Over 6 Years and Counting !
6 totally mind numbing years!
As weird as it might seem the injury that or series of injuries that put me off the job, are not where I have actually been paid for anything of significance. I have been paid for a fall on my back on the ice in the fire station parking lot. I fell flat on my back, and initially hurt my hand more noticeably than anything else. I chopped a one inch square of meat out of the heel of my left hand. It bled like crazy for a while, and hurt a little bit. But as that searing pain in my hand subsided, I became aware that I had whipplashed my neck keeping my head from hitting the ground, and stiffened up my back yet again. This caused me a new limitation in the rotation of my head, and caused a marked increase in shoulder issues, while also starting up a new round of sciatica. Now this was obviously not good news, but all these symptoms were getting better with therapy, which I was attending weekly. The doctor ordered massage therapy, that was working well, but the lazy little chick therapist got tired of doing it and changed it to "you work out" with all the exercises that did nothing for my torn rotator cuff issues the first time. With the addition of "turn your head exercises" that only made the arm pain worse. Consequently, I quit that crap, and started doing better.
Then I fell through the floor, the fact that my head got turned so much farther than it had for months was in my opinion what really hurt it. And the fact that my body was stretched out over the non supported chasm I fell across, not only tore up my one knee (internal derangement) supporting half my 260 pound weight, (I had full fire gear and a back pack on), And the one outstretched arm (torn right rotator cuff) that contacted the other side of the hole, but also (alternately) tore and crushed two discs in my lumbar spine. Now due to the Morons at the MCO refusing the MRI's that were requested for two and a half years, When they were finally done, nobody is willing (except my doctor of course) to stand good on this damage happening in the fall, and this is compounded by the misreading of the MRI's by some Jack Ass at Akron City Hospital. Basically he claims there is damage but is inconsistent in his identification of it. The neurosurgeon who fixed my neck and did a tremendous job, says it is clear there are ruptured and torn discs in his MRI's but some how these never seem to make it to the hearings for BWC. Only the inconclusive misreadings have ever been used for damage determination.
A sad point in all this is that I had a "golden injury report" and a good claim from the mid 80's when the city was still getting people back to work instead of just deny deny deny, but nobody told me to keep it alive by claiming on it. This part gets real weird. I crushed a disc in 84, it was dissolved with a chymopapain injection. I was repaired well enough to go back to work but I was treated for back pain for ever after. I was treated on my insurance, I paid deductibles, I paid for medicine, I paid for it all. I was never told they were supposed to cover that stuff. Later when I talked to my lawyer, and found I should have been covered, I even tried to get it re allowed. I started by trying to get my records from the doctor. But they use a company called Smart Corporation of Alpharetta GA. to sort through and copy their medical documents,( so that a person couldn't possibly get their hands on their own medical records). Well these Smart people copied two injury reports from my son's medical records and sent me a bill. I called them, and wrote them, to inform them they had copied the wrong records and they were steadfast in their conviction that I owed them the money and they wouldn't do anything until I paid to have the illegal copies of my son's records. This is a clear violation of the HIPPA regulations but do you think anybody cares? Or that I can get a copy of my records? Nope! So, even though I lost my job, Have limited mobility and have been refused any recourse. The BWC still says it wants to do better in helping the workers of Ohio get back to work and earn a decent living. So they can pay taxes to be spent on better coin collections.
SIX YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SCREWING UP AND NO END IN SIGHT!
Don't you love this country?
