never been in a situation like that except for the hernia injury which my OR manager filled out all the paper work for.

Every doctor that I have seen to get to the root cause of the pain in my back and leg I have told them that it was work related. The surgeon that I was with when I heard and felt the popping knows I had injured my back. There are 3 neurosurgeons that I have told that I felt it was a work related injury. My primary physician knows thats where and when I feel it happened.

I would hate to lose a job I love if FMLA won't cover my time off for recovery from the upcoming surgery April 27th.

If anybody has any ideas or can direct me please email me.

Oh by the way. The hernia that I had and felt that they made me go back to early had to be repaired also. So this really tells me that I should not have returned to work when THEY said I had to. I did fill out an incident report for that incident but, isn't that just an extension of the first hernia? And if so, wouldn't the back injury be an extension of the hernia injury in 2007?


Thanks,
The Raven[/b][/b][/b][/size]

What does you employee handbook say about reporting an injury. The OR manager should have informed you of the form if she was any kind of a decent manager.. have you been inserviced on injury reports and signed off on it ? I would consult a lawyer if it were me.

Ihi,
I have a question...when you were told to return to work from the hernia....WHO told you to do so? Only the treating doctor can do this....not the WC case worker or the NCM.
Good luck, Lilly

My opinion is. You fill out 2 incident reports. For one injury may not be so easy to say that their related. Even if they are related. This way you covered your bases. Then get treated. Fill a Workmen's Compensation Claim with your State Workmens Compensation Board. You should be given either one or 2 Claim Numbers. Some States give a claim number for each reported incident. You should get copies of your incident reports, all your medical Reports, all test, X-rays, Cat Scans, Mri's, and all them written Reports also. In fact, always get a copy of anything for these medical injury claims as you go along. This helps you from having to try and do it all at a latter date.