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Of the 4.7 million annual dog bites, nearly 800,000 require a hospital visit and 33,000 require reconstructive surgery. With people and dogs both participating more in outside activities, the risk of dog bites reaches its peak during the warm weather months.

Unfortunately, 600,000 dog bite victims are children. According to well-known dog trainer Cesar Milan, most dog bites involving children are from dogs with whom the children are familiar. Young children, particularly ones under the age of five, often do not understand personal space. According Milan’s site cesarsway.com, “The combination of an overprotective dog and a child who does not understand boundaries can lead to a big problem.” A dog may bite if it is provoked by a child who, for example, pulls its tail, fur, or ears. If a child gets too close to a dog and startles it, the dog may turn and bite. If a dog views a child as prey because he or she is running, this may also provoke an attack. Dogs can also bite because they are injured, in pain, or sick.

Most bites to children involve their head, neck, and face because of the proximity of a child’s face to a dog’s mouth. These injuries sometimes require extensive surgery and reconstructive procedures. Dr. Bradon J. Wilhelmi, Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Louisville Department of Surgery notes that “[r]econstructive surgeons see firsthand how devastating these attacks are. With training, appropriate dog control and education, however, the suffering caused by dog bites can be prevented.”

“Dog bite attacks can lead to severe lacerations, infections and permanent scarring,” Wilhelmi said. “If bitten, you should get to a trauma center immediately so that the wound can be cleaned and assessed. It is imperative that proper medical care is provided as soon as possible after an attack.”

Cats Bite & Scratch, Too

While much publicity is given to dog bites, cat bites and scratches are almost non-existent in the news. However, cats account for about 15% of animal bites treated each year in the emergency room, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Unlike dog bites, most cat bites that require treatment are from cats who are unknown to the victim. Cat bites also become infected more frequently than dog bites, leading to longer treatment periods. According to Pet Pro News, stray, unknown female cats are the most common bite sources; adult women are the most frequent victims.

In addition to cat bites, bartonellosis, commonly known as “cat-scratch fever,” can be transmitted to humans from bites as well as scratches. Bartonellosis causes swollen lymph nodes, especially around the head, neck, and upper limbs. According to Cornell University’s Feline Health Center, other symptoms may involve fever, headache, sore muscles and joints, fatigue, and poor appetite. While most people generally recover with no lasting effects, it may take several months for the disease to go away completely. Some healthy cats are continuously or intermittently infected, although most treated illnesses are caused by kittens. Avoiding scratches and bites (not allowing children to play roughly with cats, not picking up a stray cat, etc.), controlling fleas, and keeping cats indoors all reduce the risk of cat-scratch disease.

Pet owners, parents, and others can learn more about reducing the risk of dog and pet bites at http://www.humanesociety.org.

If you or a loved one is bitten by a dog, cat, or other pet, seek medical attention immediately and then call me at (312) 357-8000. I can help you obtain the maximum financial compensation your injury demands from the pet owner’s insurer.

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Sources:

• Center for Disease Control
• Cornell University. Feline Health Center. http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/
• Milan, Cesar. http://www.cesarsway.com
• PetProNews.com. Cat bite prevention: it should get more attention.
• University of Louisville. U of L reconstructive surgeon provides prevention tips. http://www.louisville.edu
• Weiss, HB, Freidman DI, Coben JH. Incidence of dog bite injuries treated in emergency departments. JAMA. 1998;279:51-53.

Stressed by work? No matter the industry or job, it’s rare these days to find someone who isn’t at least a bit frazzled from their job. Whether your daily work stress involves deadlines, an overly demanding boss, pushy clients, taking on the additional responsibilities of eliminated positions, or even a chatty colleague,  here are a few tips to help you stay calm.

1. Delegate: If your to-do list overflows and your calendar is full, don’t try to do it all yourself. Try to delegate to team members or call in favors from colleagues.
2. Breathing: Regularly practicing deep breathing exercises can calm you down and help lower your blood pressure. It even helps slows the aging process! Sit up straight. Inhale through your nose while slowly counting to six. Exhale through mouth, counting to eight. Repeat several times. Instead of tensing and raising your shoulders while inhaling, relax your arms and shoulders and let your abdomen expand with air. These cleansing breathes are perfect before, during, and after a busy day or a stressful meeting.
3. Minimize Caffeine: Coffee might give you energy quickly—but a coffee buzz can also add to that stressed-out feeling and increase your blood pressure. Prefer a warm beverage over cold water? Try green tea. Sure, it has some caffeine—but not nearly as much as coffee. Green teas also contains the most antioxidant polyphenols among the various types of tea, notably a catechin called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which is believed to be responsible for most of the health benefits linked to green tea.
4. Eat Frequently: But not too much. Eating small, healthy snacks throughout the day helps keep you energized and helps maintain a stable blood sugar level, which can help reduce anxiety.
5. Go Outside at Lunch: Whether grabbing a bite out or just walking around the block, be sure to take time to catch a breath of fresh air.
6. Just Say No: If you’re the co-worker who always agrees to take on extra work, trade hours with a colleague, or plan the next work party, start occasionally saying “No.”
7. Laugh: Go to lunch or break with co-workers who make you smile and laugh. Laughing has been proven to be a stress-reducing activity that actually increases your immune system. A few jokes and funny stories can produce cleansing laughs and help you face the rest of your day with a fresh attitude.
8. Communicate in Person: Instead of answering an e-mail with yet another e-mail, try walking over to your co-worker’s desk and having an in-person conversation. People are social by nature, and the interaction might not only reduces the chance of miscommunication but also helps reduce stress through socialization.
9. Stretch: The internet is full of work-appropriate stretching exercises and apps that can help increase blood flow and energy. Try a few minutes worth of stretching during those long afternoons.

Workplace injuries bring with them a wide variety of challenges and hurdles to overcome. When that also involves chronic pain, the long-term consequences can be even more daunting than the initial injuries themselves.

When a workplace injury results in chronic pain, a number of factors combine to create an increased likelihood of depression. “People with chronic pain have three times the average risk of developing psychiatric symptoms—usually mood or anxiety disorders—and depressed patients have three times the average risk of developing chronic pain,” according to the Harvard Mental Health newsletter.

Chronic Pain Is More than Physical

According to the Harvard newsletter, “pain, especially chronic pain, is an emotional condition as well as a physical sensation. It is a complex experience that affects thought, mood, and behavior and can lead to isolation, immobility, and drug dependence.” “Depression is the most common emotion associated with chronic pain,” according to the American Chiropractic Association. Its website states “[Depression] is thought to be 3 to 4 times more common in people with chronic pain than in the general population. . . . The combination of chronic pain and depression is often associated with greater disability than either depression or chronic pain alone.”

The National Pain Foundation, citing a 2002 research paper on the subject, quotes similar statistics: “About 30% of patients with persistent pain conditions suffer from clinical depression related to their pain, and almost all persons will experience some mood changes. Seventy-five percent of patients with clinical depression present to their doctors because of physical symptoms, including pain.”

Top 10 Reasons Depression Affect Injured Workers

According to a 2011 article on “JDSupra Law News,” the ten most common reasons that workers become depressed are:

• Pain: Pain makes people unhappy.
• A supervisor, co-worker, or claims adjuster acts as if they are faking their injury
• They are worried about whether they will still have a job when they have healed.
• They are getting the run-around from the worker’s compensation insurance company.
• They feel they aren’t getting good medical care, but don’t know what to do.
• Authorizations for medical care take forever.
• They are worried about how they will make a living if they can’t go back to their line of work.
• They are financially behind on bills as a result of late compensation checks, no compensation checks, or inadequate compensation checks.
• They have been accused by the medical profession of being drug seekers because of ignored complaints about pain.
• They are worried about needing medical care in the future if the injury ever worsens after the claim is closed.
• They are stuck at home or prohibited from participating in favorite physical activities.

Depression: Signs & Symptoms

If you or a loved one suffers from chronic pain, be on the watch for signs of depression. Some of the signs and symptoms related to depression reported by patients treated at pain clinics include:

• Altered Mood, including irritability, agitation, anxiety & loss of concentration
• Sleep Disturbance or Insomnia
• Decreased Self-Esteem
• Feelings of Hopelessness
• Fear of Injury
• Physical Deconditioning
• Decreased Interest in Daily Activities, Favorite Hobbies or Pastimes
• Less Interest in Sex
• Family Stress
• Work & Legal Issues
• Financial Worries

If you are diagnosed with depression caused by pain from a work-related injury, call Styka & Styka at (312)357-8000.

(Source: D C Turk, “Beyond the symptoms: The painful manifestations of depression.” Presented at Pain and Depression: Navigating the Intersection of Body and Mind Symposium, San Diego, 20 August 2002.” and http://www.mayoclinic.com)

Depression Is Treatable

Whatever the numbers, the reality is that depression brought on by chronic pain following a workplace accident can be even more debilitating than the injuries themselves. In addition, chronic pain sufferers are likely to be depressed about any accompanying job or financial loss, a change in their work role as a result of the accident or injuries, or the trauma of the event itself. A Stanford University study published in the January 2003 issue of the Journal Archive of General Psychiatry found “that people who have major depression are more than twice as likely to have chronic pain when compared to people who have no symptoms of depression.” This is all the more reason to pay careful attention to friends or family members who suffer from work-related injuries. If you notice any of the signs of depression, contact a health care provider. Depression can be treated with medications, many in affordable generic prescriptions.

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Working with Styka & Styka, LLC

At Styka & Styka, LLC, we work hard to effectively settle work injury claims with maximum financial compensa- tion. To help us successfully handle your case, please do not discuss the circumstances of your case with any- one except the people in our office and your doctors. If you, a relative, or a friend suffer a work-related injury, call Styka & Styka at (312)357-8000.

Depression is serious. If you are feeling completely overwhelmed or suicidal, please tell your doctor immediately, or call 911 and ask for the suicide prevention hotline. While it can be difficult to obtain psychological treatment for depression on a worker’s compensation claim, it can be done under the right circumstances. More importantly, many feelings of helplessness go away once you are armed with knowledge about how the claims process actually works. Call Styka & Styka, LLC, at (312) 577-8000 for a free, no-risk initial consultation that will help have a better understanding of Illinois’ workers’ compensation law and your injury.

If your injury has prevented you—or will prevent you—from working for more than 12 months, you may qualify for Social Security Disability.

Social Security Disability pays benefits to people who cannot work because they have a medical condition that is expected to last at least one year or result in death. Unlike other government programs, Social Security does not give money to people with a partial disability or a short-term disability.

Social Security urges you to apply for disability benefits as soon as you become disabled or are told that you cannot return to work for more than 12 months. Social Security can take a long time to process applications—up to 5 months.

You can apply for Social Security Disability two different ways:

• Online at http://www.socialsecurity.gov; or,
• Call 800-772-1213, to make an appointment to file a disability claim at your local Social Security office or to set up an appointment for someone to take your claim over the telephone.

When you schedule an appointment, they will send you a Disability Starter Kit to help you get ready for your disability claims interview. You can also download the kit at socialsecurity.gov/disability. You also will need to complete an application for Social Security benefits and the Adult Disability Report, which is available online at socialsecurity.gov/disabilityreport.

According to Social Security, the claims interview may last up to an hour or so. Much of the information that they require is the same information you have been organizing and maintaining since your injury:

• Names, address, and phone numbers of the doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers that have treated you;
• Dates of all of your appointments;
• Names and dosages of all of the medications that you have taken;
• Laboratory and test results;
• Medical records from your doctors, hospitals, clinics, and other health care providers that you already have in your possession; and,
• A summary of where you worked and the type of work that you did.

You will also need:

• Your Social Security number;
• Your birth certificate; and,
• A copy of your most recent W-2 form.

Even if you do not have all of your records, Social Security urges you to apply anyway. They will help you obtain needed records from medical providers.

For more information, visit http://www.ssa.gov/pgm/disability.htm.

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Working with Styka & Styka, LLC

At Styka & Styka, LLC, we work hard to effectively settle work injury claims with maximum financial compensa- tion. To help us successfully handle your case, please do not discuss the circumstances of your case with any- one except the people in our office and your doctors. If you, a relative, or a friend suffer a work-related injury, call Styka & Styka at (312) 357-8000.

We obtained a global settlement for $700,000 for a construction worker who suffered a back injury in a work-site accident. His one accident resulted in two claims and is an excellent example of why you should consult an experienced Worker’s Compensation & Personal Injury attorney following any accident that is work-related or may be due to the negligence of another person or entity.

In this case, the injured construction worker was working for a subcontractor. He was able to receive compensation from two sources: a worker’s compensation through the subcontractor; and, a suit against the general contractor responsible for the construction site.

Determining who is financially and legally responsible for your injuries is not always as straightforward as it seems.

Multiple cases often arise out of one accident. Attorneys who are inexperienced in Illinois Worker’s Compensation and Personal Injury law may not have the expertise required to pinpoint multiple claims. An experienced injury attorney can make a huge impact on your compensation and benefits. We believe identifying all at-fault parties in an accident is one of the most important services that a personal injury and workers’ compensation lawyer provides. That one legal task unquestionably helps obtain the maximum financial compensation possible for an injury.

Our office frequently receive calls from individuals who believe they only have a workers’ compensation claim. But after discussing the facts, such as in the above case, I often identify others who are also liable for the injury. Work-related driving accidents are common sources of multiple claims: a worker’s comp claim through the employer; and, a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver.

However, other multiple claims may not be so clear-cut: Nurse A works at Acme Nursing Home. She rides the elevator to her floor to start her shift, where renovations have been underway.Upon exiting the elevator, she trips on new tile flooring being installed by XYZ Contractors, where a 1/2-inch rise was created where the new tile meets the unfinished floor. Nurse A breaks her arm and must have surgery and extended time off of work. This is both a worker’s compensation case and a personal liability case against the flooring company.

If you or a loved one is injured in any type of accident, be sure to contact Styka & Styka at (312) 357-8000. We can identify all liable parties and help you understand your options.