For the last year I've been dealing with a ruptured disc in my lower back, everyone at work knows it, I've had surgery and am probably looking at another one pretty soon.
Well, walking through the office the other day, I slipped in a puddle of water that had dripped from the A/C vent. I didn't fall, but it was a close thing. Since that happened, my back pain has increased considerably, I'm on Neurontin, Elavil, Percocet (all to control pain) and took some Robaxin that my dr gave me for muscle spasms and nothing is touching the pain. Given the timing, I know that the near fall cause the additional pain, but how can I possibly blame the company for it, since I already had a back injury? I think they should be held responsible for any additional injury that I may have sustained, but I can't see any way to show what injury already existed and what was caused by this incident. Anyone have any ideas? Right after it happened, I had shooting pains and told my boss about it, but he kind of laughed me off. (not in a mean way, we're friends and neither of us thought it was that serious at the time.)

Unless you filed an employee accident form at the time of the occurrence, went to Employee Health or the ER; it's not been reported to your employer.

Anyone take photos of the hazardous/slippery area (that wasn't marked with "wet floor" caution signs).... Was Security called to take a report?

Have you seen your own doctor because of this? Will your doctor confirm your new pain is because of this injury.

If not, no one but you and the boss know this happened. (And it doesn't sound like he took it seriously....laughing and all.)

After all is said and done, no documentation of this incident exists.

Thanks for the response, Jan. I kind of figured that there wasn't much I could do. I honestly figured that if I went to the ER, or filed an official complaint, I'd be opening up a big can of worms...since first order of business with a work comp claim is usually a drug test, and they would have found all of the above mentioned drugs in my system, any one of which could have (but don't) made me unsteady on my feet. Even though I have valid prescriptions for all of them, Percocet in particular tends to cause a lot of raised eyebrows.
This whole thing happened on Friday and the pain didn't set in seriously until Saturday morning, so hopefully it's just a muscle strain.
I just get so angry with my company sometimes...we are a very small office onsite at one of our accounts and the home office doesn't seem to care about our working conditions. Last year we found black mold in the ceiling tiles and ventilation system and you wouldn't believe how long we had to complain before they cleaned it up. I would just love a way to make them have to pay attention. We had another girl trip and break her wrist a couple months ago and they fixed up that area in no time. But considering all the circumstances, I guess I don't really have a leg to stand on. And no, my boss didn't really take it seriously, at the time I didn't much either, because I had no idea that just a slip could cause so much pain.
And to make a long story longer, the title of this post makes it sound like I'm trying to get one over on someone, I hope my original post makes it clear that that's not the case.

My take was that you thought the near-fall was nothing, but it turned out to be significant.

Same thing happens all the time in auto accidents.

Just because nothing hurts now (when you're all pumped up on adrenalin) doesn't mean you won't have the normal muscle spasms, etc. in a few days.

Your take was totally right, Jan. But I think by brushing it off when it happened, I lost any chance I might have had to hold the company responsible. Probably not that big a deal, since I'm already headed for surgery anyhow, and if I hadn't already been hurt, it probably WOULD have been nothing.

Contact an attorney. Back injury is nothing to mess around with. Do it NOW!

i don't know shelbur we had an employee who had several back surgery's and claimed his new pain was due to a work injury. I dont remember the specifics but he definetley left with quite a large settlement. It was obvious that he had severe pain and regardless of initial injury if you sustain additional or aggravate a prior injury i think your employer is still responsible. Like indy said see your lawyer and get a professional opinion. Regardless of what happens i would still report the incident. Technically you told your supervisor, but like most people thought it was something minor until the pain didn't go away. I would file an official report asap until you know what is going to happen.

I know all too well the hazards of workplaces!!! I worked for a company that had black mold in the sound proofing (it was a plant that installed these sound proofing walls probably in the 70's so the office folk didnt need to hear all the plant noise)....anywho it looked like the walls were shag carpeted...anyway I digress, after a couple of months working there I had my throat feeling like it was going to close, it was so scary that I even went to the emergency room once and was given a breathing treatment and a script to carry an Epipen with me at all times in case it started to close up more... from then on out I felt lousy at work, felt my throat closing up most days etc....and when I saw an allergist he told me to get out of the mold, but I wasnt convinced it was the building since i didnt have any other symptoms at work (aside from fatigue, feeling like my throat was closing etc)..... when I was laid off a couple of months later, it was like I finally realized it WAS my work place making me sick....literally after a couple of weeks, all the symptoms went away!!!! I should have called them in or something because they knew about the mold but I was told it was too expensive to remove and the company had been in a slump (hence the layoffs) so the mold clean-up was not a priority.

I would go ahead and file the complaint about being hurt, at least if you dont start feeling some relief you will have it on file.

Oh you poor thing! I never had any idea of the pain you are going through, but 6 months ago I picked up a 25kg bag of flour and didn't bend my knees properly. Okay, been a little sore since then, but then last week....spasms all day nonstop! YOWIE!! I thought I was in labour again!
I would go to your doctor and explain, they could possibly do a CT scan to show the increase in the rupture from that work incident.

Try to rest up and go to bed and turn the electric blanket up high. That is the only thing working for me right now. They say not to bend or lift things, but when you have 2 toddlers and your own cake business, there isn't much choice!

I hope this all works out for you!

Regards Keira

Actually, follow-up with your supervisor. Since you told him already (even though he laughed it off) it is now his responsibility to initiate the report.

BTW - just because you didn't file it immediately doesn't necessarily mean you have no chance now.

Now I'm pissed. (sorry about the language, but there's just no other word that fits.) I saw today that the vent was dripping again, so I went and told my boss. He said, yeah, mine's dripping, too. Like, big deal. I said, 'so, I hurt myself really, really bad on Friday, so you need to do something about it.' He says, will you go see if you can find the wet floor sign, then? So he just doesn't get the point AT ALL. This afternoon I sent him an email (so I would have a record of it) that I had had a lot of pain since the incident, and I realized that there might not be anything I could do about it, but I wanted it on the record.
He completely ignored me.
I really don't want to get involved in a big stink, but this is NOT RIGHT. I guess I'll have to get in his face a bit about it tomorrow. I can't decide if I want to go up to the next level boss or not.
Thanks to everyone for all the support, it really does mean a lot to me. I love having a cake support group, but it's great to know I can vent here in the lounge and get so much support as well.

Go directly to your HR dept. Your boss may not realize the legal implications, but they sure as heck do!!

I work in a doctor's office (Spanish interpreter) and I've seen a couple workers comp claims come through. One was for an employee who had hurt his arm a couple months before. A forklift had accidently closed a cooler door on his arm. Well, he brushed it off and figured it'd get better. Well, it didn't and he didn't have any strength in his arm to lift. Well, he finally came in to the doctor's office and they did some X-rays and found a broken bone in his hand. The workers' comp covered it even though it was a couple months later.

I'd say that you should at least try to find out if their insurance will cover your back. At least you'll have tried. Might as well take pics of the water puddle while you're at work next time too, in case that's needed.

Thanks for that suggestion LaSombra, I didn't think about taking pics.

Debi, I think all I'll have to do is tell them I'm going to sic IndyDebi on them...I wonder if your reputation has spread beyond CC! I just love it, you take NO CRAP!!

Seriously, thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I really thought I was being silly and was going to brush it off. You've lit the fire under me to make every effort to make this right.

I've got some history on this. When I managed a couple of warehouses, I fell out of a truck and landed on the concrete, splitting the bone in my shoulder. (I was actually laying in the parking lot thinking, "I've fallen and I can't get up!") W/C covered it.

I have two pins in my left arm from a car wreck when I was 16. If the fall had broken that arm, they could NOT claim that my arm was "already damaged" and deny claims.

As I explained to many a younger co-worker, "we old people" are not cantankerous because we're old. We're headstrong and won't take any bullsh** because we've been there, done that, and seen thru it all.

Hubby does stand up comedy and in one of his bits is a line about "Don't cover bullsh** with Cool Whip and try to tell me it's chocolate cream pie!" So I started adapting that line to one of my own: "I KNOW what's under that Cool Whip, so don't even try to feed it to me! I can smell it from here!"

I called work comp and opened a claim this morning. I still doubt that much will come of it, but it will depend on what my doctors say. They're letting me see the same doctors that have been treating me, so now it's just wait and see. I don't go back to the dr. until Aug. 16 and 22.
Thanks again for the encouragement!

Debi, thanks to you, I'm checking under the Cool Whip from now on.

At my old job something very similar happened and she won. A lady had an existing shoulder injury, fell, and the claim was denied. Fell again in the bake shop when nobody was around, got an attorney, started another claim. Meanwhile, she got fired for something completely unrelated. When the date of the hearing rolled around, nobody from my company showed up, and she won .

Hopefully I won't have to get an attorney...a couple of things in my favor though, at least 3 people saw it happen and the vents are still leaking, so we all have to watch out for puddles. I work for a big trucking company who gets a lot of claims from driver injuries, so hopefully they won't give me a hard time about it.

Usually just mentioning a lawyer is enough to get a company to resolve an issue such as leaking vents. I hope you feel better!

A few suggestions: 1) get documentation from your witnesses NOW. If you happen to go to court and it drags out 2-3 years from now, who knows where those witnesses will be employed at that time, or their memory of the situation.

2) The best way to document the new injury is a new a set of films, preferably MRI. Hopefully you have an MRI if your previous injury for comparison. (to prove a new disc level is injured - not the old level). CT shows skeletal and some muscle inflammation, but MRI and myelograms are the best for disc injury imaging.


3) When you get your new set of images done, when you get scanned, ask the MRI tech if you could please have your own set of images for your own records. Be willing to come back in a few hours or even a few days. It could be on a CD if your imaging facility has gone to PACS yet. Depends on the facility's policies, the tech may be able to burn your disc or your films right after your exam. Some facilities won't release the images until they have been read by the radiologist. Either way is fine, as long as you have your own set for your own records. If you get your films/ CD that day, go back in 5-7 days to the medical records department to get a copy of the radiologist's report. Just don't tell anyone that it is for possible litigation, this is for your own personal records only! I'm not telling you to lie, just don't volunteer any information. If you let on that you may be talking to a lawyer in the future, the techs won't be allowed to give you anything - it will all have to go through medical records dept. and involving subpoenas!

Sorry this has turned out so long. Back pain is the worst. I've got a herniation at L5-S1 and it will bring me to my knees some days. Get back onto your physical therapy as soon as you can, and good luck to you.

Thank you for the suggestions! I hadn't thought about getting documentation from the witnesses, that's a great idea, since one of them will probably be leaving the company soon.
Unfortunately, my last MRI was from before my surgery. I had been seeing a pain management dr. for a while before I got another one because my surgeon was pushing surgery too hard for my liking (big surprise, after all, that's what he does!)
I do have new symptoms, so maybe the office notes and other documentation from the doctors will help prove that, for instance, I've never had pain in my right leg before or pain in my tailbone.
I still don't have really high hopes that anything will come of it, but at least I've reported it. I would have felt cruddy about myself if I'd never done anything.

Your boss doesn't have a clue! He could get the company in so much trouble by not acknowledging your slip and filing a report about it. That is the FIRST thing a supervisor should do. He is in the wrong and especially for not correcting the problem! UNBELIEVABLE! You need to put yourself and family first and not that company. They could care less. After being a property manager of large office buildings I learned there ARE lots of WC cases that are fraud but there are also legitimate ones. My husband was forced to move his own office instead of the employer hiring professionals. He crushed 2 disks and they tried everything to get him to say it didn't happen at the offfice but they ended up paying for everything including a special chair molded to his body so that he could continue to work.

Good luck and keep us informed.

the first thing you need to do is to get a dr statement and go over your bosses head . file a claim .as far as the drug test.don't worry they are not looking for the prescribed drugs you are taking just illegal ones. I have been on workmans comp for 4 years due to a lower back injury. I will not work like that again. Don't mess around with your back. I have permanant damage. you don't want that. use the first excuse to go .
always with the first claim talk to a worker comp lawyer. never go it alone.
please make sure you see a doctor.
let us know how things are now.