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The health care industry continues to be the fastest growing economic sector in the United States, employing more than 18 million people. Along with this expansion, health care now leads the U.S. workforce in nonfatal injuries and illnesses. In 2010, the industry’s nonfatal injury and illness rate was 5.2, far above the 3.5 U.S. overall rate.*

Included in these statistics are registered nurses, nursing assistants, nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants who work in hospitals, ambulatory health care services, nursing and residential care facilities, and home health care and social service environments. These employees are at risk for a variety of injuries, including back and muscle injuries, trips and slips, and workplace violence—as well as illnesses from needlesticks, stress, bacterial infections, and airborne viruses.

Complications of Work-Related Illnesses

While influenza is often acute and short-lived, many health care facilities have strict absentee rules and minimal paid sick leave. These rules force many professionals to either report to work sick or to take unpaid leave for an illness acquired from their patients. Untreated, influenza can easily progress to pneumonia, resulting in further medical complications and more unpaid sick days.

Tuberculosis is on the rise again—and is a serious threat to hospital and other healthcare workers. Strains of multidrug-resistant TB have been reported in 40 states, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Health Today reports that, in one case, a nurse working at a major medical center contracted multidrug-resistant TB while caring for patients. She was unable to work for two of the three years of her treatment and had to undergo surgery to remove half of an infected lung.

Health care workers and medical center janitorial and housekeeping staff are often the victims of accidental needlesticks. 2008 American Nurses Association survey of 700 nurses revealed that 74% had been stuck by a contaminated needle. Whether from drawing blood, administering an IV, giving a shot, emptying a trash can, or performing other procedures that involve needles or other sharp instruments, a needlestick sets the stage for blood borne virus transmission.

Depending on the medical status of the blood source, a needlestick may result in up to a year of testing and worry before the worker either receives an “all-clear” or the blow of a positive HIV or Hepatitis C diagnosis. Medical care for these potentially deadly viruses involve costly medications, repetitive testing, lost work time, and emotional duress.

All employees, from construction workers to teachers, should understand that needlestick injuries are not limited to the medical community. Any environment where needles or sharp equipment are encountered poses a risk for contracting blood borne viruses.

Whether you are a full-time employee with benefits or a part-time employee lacking paid leave or insurance, any illness that you believe is the result of your workplace may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Testing, antibiotics, hospital stays, doctor appointments, and lost wages quickly add up to large bills–even for people who work in the very place they are treated. Styka & Styka can help you evaluate your situation and understand your workers’ compensation options.

Physical Injuries & Health Care Workers

“The main hazard in hospitals and nursing homes comes from patient handling and the lack of equipment and lack of adequate staffing,” Jim August, director of the occupational safety and health program for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents many workers employed at hospitals, stated in a Health Day article.

While new technology for hospital beds and patient-lifting devices has helped make medical centers safer work environments, injuries from lifting and handling patients continue to lead the industry’s workers’ compensation claims, accounting for more than 25% of injury claims. Over 33% of patient handling claims involve back and shoulder damage from twisting and straining while lifting or moving patients. Many of these injuries occur in nursing and long-term care facilities, which have a 8.3 injury rate, the highest of all health care sectors.**

Following patient handling injuries, repetitive stress injuries are the second leading workers’ comp claims from health care employees, including housekeepers, cafeteria workers, and laundry attendants. People who work with patients every day—including nursing assistants, orderlies, radiology technicians, and physical therapists—are twice as likely as the average U.S. worker to suffer these injuries.

As with employees suffering from work-related illnesses, if you are a full-time or part-time employee who has suffered from a work-related injury, whether an acute injury from a slip and fall or an on-going chronic condition like back or shoulder pain, schedule an appointment with Styka & Styka to learn about your workers’ compensation options.

*U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
**U.S. Department of Labor

Deadlines, late nights, long drives, overtime, loading and unloading shipments, traffic congestion, clients, co-workers, customers, bosses, meetings . . . .

Work stress can easily progress beyond tension headaches and ulcers. It can cause heart attacks and even strokes.

Fortunately, work-related cardiovascular events may be eligible for worker’s compensation benefits, providing financial relief when a family needs it most. In Illinois, a worker is entitled to benefits for stress “if the working conditions expose the worker to risks greater than those facing the general public.” Under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, if you prove that a specific work activity or condition probably contributed to your stroke, heart attack, or aggravated or accelerated a heart condition, you may be able to recover compensation benefits. Even if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, you may still be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if medical evidence shows that your job factored into your heart attack or stroke.

Compensable Heart Attacks & Strokes from Job Stress

In the practice of law, a significant difference exists between “what is possible” and “what is probable.” Successful “job stress” heart attacks claims are difficult. However, in 2012’s Bartlett v. State of Illinois, 20 ILWCLB 144 (Ill. W.C. Comm. 2012), the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission held that a project manager who sustained a heart attack qualified for compensation due to stressful working conditions. As reported in Risk & Insurance, a project manager in charge of about 30 construction projects with budgets totaling $16 million to $18 million encountered several problems with the projects. Project stresses included disagreements and heated arguments with contractors and architects, construction delays, budget overruns, multiple change orders, and construction mistakes. During one particular meeting, a contractor screamed in the manager’s face, and the project manager stated that he felt as if his life had been threatened. Two weeks later, after a stressful workday—which included a long drive to a project site, a tense two-hour meeting, and an argument with a foreman—the manager suffered a heart attack.

An arbitrator originally denied benefits, but the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission overturned the decision. The commission found the manager proved that he sustained an injury due to, and in the course of, his job. The manager’s independent medical examiner stated that his heart attack was related to his extreme, job-related stress. The commission found the stress the manager experienced was different from the stress generally experienced by members of the general public and that this continuing stress, over a period of time, affected him cumulatively. The commission concluded that the claimant proved that his current health condition was causally related to the injuries he sustained on the day of his heart attack.

Physical Work & Compensable Heart Attacks

Employees working in all types of industries can also suffer heart attacks caused by physical exertion, whether from lifting a box of files or a plate-glass window. Heart attacks caused by physical exertion are similar to other work-related accidents. However, instead of a torn ligament or broken bone, the injury is to the heart muscle.

For example, in the process of moving file boxes to another office or setting up a conference exhibit, your heart will work harder. If you have a heart attack after a work day that involves this unusual heavy lifting, then your heart attack should be eligible for Illinois workers’ compensation—even if you already have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. If your job usually involves heavy lifting, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if you sustained your heart attack during after after performing your job in extreme heat, cold or other dangerous environments or were performing any other unusual activity that is a risk to your heart.

Finally, work-related heart attacks or even strokes may be the result of a different work accident, such as the victim’s reaction to a work-related auto accident, from the shock of first degree burns, or from the pain or blood loss of a traumatic industrial equipment injury.

Benefits for Cardiovascular Injuries

Any medical treatment involving the heart is expensive, and your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company will make a strong effort to downplay or negate the role your work activities or stress played in your heart attack or stroke. To obtain the best compensation possible, it is imperative that you or a loved one contact an experienced Illinois workers’ compensation attorney, such as Sylvia Styka, after any cardiovascular event that may be related to your job.

Ms. Styka will discuss your options with you and your family and will work with your cardiology team and an experienced team of experts to develop a case that shows how your job pressures or activities have impacted your heart health and caused your cardiovascular problems, including such lasting effects of heart attacks and strokes as cardiac arrhythmia (heart palpitations or irregular heartbeat), angina, restricted activities, paralysis, loss of speech, and other serious long-term complications.

In addition to compensation for lost income and medical bills, a compensation settlement or verdict for heart attack and stroke victims may include future medical procedures, including stents, EKGs, hospital stays, prescriptions, rehabilitation, and home health care. If you are unable to return to work—or if a family is seeking compensation for wrongful death—compensation will also include future lost wages.

Remember, the fact that you can’t see your injury doesn’t mean it didn’t happen or isn’t an injury. Call Styka & Styka at (312)357-8000 immediately after you or a loved one has suffered a heart attack or stroke that may be work related.

Computer cables, slippery tile, carpet wrinkles, top-heavy filing cabinets … Office work involves its own unique set of potential accidents and injuries, some more common than others.

1. Falls

According to the Center for Disease Control, not only are falls at the office the most common injury, office workers are in fact 2 to 2.5 times more likely to suffer a disabling fall than non-office workers. The most common cause for worker’s-comp related falls at the office include:

• Tripping over an open desk drawer, electrical cords, wires, loose carpeting, or objects in hallways.
• Bending or reaching for something while seated in an unstable or wheeled chair.
• Using a chair instead of a ladder.
• Slipping and falling on wet floors.
• Falls caused by inadequate lighting.

2. Strains

The typical office job usually doesn’t involve heavy lifting on a regular basis, leaving workers more susceptible to strained backs, shoulders, and necks when lifting cartons of copy machine or printer paper, a heavy box from Fed Ex, or even a large, tottering stack of files.

3. Collisions with Objects

Bumping up against sharp or heavy objects—or having those objects strike a worker—are common causes of lacerations and even concussions among U.S. office workers. Some common causes of compensated injuries include:

• Bumping into doors, desks, filing cabinets, and open drawers.
• Striking against open file drawers when standing up or bending down.
• Being struck by top-heavy (or over-balanced) filing cabinets in which two or more drawers were opened at the same time or in which the file drawer was pulled out too far.
• Being struck by poorly stacked objects falling from overhead shelves or other storage.

4. Caught in or between Two Objects

Problems with photo copiers and printers can cause more than just irritated mumbles and lost productivity. These common office antagonists are also frequently to blame for injuring the innocent workers trying to un-jam, reload, or simply operate the machines. Injuries requiring medical attention are frequently involve fingers, clothing, hair, or jewelry that become trapped or pinched in the machinery. Broken or injured fingers are also commonly reported accidents, often injured when caught in doors, drawers, or windows.

5. Repetitive Stress Injuries

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common occurrence for workers engaged in repetitive motion activities that put pressure on the median nerve, causing numbness and pain in the fingers, wrists, and hands. Computer programmers, data operators and analysts, graphic designers, writers, and office assistants are at particular risk for developing this condition.

If you are injured at work or is due to the negligence of another, be sure to contact Styka & Styka at (312) 357-8000 for information on your available options.

Halloween is filled with fun for all ages. Spooky yard decorations rival December’s Christmas decor, children and adults plan their costumes weeks in advance, and Halloween parties and haunted houses abound. Unfortunately, Halloween home safety is a concept too few people implement during this festive time of year.

Don’t let the risk of an insurance claim ruin your Halloween. It’s important for home and property owners to implement a few simple safety tips to avoid turning your Halloween into a nightmare on Elm Street.

1. Keep Your Property Well Lit
Trick-or-treaters come and go throughout the evening, make it easy for them to reach your front porch. By keeping the path to your home and your front step well lit, you can prevent painful trips and falls (a liability claim just waiting to happen).

2. Keep Your Sidewalk, Front Walk & Porch Unobstructed
Keep the area around your home unobstructed so children and parents don’t stumble or hurt themselves on anything that may lead to a liability suit. Clear any hoses, gardening tools, toys, etc. from your property and be sure that your Halloween decorations are located well away from your walkways. Also be sure to fix any loose steps or broken railings before the tricksters come visiting.

3. Use Care with Candles
Be extra careful with lit candles around the house and on your front porch, where trick-or-treaters may bump into them. For maximum Halloween home safety, use battery-powered lanterns.

4. Keep Your Pets Away from Trick-or-Treaters
Halloween is an exciting evening for people–but it can be a source of stress and anxiety for family pets. Be sure to eliminate potential pet bites–and an accompanying personal injury claim and possibility of having to put your dog (or cat) down. Keep your dog or cat away from the front door and porch, or wherever trick-or-treaters will be trodding. For the same reasons, do not take your dog trick-or-treating. Even dogs and cats who are normally very friendly may get over stressed, over protective, or over excited on Halloween and jump on or bite trick-or-treaters.

5. Immediately Clean Up Smashed Pumpkins
Smashed pumpkins top the list of Halloween adolescent vandalism. Be sure to clean up the slippery remains as soon as possible so trick-or-treaters–or visitors or the postal service on a following day–don’t slip and fall on your property.

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Trips Are Not Treats

Free candy, out after dark, spooky costumes … as the adage goes, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Whether that someone is your little Batman or Rapunzel or you yourself, the costs of a Halloween injury can quickly add up.

While trips and falls seem as if they would involve only minor injuries, such as scraped knees or bruising, many of these accidents can easily involve a range of injuries, from broken wrists and feet to traumatic brain injuries and broken hips. In some instances, a trip and fall can even result in wrongful death, especially if brain trauma is involved.

For adults, these injuries indubitably will involve lost work days, wages, and some future lost wages. For children and adults, a Halloween trip and fall will involve medical co-pays and deductibles for x-rays, ER doctors, primary care physicians, prescriptions, and possibly hospital rooms, surgeons, and physical therapy.

If you or your child suffers an injury that you think is the result of the negligence of a property owner, be sure to contact Styka & Styka for a free consultation regarding your personal injury options.

Tips for Traveling over the River & through the Woods

The kids are packed, work is finished, and now it is just a matter of driving to grandma’s house. Whether celebrating Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Year’s in town or three states away, holiday travel means congested roads.

Styka & Styka, LLC, wants you to be safe during this season’s holiday travels. While we can’t predict the weather, we can offer the following tips for safe winter driving:

1. Pack Your Car for Winter Safety
When traveling long distances, be sure to pack a cell phone car charger, blankets, a flashlight and batteries, boots, hats, and mittens inside your car.

2. Watch the Weather Report before You Leave
Watch weather reports and check state police websites prior to a long-distance drive or before driving in isolated areas. Delay trips when especially bad weather is expected. If you must leave, let others know your route and estimated time of arrival.

3. Keep Your Gas Tank at least Half Full & Tires Properly Inflated
By keeping your gas tank more than half full, you prevent possible fuel line freezes in cold winter weather. Properly inflated tires help you maintain control of your car on snow, rain, or ice-covered roads.

4. Don’t Use Cruise Control on Slippery Roads
Don’t risk your safety with cruise control on rain, ice, or snow-covered roads.

5. Avoid Driving When Fatigued
Car trips require alert drivers. If you are feeling tired, take turns driving with other licensed passengers or pull off to a rest stop or motel for a break.

6. Take Your Time
Everything takes longer in bad weather: braking, turning, accelerating. Drive slowly and carefully. It’s better to be late than to never arrive at all.

7. Run the Air Conditioner to Defrost
To remove condensation and frost from the interior of windows, engage your air-conditioner and select the fresh air option. It’s fine to set the temperature on “hot.” Many cars automatically do this when you choose the defrost setting.

8. Help the Other Driver
If you see a stranded motorist, do them a favor by calling and reporting the exact location and description of the vehicle. Mobile amateur radio operators and CBers can help by relaying messages to base stations who in turn will call the police.

9. Let the Plows Do Their Jobs
Don’t start off on your trip until plows have had a chance to clear the roads. If you are on the highway and encounter a plow, don’t pass it until you can see the road ahead of the plow. You should not try to pass in blowing snow. There may be a vehicle in that cloud of snow! Allow more distance between you and the plow, they may be spreading salt.

10. Never, Ever Text and Drive
No text is worth your life or the lives of others. If you have an urgent message to send, have someone else in the car do the texting for you.