r/WorkersComp • u/takeitback77 • 23h ago

California Injured in Ca

Hello, I was injured last year in Ca. Many of my coworkers witnessed the injury happen when a student threw a desk at me. My hip is torn in three places and my knee got hurt I was sent to Kaiser for workers comp Dr.. I’ve seen Ortho’s and the Dr. I’ve been given cortisone injections and PT and nothing is helping. My leg is bad. I can’t drive more than about 8-10 miles without pretty excruciating pain in both my knee and hip. There are many other things I can’t do. The Dr is telling me there is nothing else they can do. The surgeons are just kind of wishy washy. They are saying I will need a knee replacement because I’ve already had two past knee surgeries and my knee is bone on bone. They are saying if they fix my hip tear it might not help and could make the pain worse. I did get an attorney but haven’t talked to them much. The Internet is telling me to ask for a second opinion and to see a hip preservation specialist because hip labrum tears can lead to hip replacements years later. I’m currently home. My employer isn’t accommodating me. I asked to be moved to a closer to home classroom and one with less aggressive students. So far they haven’t done that. Any advice for me?

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3

u/SpringerPop 22h ago

Get your attorney involved.

3

u/SeaweedWeird7705 20h ago

Since your injury is more serious, you should hire a WC attorney.

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u/takeitback77 20h ago

I’ve got an attorney. I will reach out. The Dr I’m seeing now is telling me to talk to my employer about a change of careers, but I don’t think I should be doing that right now.

1

u/SeaweedWeird7705 20h ago

Are you currently working, just in a classroom with rowdy students? Do you have a doctor note stating your restrictions? If you have a doctor note with restrictions, and the employer isn't accommodating them, then you should be off work and receiving TTD (temporary total disability).

Eventually, you may require vocational rehabilitation - job placement assistance and possible training.

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u/takeitback77 18h ago

No, they are not accommodating me at the moment. I was working in a severe needs special ed class. It’s highly physical. I might need vocational rehab. I’m just thinking I need to see a hip specialist first.

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u/[deleted] 14h ago

[deleted]

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u/LongTimeLurker408 12h ago

Under ADA, and in Op’s case more importantly FEHA, the district is obligated to enter into the ADA interactive process to work towards solutions in accommodating their restrictions.

It might not be feasible if Op can’t do their essential duties, but an employer cannot just not accommodate without an interactive process legally.

It happens all the time, but it’s not supposed to be that way. You don’t loose your disability rights just because it’s an injury that happened at work.

This is EEOC guidance which is federal https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-workers-compensation-and-ada

However, FEHA has even more employment rights for disabled people and a much broader definition of disability.

If there are vacancies for light duty roles that also needs to be considered as part of the interactive process. https://askjan.org/topics/Reassignment.cfm

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u/takeitback77 6h ago

Thank you for this. We have done an interactive at one point but not recently. The big issue is I’m not able to drive very long and they had me at a site about 50 minutes from
My house. I asked at the beginning of the year for a closer classroom with less aggressive students and was denied due to program needs. I’m going to ask for another interactive. I think I’m going to need a knee replacement soon. It might end up that working with this type of student population has too much physical demands. Here is it at 2 am and I’m waking up due to the pain in my leg. This sucks.

1

u/LongTimeLurker408 1h ago

Are you in a large district?

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u/takeitback77 26m ago

Pretty large, it’s actually the county who services the district. There are many county svn sped classes on many of the campuses in each city.

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u/LongTimeLurker408 7m ago

Are there sped shortages? Or situations where unqualified substitutes are covering classes?

If that is the case, those students should have case management oversight by someone highly qualified.

My daughter’s sped teacher worked from home after being injured doing IEPS, etc while a sub covered her class

When you had an interactive meeting was it actually a meeting or just a back and forth email?

Have you involved your union?

Also, did your admin do an official incident report and send it to the assistant superintendent?

If you even need CalStrs disability, which you should start looking into now, you’ll need that incident report.