Degenerative Disc Disease & Workplace Injuries
What is a degenerative disc disease?
The protective layers between the discs in our spine degenerate over time as a result of several factors, the leading of which is age. Degenerative disc disease can be defined as symptoms of pain and possible numbness emanating from a degenerated disc. This pain can be debilitating and may even make it difficult for one to carry on their day to day duties. The pain from a degenerated disc is usually felt on one’s back and neck.
As much as age causes this condition to advance, research has shown that it may be fueled by injuries that result from such things as lifting heavy weights and sudden, unprecedented movements. If the degenerating disc can be easily located and isolated, the solution is most likely surgery.
As an employee, you may want to know how you can deal with this condition and whether the law provides for people in your situation. If you have suffered an injury that leads to the worsening of arthritis or a prior disc injury in the course of duty, you might be entitled to compensation. Injuries that occur in the workplace are often a result of:
- A fall when reaching out to an object that is placed high and out of reach
- Twisting while lifting objects that are too heavy
- The jerking when one trips, even without falling
- Being hit by a falling object
The above injuries can cause stress, wear, and tear on the injuries and with time, the injured tissue leads to further damage and even degeneration of the discs.
Are you entitled to compensation?
With this condition, it may be easy for the insurance company to claim that the disc degeneration is naturally occurring. Our pooled experiences from several years come in handy in such situations. We can help put your case together with the aid of medical records to help prove that your injuries worsened at your place of work, which led to the present predicament. The first step is often utilizing the services of an attorney that has experience handling cases similar to yours.
If your job involves heavy lifting and making repeated movements, an injury is practically guaranteed, however keen you are. The repeated nature of such a job makes one susceptible to damage or aggravation of that injury. Your employer should make a provision for these injuries, and we are here to help you become well represented if you could need to argue out your case. Whether there was prior injury before the degenerated disc is less relevant, as long as it was accelerated in the line of duty. Workers compensation can cover both new and pre-existing injuries.
A workers’ compensation claim has a statute of limitations, the length of which varies according to each state. The most prudent thing to do is to get in touch with an experienced Las Vegas personal injury lawyer that can start the process before the deadline is reached. We are highly rated and experienced in this area of practice. Our firm can help fight on your behalf to get you the compensation you rightfully deserve.
Thanks to our friends and contributors from Nadia von Magdenko & Associates for their insight into
