HI, I help do home health for the elderly. on 9/20/07, at work at clients home, bent down to change cannister on vacumn. felt sharp pain mid-lower back and electric charges down left leg. called boss immediately. she directed me to our work comp clinic. this was a thurs. note on door said closed til mon. went home called boss she said go to er. i called her boss to verify this. filled out c4 at er. had first hearing via conference call. my boss said to my lawyer, annie don't you remember you called in before work that day to say your back hurt? I have several witnesses. This was NOT TRUE. I need to have my third epidural steroidd this week. my hearing is in carson city on tuesday at 11 am. I have a notorized letter from the client witnessing injury the other side is motioning to throw out. my boss is fired and her boss moved to san francisco. any advice? annie

Hi Annie and welcome to the forum. My first question is did you call at all for anything? The reason I am asking is that if you didn't, you can have your phone records pulled that traveled from your home to else where for that morning. This may solve the problem immediately. The next bit of information that may help you is to read the employees hand book and discover how the tracking of absentees issues are handled and how they are handled if you call out at all. For instance, I was a director of Nursing and a health care administrator for many years. My policy's always included a HR policy about nurse call outs or call ins about having issues. Who ever received it, would place the information a tracking form and on a short form that would enter the person calling out or in wiht an issue in to their employee file. There may be information there that you have not considered yet. if you find an absenteesm policy of such. Discuss with the lawyer, do not tip your hand to the orgainization. Your lawyer can obtain the records through a court order and the organization must comply. If you do not have an employee record, is there a friend that works there that would obtain one for you? I know you must be careful with this part...if no friend and no employee record, then maybe your lawyer would obtain that and your employee record for review ... from my experience however, the tracking forum is treated as a quality improvement form and not included in any bodies record, so if you want that, the only way to get it is to request it with a court order. However, I don't believe you can do that until you know that they have one. On the other hand, you could request all Quality improvement tools that provide information on employee call outs and concerns.

It is unfortunate that this surpervisor has started this doubt in the minds of everyone around such as any other supervisor you will have or even the W/C insurance company.

I hope the information helps some...Red

My employer told me after my injury and prior to them finding the pinched nerve. "Well I have heard you complain of backache in the past on occasion". NO CHIT I have been a nurse since 1990 and a nurses aide before that. If I hadn't had a backache now and then I would think I wasn't doing my job. The thing is this pain is all together different than the arthritis pain I have experienced in the past. That was a low back-pelvic ache that would go away as I worked and come on if I over did it. This nerve pain is a constant pinch pain that is never relieved and runs from my back to my hip, through my buttocks and down my leg. Gee I wonder if I would be able to tell the difference.

This post was last modified: 03-16-2008 09:30 AM by alanckaye.

I am just curious why the boss was fired..LOL Maybe lieing to much???? Anyways, good luck and i do think you will need a lawyer for this and a witness. My friend was in the same situation when she slipped on a carpet at her work and hurt her ankle. Someone said that she said she hurt it walking on the rocks at the beach the day before. She had alot of fighting to do, court etc. with witnesses but finally won.

Good luck and get yourself a good WC lawyer. Not one of them QUACKS that just want their percentage.