The South Carolina workers’ compensation law has done a great job encouraging employers to keep workplaces safe. How does it work so effectively? Two ways. First, almost all job injuries are covered by workers' comp. Second, the law compels most employers to carry insurance to pay for medical care and disability caused by workplace accidents. Most bosses find that they can get the best results (and lower their insurance costs) by putting top-of-the-line safety measures in place.
Despite this incentive and many employers who strive to keep their employees safe, work accidents still happen. If you've been hurt at work in South Carolina, you need to know your rights before the insurance company takes them away. Get your questions answered in a free, no pressure strategy session with a Spartanburg, SC workers’ comp attorney. Call toll free at 888-230-1841 or fill out a Get Help Now form.
These are some of the most common serious workplace injuries we help people with at Holland & Usry. :
- Rotator cuff tears. You spend your career doing overhead work or your arm gets violently yanked by a heavy pipe dropping from above. Suddenly your shoulder joint pops loudly as the muscles and ligaments surrounding it rip through and collapse.
- Knee damage. You are carrying heavy machinery parts down to the company basement when you miss a step on the dark stairway and all that weight comes straight down on your knee. Or you slip on the waxy floor and slam knee first into it, or trip over a computer cable at your office desk and twist your knee as you fall. Knee injuries can be especially devastating—the force can crush your kneecap and yank tough cartilage and ligaments inside into a torn, tangled mess. Over time, these cases sometimes develop into involving your other leg, which gets damaged with overuse as you limp around on it.
- Mangled hands. While you’re working on a machine with fast-moving parts, it malfunctions or you lose concentration for an instant and your hand gets yanked into its churning gears. This can be a disaster: fingers can get crushed over each other as you get sucked in, breaking fingers, hand, and wrist. Even worse is an injury doctors politely call “degloving”—all the skin gets ripped off your hand. These horrific injuries call for extensive operations and long periods of therapy that will probably not return full function to the hand.
- Herniated spinal discs. Discs are the body's “shock absorbers” protecting the delicate spinal cord. They look like a jelly donut. If you throw a jelly donut on the floor, it bursts and the jelly leaks out. The same can occur to a spinal disc from the jolt of landing on your backside in a fall off a roof or a severe car crash while you are delivering auto parts. But when you blow out a spinal disc, it’s a lot harder to clean up. Because the ruptured disc compresses nerves leaving the spinal cord, it causes extreme pain, weakness, numbness and tingling—and sometimes these problems can only be fixed with extremely serious spinal surgery. If an operation is required, you may qualify for the maximum benefits, called permanent and total disability—but you can be sure the insurance company will fight tooth and nail to prevent it.
Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Work for You
These are only some of the most severe workers’ compensation injuries we deal with at Holland & Usry. If you are seriously hurt, you owe it to yourself and your family to find out from an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer what your rights and responsibilities are. It could prevent you from getting short-changed by the insurance company and might help get the medical care you need.
If you are hurt too bad to come to us, we will come to you. You don’t even have to get up. To see how this Spartanburg, SC workers’ comp attorney can help you through what can be a complicated, frustrating system—just call toll free at 888-230-1841 or fill out a Get Help Now form.
