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:
- Moving and shifting patients from a bed to another bed or a wheelchair
- A slip and fall due to wet floors, a tool or object on the floor, poor lighting, or many other reasons
- Lifting, pulling, carrying, or pushing heavy objects
- Repetitive injuries
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:
- Sciatica
- A narrowing of the disc space
- A herniated disc
- Bulging discs
- Facet syndrome
- Spondylolisthesis
- Scoliosis
- Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
- Spinal cord damage
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.
Treatment for back pain
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:
- Pain management doctors
- Neurosurgeons
- Physical therapists
- Chiropractors
- Acupuncturists
- Orthopedic doctors
- General physicians
- Gerontologists
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.
Surgeries for back pain
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 monitor 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.
Attorney Joe Miller has helped thousands of injured workers 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, call attorney Joe Miller at 1-(888) 694-1671 or use my contact form to schedule an appointment.
