Tag Archives: amputation

When is a cut not just a cut?

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Most people will cut accidentally cut themselves doing chores around the house. But a cut on the job can lead to serious consequences for many workers. So when is a cut not just a cut?

Industrial amputations and crush injuries

Workers in meatpacking and manufacturing frequently suffer serious cuts and amputations from blades and crush injuries. From a legal perspective, employers often accept initial responsibility for these injuries under workers’ compensation.

But even if the employer accepts responsibility for paying workers compensation, the employer may attempt to blame the employee for the injury. This means employers will pay medical bills related to a cut or amputation,  but will fire the employee for some safety violation. Employers will often deny paying temporary disability benefits to an employee they accuse of violating safety rules.

Safety violations and retaliation

Employers can argue employee safety violations as a defense to paying workers’ compensation benefits. I will concede that sometimes employees violate safety rules. But other times, employers fire employees on flimsy pretext of a safety violation. Employees may be able to bring a retaliation case in that circumstance.

But, Nebraska workers’ compensation law might also provide some additional remedies for an employee fired for a bogus safety violation. Nebraska workers’ compensation law awards a 50 percent penalty and attorney fees if there is no reasonable controversy about entitlement to benefits. No reasonable controversy is a difficult standard for an employee to meet. But a flimsy termination related to a work injury used to deny benefits  is one circumstance where fees and penalties may be likely.

Moisture,  infection and amputation

But even less serious cuts can present complications. The complication I see the most is moisture. Workers in packinghouses often work in wet environments. This moisture can infect cuts and lead to amputations.

Moisture can also present other issues. For example, a food service employee required to wear gloves during their work would sweat under the gloves. That sweat would increase the risk of infection of a cut and could lead to an employee missing work.

Side effects of medication

Medications can reduce the risk of infection for a serious cut. But medications have side effects that can sometimes require medical treatment. In a recent Virginia case, a bowel disorder caused by medication prescribed to prevent infection was an injury covered by workers compensation. The Virginia decision relied on the so-called “compensable consequences” doctrine. Nebraska recognizes the “compensable consequences” doctrine and will pay benefits related to adverse side effects of medication.

But workers’ compensation insurers often balk at covering infections from cuts and side effects of taking medication from work injuries. Cut, crush and amputation injuries aren’t the only injures that involve compensable consequences. However, proving these consequences is easier in cut and crush cases because of the obvious nature of the injury and how it was caused.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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How Schedule Member Injuries Are Paid in Nebraska

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When an injured worker has reached a point of maximum medical improvement – when healing has plateaued – that worker may be entitled to permanent disability benefits.

If the injury sustained is not an injury to the truck of the body (head, neck, back, internal organs, etc.), it is considered a “scheduled member” injury in Nebraska. Compensation for these scheduled member injuries are paid based on the level of disability to that member. Then, the Nebraska workers’ compensation laws prescribe a certain number of weeks of benefits depending on which body part has sustained the permanent disability.

The benefits are paid at 2/3 of the worker’s average weekly wage, for whatever percentage of disability is assigned. For example, a 10 percent impairment to a shoulder in Nebraska is paid at 2/3 of the average weekly wage for 22.5 weeks. This is based upon the chart below where a shoulder is worth a total of 225 weeks (i.e. 225 x 10% = 22.5 weeks). See the chart below to see how other body parts are paid in Nebraska:  Source: Nebraska Revised Statute § 48-121

Body Part Number of Weeks
Thumb 60
Index Finger 35
Second(Middle) Finger 30
Third (Ring) Finger  20
Fourth (Little) Finger 15
Amputation at First Phalange (half weeks for that finger)
Amputation ½ of First Phalange (quarter weeks for that finger)
Big Toe 30
Any Other Toe 10
Hand (below elbow joint) 175
Arm (at or above elbow) 225
Foot (below knee) 150
Leg (at or above knee) 215
Loss of Eye or Reduction of sight to 1/5 normal 125
Hearing Loss (one ear) 50

Generally, any body part not listed above (head, neck, or back, as examples) would be considered and injury to the “body as a whole” and is paid differently.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Holdrege, Nebraska, BD Plant Cited by OSHA Again

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Becton, Dickinson and was recently fined by OSHA for workplace hazards leading to partial amputations of workers’ fingers.

“Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance.”

This paragraph from a recent news release gives an overview of OSHA’s role. In Nebraska, that role comes into focus when investigators look for safety violations, often after a workplace incident that causes injury, as was the case at Becton, Dickinson and Co. in Holdrege in 2015.

Earlier this month, the news release at the link describes how BD was cited for machine hazards in both April and September of 2015. However, in October, in two separate incidents, two different workers “suffered partial amputations of their index fingers” at the Holdrege manufacturing plant.

“The agency has proposed penalties of $112,700,” after finding one repeat and 12 serious safety violations when the amputations were investigated. Best wishes are being sent to the two workers whose lives were altered after their on-the-job injuries.

In this case, it is obvious that the workers’ injuries were related to these specific workplace incidents, because their amputations resulted in an OSHA investigation of the business. But sometimes there are questions when it comes to workers’ compensation in Nebraska. If a business or its insurance company questions or denies a workers’ compensation claim, then it’s time to get help from an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer. Our attorneys are licensed in both Nebraska and Iowa and have decades of experience helping injured workers in situations like the one above, so please contact us if you or a loved one have been hurt on the job.    

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Tyson Foods’ Injury Incidents Examined Through OSHA Reports

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22-Hispanic-Poultry-Processor-on-LineAs I wrote in a previous blog post, OSHA has decided to make a 90-day regional emphasis on “high-hazard manufacturing industries” in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, which are three of the four states in what the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations calls Region 7.*

“The emphasis program focuses on manufacturing industries where injury and illness rates exceed the average for the private sector. Included are manufacturers of the following products: food, furniture, fabricated metal, nonmetallic mineral, machinery, and computer products as well as printing and related support activities,” according to the OSHA news release.

Sadly, this increased inspection effort may have been inspired by some injury incidents recently written about by in an article from the ScienceBlogs website “The Pump Handle: A Water Cooler for the Public Health Crowd” titled “Amputations about at Tyson Foods, OSHA records shed more light on industrial food production.”

Writer Celeste Monforton, who has master’s and doctorate degrees in public health, made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding the federal OSHA regulation that “requires employers to report within 24 hours any work-related incident that results in an amputation or hospitalization,” according to her article. The request asked for data from Tyson Foods, which “has more than 400 facilities in 30 U.S. states, and it processes 35 million chickens, 400,000 hogs, and 128,000 cattle per week.”#

In a nine-month period, from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 2015, Monforton discovered 34 reports by Tyson of amputations or hospitalizations.

“The hospitalizations included a worker at the company’s facility in Rogers, AR (Arkansas) who fell 32 feet off of a roof, and a worker in Holcomb, KS (Kansas) who broke his leg while learning to operate a forklift.”

She goes on to write that 17 of 34 incidents were amputations – in a 9-month period – not even over a whole year. The article has a tragic and sobering table that summarizes the amputations, and it is worth clicking to the article to take a look at the table because it includes the month, body part, equipment or tool in use, product (type of plant), city and state involved in each incident.

Here’s a summary of her list that focuses specifically on Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas, where eight of the 17 amputations occurred.

There were four amputations in the Nebraska plants of Lexington (fingertip; and tips of middle and index fingers using band saws in the beef plant), Omaha (ring, index and pinky fingers using the skinner in the poultry plant) and Dakota City (thumb using the sprocket in the pork plant). There were three amputations in the Missouri plants of St. Joseph (both hands using the auger), Monnet (distal portion third finger using the impeller in the poultry plant), and Sedalia (middle finger to first knuckle on the cone line in the poultry plant). The Kansas amputation was in the Emporia beef plant, when the skinner was being used and the end and outside part of a thumb were amputated.

These incidents (and the Kansas forklift-training one mentioned above) may explain OSHA’s new regional emphasis, as Tyson’s meatpacking plants should definitely count as “high-hazard manufacturing industries,” in my opinion.

Though the reports are brutal and tragic, I hope that Monforton completes more FOIA requests to OSHA to track trends, because each of these injury incidents greatly affected someone and their loved ones, whether their lives were changed temporarily or permanently, such as the worker whose hands were amputated in Missouri.

Meanwhile, though I realize it doesn’t cover the same dates as Monforton’s article, Tyson recently released earnings of “record results” for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016, which ended on Jan. 2 of this year, according to the link above.

“‘Fiscal 2016 is off to a very strong start in what we expect to be another record year,’ said Donnie Smith, president and chief executive officer of Tyson Foods. ‘Solid execution across the entire team resulted in record earnings, record operating income, record margins and record cash flows. We captured $121 million in total synergies for the quarter, with $61 million incremental to fiscal first quarter 2015.

“‘Our on-going efforts to invest in and grow our Core 9 product lines are paying off as sales volume for the most recent four week period was up 4%. The Core 9 product lines represent our strongest brands, greatest pricing power and best category growth opportunities and are major contributors to volume and profitability in the retail channel,’ Smith said. The Core 9 is composed of nine retail product lines in the Tyson®, Jimmy Dean®, Hillshire Farm®, Ball Park®, State Fair® and Aidells® brands.”

Though unfortunately, the number of work-related injury incidents isn’t available for the first quarter above, it’s suspected that they’re not much different than any other three-month snapshot of all the Tyson plants. It is a certainty that you can draw your own conclusions about how Tyson values its workers, based on Monforton’s article. It’s worth noting that in a quarter where record profits were had for shareholders, it’s highly doubtful that it was an amputation-free quarter for all workers, based on past performance in Monforton’s article.

In conclusion, I wish the best for OSHA in its quest to focus on “high-hazard manufacturing industries.”

Here’s hoping that the resulting education efforts and inspections mean greater safety knowledge for workers and fewer life-changing incidents, like amputations, that adversely affect workers, their loved ones, and society as a whole.

*Note that Iowa is also in Region 7, but according to OSHA’s website, it’s one of the states that “operate their own OSHA-approved job safety and health programs and cover state and local government workers.” Because Iowa has a state program, I believe that’s why it’s not targeted in this regional emphasis.

#Note that Monforton’s FOIA “does not include information from the states that run their own OSHA program, 10 of which have Tyson operations,” according to the article she wrote that is linked to above.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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