Sadly, I have been injured a couple times at work. One was in 1997 when I fell in a ditch on an ambulance call and dislocated my knee. After 4 months of fighting with comp (they said it was an old injury), I was able to have total reconstructive surgery to repair all the damage. After being off work nearly a year for this injury, I returned to work to full status. During my time off, due to financial constraints from not receiving compensation benefits while I haggled over the proof of it not being a pre-existing injury, I lost my house and other personal effects.
In 2003, I stepped off a sidewalk in our ambulance bay and partially ruptured my Achille's tendon. Comp picked it up right away, the Doctor put me in a cast for 2 weeks, said it was healed and go back to work. After continued pain, I sought treatment from a different Dr. and found that the rupture never healed. The new doctor said the only hope was surgery to repair the tendon. Comp. denied me stating that I needed proof that I didn't rupture it some other way...since the first doctor said I was "all healed". Long story short, I hired an attorney, the comp was approved....all is healed from that one. (After one year of fighting though.....)
In May of 2006 I was lifting a patient and suffered a back injury. The injury was witnessed by a few coworkers and nursing staff at the local hospital. The pain was immediate and when I walked, I had pain, numbness, and tingling down both legs. Comp initially covered the injury. I was taken off of regular duty and placed in dispatch (sedentary duty) for approx. 2 weeks. The IME evaluated me and said there was nothing wrong with me and to go back to full duty. I continued to lift patients for the next 3 months while I searched for a doctor to take care of my continued pain. I found a Orthopedic surgeon in Ft. Wayne that specialized in spinal injuries and after some testing, he determined that I ruptured/herniated the disc between L-5 and S-1. He stated surgery was in order to repair the damage. Worker's comp said I had no proof that this was from the initial injury. I had the surgery and initially was doing ok, but now my fusion is not healing. It is about 3/4 healed and has stopped. The Dr. is worried about pseudarthrosis and complications. I do have an attorney and we are going to court in a few days.
What I want to know is if I can file a civil suit against my company for constantly refusing to pay compensation benefits for legitimate work-related injuries? I realize I have had some "freak" injuries, but they have all been legitimate and proven that they happened at work. The first injury caused me to lose my house and personal effects due to financial strain. The second injury took over a year to settle, and so far, we are working on over a year for my back injury. Not only am I at the 1 year mark for my back injury, I was released to light duty (dispatch) in December of 2006 and my company conveniently had "no work available" (yet they hired two dispatchers to fill open shifts and didn't bring me back to work).
Am I way out in left field on this? Do I have legal recourse against my company for the continued harassment because of their denial of claims? Is there anything I can do about the retaliation for filing this claim for my back and my company not bringing me back to work - when I have proof that I could have filled shifts that they chose to hire from outside the company to fill?
HELP!