Experienced work injury lawyers fight for workers with acute and
chronic pain. Back injuries are a very common type of workplace injury. Back
pain affects most every type of worker including nurses, construction workers,
retail clerks, firefighters, police officers, anyone who stands for long hours,
and anyone who moves any type of heavy object. Motor vehicle accidents can also
cause back pain.
Often, back pain is due to a specific accident such as a
fall or lifting too heavy an object. Back pain can also be due to an event that
makes an existing back problem worse. A few of the events that can cause back
pain include:
It should be pointed out that Workers Compensation generally
does not pay for repetitive stress injuries and this rule applies to back
injuries as well. Unless the injured worker can point to a specific,
identifiable event that caused the back pain, or in Virginia, at least a
discreet set of work that caused the pain during a very narrowly defined time
frame, the back injury will not be deemed compensable.
Chronic pain is generally pain that lasts for more than a
few months.
Back pain can be due to many different types of conditions including:
Back pain is often accompanied by muscle pain, nerve damage,
and damaged tendons.
When a back pain injury causes you to stop working, be sure
to inform your supervisor and arrange to speak with an experienced workers’
compensation lawyer.
The most important thing is to think very hard about the precise
moment that the back pain started. What were you doing? What were you
lifting? Was it heavy? Unless you can narrow the cause of the pain down to a
specific, identifiable event at a specific time, you will likely not be able to
recover.
Also, in Virginia, you need to know that normal movements
that anyone would do such as bending down, twisting, or kneeling, will not lead
to a good,
or compensable claim. This is because they do not involve a risk of
employment. In other words, the accident could have happened anywhere. The
cause must be something that is a specific risk related to work, such as
lifting a very heavy object, or person.
Some back pain improves with non-surgical remedies. Other
types of back pain ultimately do require surgery. Workers with pain often work
a variety of doctors and healthcare professionals including:
Treatment can take weeks, months, or years. Some workers
never recover from their back pain.
A few at-home and short-term remedies, according to Spine-Health,
include:
·
Resting.
Short-term rest can help. If your back doesn’t improve after a few days, you
should seek medical attention. Too much rest can aggravate a bad back.
·
Modifying
your activity. You should check with your doctor before starting any
activity. Your physician may recommend gentle stretches and some walking.
·
Heat and
ice therapy. Often heat from an electric heating pad, a hot water bottle,
or a warm bath can help improve the flow of blood or relax muscles that are
tense. Increasing blood flow helps bring oxygen and nutrients to damaged
muscles. Cold packs or ice packs are usually used to reduce inflammation and
reduce swelling. When applying heat or ice, it’s best to wrap the device or
encase it some way say the heat or ice doesn’t come in direct contact with the
skin. Your doctor can explain when its best to use heat and when you should use
ice. Generally, heat is used before any exercise regimen or activity. Ice is
used after the exercise or activity.
·
Over-the-counter
medications. Anti-inflammatory medications can help reduce low back pain
which is due to swollen muscles or nerves. Some common anti-inflammatory medications
include ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen. Bayer is one type of aspirin. Advil
is a brand of ibuprofen. Aleve is a type of Naproxen. Another type of
medication doctors use for back pain management is Acetaminophen, otherwise
known as Tylenol.
·
Muscle
relaxants. These medications don’t directly reduce chronic back pain. They
can help relieve muscle pain.
·
Narcotics.
Doctors may prescribe narcotics if standard medications aren’t helping. This
area of medical treatment has become more complicated because the dangers of
such drugs as opioids are often much worse than the short-term benefits.
Opioids can be addictive and cause abuse and overdoses.
·
Back
braces. For some workers, a back brace, worn on a daily basis, when used
with physical exercise can help reduce pain and increase the healing process.
·
Epidural
steroid injections. This is an outpatient type of injection often performed
in an ambulatory surgery center. The procedure is done with the use of medical
device called a fluoroscope. The fluoroscope guides the needle to the right
spot where it delivers medicine and a steroid to the damaged nerves. The
injection helps to reduce inflammation near the compressed nerve root. Often
patients with back receive several epidural steroid injections spaced out over
time. Usually, they are done in a series of three, and then another set is not
done for at least another six months.
·
Physical therapy.
Trained therapists can help develop an exercise routine that can help
strengthen parts of the body around the back so the back doesn’t need as much
support.
·
Psychological
and psychiatric care. Some patients with acute or chronic pain suffer from
anxiety, irritability, and depression because they worry about how their pain
is affect others and whether they will ever get healthy. Treatment sessions
with psychologists can help workers cope with a reduced lifestyle and less
ability to function.
Some workers require back pain surgery to relieve their
pain. There are different types of surgeries depending on the location and
severity of the pain. According to
Spine-Health:
“A decompression surgery removes whatever is pressing on a
nerve root from the spinal column, which might include a herniated portion of a
disc or a bone spur. There are two primary types of decompression for low back
pain.
·
Microdiscectomy is a minimally invasive
procedure for patients with a lumbar herniated disc causing radicular leg pain
(sciatica).
·
A Laminectomy removes part of the layer of the
bone or soft tissue that is compressing a nerve or multiple nerve roots.”
Other possible surgical options for back pain include:
·
Fusion surgery which “removes the soft tissues
between two or more adjacent vertebral bones and replaces them with bone or metal.
This procedure enables the bones to grow together over time—typically 6 to 12
months—and fuse into one long bone to stabilize and eliminate motion at those
spinal segments.”
·
Replacing a disk with an artificial disc.
·
Spinal stimulator implants which allow the
patient to use electrical impulses to decrease their pain.
Compensation for Back Injuries: North
Carolina vs. Virginia
Insofar as back injuries, North Carolina and Virginia
basically agree on what constitutes an “injury by accident” only in the
area of back injuries.
Normally, in North Carolina, an injured worker must first
show what the Industrial Commission and Courts in North Carolina define as an
“accident” that preceded the injury. An “accident” in North Carolina normally
must occur through a “slip, trip or fall” in order for an injured worker to
recover for any work injury.
Virginia, on the other hand, is more liberal in this one
area and only requires that the injured worker show an identifiable accident
that occurred at a reasonably definite time and that a “sudden mechanical
change” in the body occurred. There need not be any “slip, trip, or fall.”
Virginia focuses more on the notion of whether the injury arose from a “risk of
employment.”
Yet with respect to back injuries, North Carolina has carved
out an exception. For back injuries in North Carolina, the law is much like
Virginia, and the injured worker need only show a “specific traumatic incident”
that led to the back injury.
Also, as is well known, when it comes to permanent partial impairment
ratings, Virginia provides no ratings for the back, or any spinal injury. Yet
for reasons that remain a mystery, in North Carolina, the “back” as it is
referred to—which is interpreted as including the entire spine—actually has the
highest
potential impairment rating of any body part, up to 300 weeks. Why? You
will have to ask the legislators that came up with those laws.
in Virginia and North Carolina get the compensation they deserve. Compensation
includes obtaining the right amount of wage loss compensation and payment for
all necessary medical bills. Compensation also means fighting for workers who
have long-term health problems and problems that just don’t seem to have a
cure. To review your claim now, please do not hesitate to contact us here at Joe Miller Law.
Need a lawyer? Start here.