Workers Comp Help
Spine Injury After Accident In A Company Car
Valentines Day of 2002 I got the call that every family member dreads. My mother had been in car accident. My sisters and I learned little of her status during the five hour drive to the hospital. In fact, we learned very little about her injuries during her entire hospital stay.
We did learn that a drunk under-insured driver had hit the company car in which she was a passenger causing the van to roll. A liability her employer was aware of and had thus instituted a check-out policy for the vans where drivers were taught how to safely operate the vehicle. The van she was riding in had not been checked out.
Despite fixing her broken arm and keeping close tabs on a ruptured spleen and three broken ribs the doctors would do nothing to alleviate the tremendous back pain she was in claiming that it was a normal occurrence considering her injuries and would subside in 4-6 weeks. Months later, still in incapacitating pain, a doctor looking at x-rays of her healed ribs told her she had suffered multiple spinal compression fractures.
I had hoped that after the correct diagnosis she would finally be given the care and attention her case deserved. Man was I naive. I figured that all that money they take out my paycheck every week for WC was actually going towards medical care. Instead it seems to be going to lawyers and claims-agents who contradict EVERY treatment her doctors prescribe. Did they go to med school? No...then why the hell does they think they can practice medicine?
We wait weeks for SAIF to finally come to an agreement on a doctor or procedure and it usually comes down to the cheapest therapy. Don't they understand that it is in everyone's best interest monetarily, physically, morally, and spiritually that my mother recover by any means?
The critical period for physical therapy came and went long ago and they are still fighting over which therapy is "right." Well I know now what's not right.
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Not right is destroying someone's chance to heal their own body through neglect. (She is not allowed to even seek out treatment independently or her claim will be forfeit)
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Not right is firing a dedicated employee because you injured her.
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Not right is leading the public to believe that they are being looked after while you obnoxiously rob them blind.
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Not right is making my mother feel like SHE'S the one stealing from the system.
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Not right is treating any person like they and their family don't matter.
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Not right is trading the freedom to sue for a guarantee of quality care...and then not recieving anything NEAR quality care.
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Not right is living with chronic pain.
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Not right is calling chronic pain imaginary.
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Not right is my parents new camper sitting in the driveway with all their hopes of a fulfilling middle-age stored neatly inside.
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Not right is my dad ever crying.
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Not right is my mom's drastic personality change caused by her medications.
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Not right is me hating to visit because I'm devastated that she may be like this indefinitely if SAIF has their way.
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Not right is her feeling guilty about any of this.
We are a hard-working, ethical, loving family, and we will overcome this. Everyday I'm thankful that we aren't worse off. She could just as easily be paralyzed, or worse. And we are blessed beyond belief that we are not a single-income family. All that I really want is the opportunity to yell at the people responsible for creating and running such a useless, wasteful, corrupt service (and maybe make them cry a little, as well...).
Nobody who has heard what we are going through can believe that Workers' Comp operates this way. We were all brain-washed into believing that the principal problem with WC was the "massive amount of petty fraudulent claims." I now vehemently educate everyone who cares to listen as to who the real thieves are.
I ask anyone who has warnings or tips to e-mail me. We can't let our co-workers and friends fight alone any longer. I give my empathy to anyone touched by this public service disaster.