Workers Comp Help
Construction Injury Causing a Broken Leg
I was working as a Construction Superintendent for New Home Construction. While hopping an open trench, the side of the ditch collapsed and I fell over. I landed on a foundation bolt which was imbedded in a concrete slab for the house. This is the bolt that hold's the wall's up with a washer and a nut. I was impaled on this certain bolt.
When I tried to pull myself off of it, it got stuck in my femur bone. When I finally pulled myself loose, I slipped again and the bolt went completely through my thigh. Then, I finally got myself off of it and all of my leg gut's came out with it. They had wrapped themselves around the thread's of the bolt and I had to pry myself off with my free hand. They were all ripped in half and just hanging there. So, I stuffed them into my leg.
I was hauled to the hospital emergency parking lot and dumped off by the driveway so I had to walk to the door and let myself in. I was put on a gurney and waited there for 4 hour's while I was plugging up this hole in my leg which was about the size of a tennis ball. I saw maybe 3 or 4 person's come in after me in that period of time so I kinda knew that the place wasn't all that busy. It was in the middle of the afternoon. They took X-Ray's and told me that it wasn't broken and then the doctor just cut away all of the stuff and gave me one suture and told me to take a week off but to insert these long Q-Tip's into the hole 3 time's a day.
My work called me everyday and told me to get back to work or I'd be fired. And when I finally did get back to work, I got my butt chewed for missing 7 day's. My leg still wasn't healed over yet and I still had to stick those Q-Tip's in it 3 time's a day in the Porta-Pottie's since there wasn't any kind of sheltered area to do this task in private. I'm just not going to go and tell you how sick I got. That's another dilemma that would make this story too long. I was told not to see anymore doctor's or I'd be fired for missing anymore time.
As it was, the money from Worker's Comp that I received for those 7 day's wouldn't have collectively covered my monthly mortgage payment so I really had to work whether I was in pain or not. This carried on for another year until my back collapsed from walking with a limp for so long on a rough job-site. I then was fired when I could no longer perform my job duty's. I filed a continuance for my initial Worker's Comp injury as well as a 132-A report for wrongful termination.
The insurance company changed when the company was bought out. So that meant the second insurance company didn't want to deal with my leg which from the start didn't feel right and hurt like hell! And the first one just washed their hand's of it altogether. I told every doctor this information only to have my information ignored due to the doctor's only having paperwork for my back which had herniated disk's in it by this point. And, I also found out that my hip was sheared as well. Needless to say, we were 'starved out' and lost everything after fighting for 3 year's. We fled to another state for some help since I couldn't qualify for any help in my state while I was still dealing with an open Worker's Comp case.
I did file for my state disability benefit's but they eventually ran out. It was then that I lost my home and was made homeless. I fought the Worker's Comp Syndicate for 11 year's and lost. I was forced to settle my case against my will or have my case dismissed by a judge without the option of an appeal. The judge also based his decision on the fact that I had applied for and received my Social Security Disability Benefit's while I was out of state. He then told me to get my leg fixed with my SSD benefit's.
During the time after I had moved back to my initial state where the Comp case was still active, I got another X-Ray clearly showing that my femur had been broken and still was broken because I was never given the allotted amount of time to heal and was blatantly lied to in the fact that the initial doctor never told me that my leg was broken just to get me back on the job quicker. There was a hole in my femur bone that had tried to heal itself over.
My initial problem was the fact that when I was impaled, the bolt had severed all of the nerve's, vessel's, tissue and muscle's in my upper thigh. All of my leg gut's from my knee to my hip, I was holding in my right hand and shoving them back into the hole. So, I at first really couldn't feel much, and didn't for quite a while after that. Just numbness and tingling pain like when your arm fall's asleep or something.
Throughout the duration of this ordeal, I was nothing less than lied to, mis-treated, discriminated against and abused. And, then I was cheated. My life has been completely destroyed, and I have no hope for my future. Worker's Comp did NOTHING to help me at all. I now have to take daily pain medication since it feel's like I'm hitting my funnybone real hard with every step. This pain medication is a level 2 narcotic that I have a real hassle getting on a regular basis. It's a hassle for me to live now.
I've been on this kind of medication for 8 year's now and I've been on the strongest kind that I take now, for 5 year's. And, when I'm forced to go without for any period of time like a week or so, I just want to take a shotgun to my head since this pain has gotten to the point to which it's unbearable for me. This accident and the experience that went along with it, has caused other health problem's also. Like, when I faced losing all of my stuff that I had spent a lifetime earning, I started grinding my teeth in my sleep. I now have broken teeth and ground my jaw so hard that I broke it. My wife told me that it sounded like I was chewing rock's! I would wake up with bit's and piece's of broken teeth and loose and broken filling's in my throat. I had a dentist look at my mouth and he informed me that I had ""Bruxism"" and ""T.M.J. Syndrome"".
Not to mention that I now have a major sleep disorder and didn't sleep for a 3 year period. I have to take pill's for that too now. Also, since I was forced to do without any medication until I got my SSD, I fell alot. I was using my left arm to break my fall's. I fell down some stair's one day and broke my left shoulder. It's still broken today after 8 year's. Or it's dislocated or something because, I can't lift it very high without some more major pain shooting through it.
My case is ended, my measily pittance of a settlement is gone (I didn't even break even due to debt's with interest, I had accrued while I was forced to exist on nothing), I have no decent insurance and my leg is still broken. It still pop's open with every step and feel's like I'm hitting my funnybone real hard with every step. I think now that after this experience with the Worker's Comp Syndicate, I feel now that it should be referred as the Worker's Cruelty Syndicate. This is my story, I'll swear it on a bible. I also have proof.
Update
This is a follow-up to my story. This endless, brutal nightmare of terrorism was first inflicted towards me when the accident first happened on Jan, 13th, 1988. This happened in the Peoples Republic of California. I had just turned 31 year's old a month before the accident. I'll be 45 year's old in 2 day's. I'll call it my deathday since my life has been totally destroyed and I absolutely have no hope for the future what-so-ever. The case ended for The Comp Syndicate, the insurance company and their lawyer's, but will go on until the day I die for me. It is now a major hassle for me even to live anymore with this pain that just seems to get worse as each day passes.
I used to believe in justice for all and that life was based on right and wrong. I also used to believe that our elected officials were in office to serve the people. I used to believe in the American way. I found out that I not only was taught wrong in my schooling but I used to be a very stupid and very naive person. The only thing that matter's now is money. It doesn't matter how you get it either if you are an insurance company either. Throw right and wrong, justice, elected officals and the law's right out the window! Apparently, lie's perjury, false documentation, and just plane chicanery are the rule now-a-day's. I used to think that if you wanted to heard that you could contact the media to tell your story. Guess I was wrong there too now wasn't I! Talk about being put on ignore. And yet, they are so quick to film the fraud's that is ripping off the system and make everyone think that it's the norm. What about when the insurance company, comp doctor, insurance attorney are fraudulent? Who film's them? The Media? Yeah! Right!
You don't have a clue until it happens to you has been my motto for 14 year's now. And it doesn't matter who you tell either. The only thing that the Worker's Comp Syndicate accomplished for me was the loss of everything I spent a lifetime earning, (including my retirement), bankruptcy, loss of my home, homelessness, sterility so I can no longer have children to carry on my family name, Bruxism, T.M.J. Syndrome which meant, the loss of my teeth due to grinding them in my sleep and a broken jaw which is now very painful, and the ability to go out and earn a decent living. If it weren't for Social Security Disability Benefit's (which only took me 4 year's in another state), I'd certainly be dead right now. I get in a month now what I used to earn in 3 day's if you can go figure that. I was never retrained to earn the same amount that was taken away from me. I was not adequately compensated either. Not even close. Not even one tenth! I was not adequately treated by the so !
called medical profession. I was totally disrespected and humiliated! I was just given the run-a-round. What a scam! I get no monetary compensation, no medical benefit's, nothing. But, my leg is still broken and my back has herniated disk's and my hip is still sheared, my jaw crack's, my teeth are broken, I can't sleep at all and the amount of pain of off the scale!
My leg still pop's open with every step only now, it feel's like hitting your funnybone real hard with every beat of my heart or what's left of it. None of the drug's that the doctor's give me, do anything. There is only 1 medication that I can take that gives me some true relief. Only now, that medication was all over the media and now the doctor's are afraid to write it. Here in California, I'm on this 3 year plan for my Social Security. They try to take it away from me every 3ird year. I get notified a day before Christmas. I can't afford to do holiday's anymore so now it's just part of the terrorism inflicted against me. California hate's disabled people especially Comp Victim's. I now am very frightened and terrified. All I have to do is to let them X-ray my femur bone while I'm standing up. It still show's up clearly. Why didn't they even try to reattach anything that was ripped out of my thigh? The doctor just butchered it all up and threw it all away like I was a piece of meat or something.
September 11th meant that the victim's of those crime's were going to get some help to survive by not only everyone knowing about it and contributing to some kind of fund or another but, getting killed so they don't have to suffer a lifetime in excruciating pain. As for me, being also, disabled on the job like they were, had to then as have to now, go it alone. No help, no victim's relief fund, no medical attention, no money to survive on, absolutely nothing. I hope that the people who realized how crooked the Red Cross is and were in an uproar finally realize what they only act when they have exposure from the media. As for me, I was denied. I got no help at all. I'm afraid that I'm just too jaded anymore to have any kind of opinion on that. My life went through the same thing only I go it alone without any kind of help. Nothing!
The only way I can even function anymore is to make sure that my pain medication doesn't run out. Not only do I have to deal with Thor's Hammer, but, the anger too. One day, I figure that I'll finally have enough of this cruelty and just finally end it. No one seems to give a damn either. When my pill's run out, I can't chew food. I can't get comfortable enough in one position to sleep either. I fall alot. I cry alot. I cuss alot. I've lost over 80 pound's and my waist size is still the same. I am weak, I am in pain, I am tired now. I just can't get over how crooked this syndicate really is. It is blatant abuse and punishment. Disability Punishment. I now have a new motto, "Death before Disability".
My leg is still broken. I can get a doctor to tell me it was broken but I just get a doctor to put that in writing. I see the commercial that Worker's Comp will get the employee back to work. They will you know. Broken bone's or not you will go back to work. Pain or not. Worker's Comp is the worst thing that can be inflicted towards a human being. Worse than death. Zoo animal's and criminal's have it easier and have more right's al well. Remember, at least, they are housed and fed as well as got their medical benefit's. When you get 'Commped", you get nothing, not even treated for the infliction you've received when the accident happened. At least not in my case.
I just want to share this nightmare and to tell you that terrorism has been in our country now for the last 14 year's that I know of. And that maybe someone, someday, who can do something about this blatent abuse against the victim will have the reasoning to do the right thing and abolish this fascism. Make it against the law to inflict mayhem against the gal or guy who only was doing the right thing and earning a living.
Maybe someone someday will realize that insurance is just a scam and finally realize that it is a legalized sort of extortion and get rid of it! Maybe someday, lawyer's and judge's will be punished for perjury. Maybe someday, the Comp Doctor's will go back to school and learn how to treat a broken leg the right way instead of ignoring it. After my leg was broken, I was forced to go back to work in just 7 day's or be fired. But, it had to misdiagnosed first. And it was. It took 8 year's after the accident happened that I was finally able to get an xray to vindicate my story. But, I also had to apply and finally receive after 4 year's, my Social Security Disability Benefit's first. Before that, I complained about the pain in my leg and they all were treating my back. My broken leg caused some disk's in my back to herniated when I had to walk on it for 10 hour's a day. I was able to pay a thousand dollar a month mortgage payment, all of my credit card bill's, utility bill's, 2 car payment's with insurance for nearly 3 year's just by liquidating all of my acquired asset's that I busted my butt earning. I also was sole support for several other's as well. When I went down, alot of people went with me. I had alot of dependent's. That didn't matter at all.
I wrote hundred's of letter's, emails to anyone and everyone who was either elected, appointed or meant something to me only to be blown off without as much as the courtesy of a single reply. I wrote all of the media, congressmen, state, federal representative's, and anyone else who I thought mattered. Apparently, nothing matter's at all. Why can't I get some sort of malpractice case against all of this blatant fraud inflicted against me? Does someone out there have an answer to this question? Why were they allowed to lie and cheat in court that day? Why was the judge allowed to be so crooked even when I pointed it out? Why didn't my termination paper which I had got blown off only to have their new one recognized? Why wasn't I ever given a copy of it? The first and only time I ever saw that document was that day it was produced in court. I guess it erased mine which I held on to for 11 year's. It explained everything. I was fired. Not once but, 3 time's by 3 different supervisor's because I could no longer maintain my duties. I was fired because I was released back to work at 80% and they wanted 100% or hit the road! It said that in black and white right there! It just didn't matter. Why can't I get adequately compensated? I have all of the proof in writing. That's why the name of this land has to be changed to what it really is. "The Ununited Corporation of the Insurance Company". And of course, their new motto, "Land of the Greed and Homelessness for the Naive"!
Money is God!
Life sucks!
Sincerely,
Roy
A Disabled Worker's Comp VICTIM!!
Further Update
My saga is already posted. The only thing that make's thing's tolerable are the painkiller's that I now HAVE to take everyday just to stay alive. Because, if I'm forced to go without for just 2 day's, well, I've got that taken care of too. I just will not suffer anymore.
It hasn't been getting any better, just worse. Now, I'm in a wheelchair no doubt. I knew it would happen eventually. Everyday a little less and a little less. Now, I just sit most of the day and keep my mind occupied reading.
It also help's to keep the extreme bitterness at an arm's length. I just don't understand how they can break the law like they do. But, I survived it. 11 year's of lie's. The truth just didn't matter. There is no right and wrong like I was taught, just money. Everything is just bought and paid for. There is no law anymore, just a wink and that's it.
If your the victim, oh well, it's your loss. Everything! I sure hope that someone in a high place happens to have some scruple's and help us do something about this blatant abuse against the disabled victim's of these crime's! I just ain't gonna hold my breath!