[athump]

1st thing is I am no saint, but I am a good worker and have done this same job for the past 5 years. which is partly why this happened. I mix the liquid that goes into e-cigs. I handle liquid nicotine everyday I work several times a day. This past Wednesday business was slow, slow day, I am tired so after lunch I have my drink on my desk and I don't put my mask on. so I go to take a drink but grab a thing of pure nicotine. I don't swallow it but get a mouth full. I spit it out and rinsed then went to bathroom where I started to get sick. I tried to call out but to late, I passed out. Most of this can be seen on our security camera.
I wake up 8 hours later in a hospital room it's about 1am. I think to myself, dammit I screwed up but I am ok and go back to sleep. OK here is where it goes crazy. Embarrassed to say but they found speed in my system from the weekend. They ran with it,saying i'm doped out stroked out. This is what all the ER paper work says. Well the symptoms of nicotine poisoning are almost identical. I'm lucky I didn't take a lethal dose of nicotine. they did not try to find out from me or give me charcoal they keep me knocked out even the next day when I did say what happened and there test on my heart to see how bad I messed it up all came back fine. they never said there orginal diagnoses was wrong.
So this is what my work filed a workers comp. claim on. which is crap. do I need to get a lawyer and sue the hospital, or retain a lawyer before I return to work Monday. I'll take my licks for not following safety procedures which itself can terminate me but won't. and the WC is on nonsense.

[1171]

Has the claim been denied?
If it is denied, then they have to have medical evidence that the speed caused you to  misjudge and grab the wrong container; just having an illicit drug in your system is not enough. To get comp benefits you will need persuasive medical evidence that the speed in your system did not impair you to the point of trying to drink from the wrong container.
I suspect you will have to litigate the issue as such evidence may require the services of a knowledgable comp atty.
It may be difficult to find an atty unless the potential comp benefits are substantial.

[California_Help]

I recommend consulting with an attorney. You can request a copy of all your records from the hospital including lab tests.

Since this is such a public site, I recommend deleting anything that can be used to identify you or used against you, for example most of your post.