Not all injuries, diseases, or other conditions are so simple that one program can handle it all. A workplace injury is covered by workers compensation, and although that system can kick into action nearly seamlessly in most cases, what if the injury was caused by a preexisting condition? Did you lose your balance, pass out, become fatigued, or otherwise falter because of an older problem? That may be the case, even if you didn't know that you had a preexisting condition, and a few precautionary steps can help you make the coming years a lot easier while sticking to workers compensation for the time being.
Understand The Basics Of Workers Compensation
Workers compensation is designed to make recovery easier on you from a financial perspective. The program covers all of your injury-related medical expenses along with a portion of your normal pay check. This allows most workers to recover without suffering financial hardship, although there are financial assistance programs in most states that can help if workers were already struggling with their normal pay.
In this time of recovery, you don't necessarily need to be idle. You can protect your future and investigate your condition from the comfort of your bed, or without physically straining yourself to the point of making your injury worse by just considering a few facts about your incident.
Was your injury caused by something else in your mind or body? Even if you've never felt faint in your life, don't pass it off as a random event that can be shrugged off; even if there isn't a deeper condition causing your problems, there could be gas leaks or undetectable substances in your workplace that could injure or kill someone else.
As you explore these options, write them down. Make sure that every avenue is at least reported if not investigated fully, and think about what conditions could have been going on since before your incident.
Personal Injury And Veterans Affairs Claims
Were you involved in an accident in the past, or some kind of incident that could have flared up again? By no means do you have to just live through it and let the past be in the past; it's bothering you in the present, and there are ways to handle the problem now.
The main reason that a culture of "working through it" exists in the United States is because of the sometimes difficult legal hurdles. In most cases, the problem is that you need proof of a problem to not only seek legal action against someone else, but even get help from systems that require no blame at all.
Your new injury opens the doors to new investigation of old conditions. If the condition could make you have an accident at work, it's not your job to be "more careful" at work and compensate for the problem. Get in contact with a lawyer to consider a personal injury claim to either seek compensation from an old incident caused by someone else, or to look through programs such as Social Security for additional help.
Were you in the military? Could this be a problem from your military service years? Thankfully, you can put in as many claims and appeals as you want, and the VA can only say "no" if it's invalid. Contact a workers compensation lawyer to make sure your workers comp rights give you enough time to explore your other rights.
