What can I say about WorksafeBC?
Not much or they will come after me for telling it like it was, or is rather, as I hurt my goddamn back again on October 4th, 2011.
I hurt myself at work, twice
I herniated my L4-L5 and L5-S1 lumbar discs on the left side in the early hours of July 17th, 2006. I also tore my rotator cuff in my left shoulder. For some reason the ER doc, *cough* Woychuck *cough* completely ignored the lower back pain and only treated my shoulder and neck. I think she might have severe brain problems, because it was later pointed out on the emergency admitting paperwork that I wrote down lower back and shoulder pain, and nothing to do with the neck at all. Missing that key bit of evidence right off the bat is what screwed me over for the next few months, not to mention the rest of my life.
WorksafeBC picked up my claim and I had a phone call from them that afternoon to tell me they would cover all meds and therapy related to my injury. What they didn't tell me, was that they would decide what they thought was injury related and I could go fuck myself for the rest of the costs. It took 3 weeks for my claims manager to figure out what I was getting paid at 2 jobs and niggle me down to wage-loss at a rate of about $13 per hour. After 6 months they told me I was all better, that "the book" says a back injury will heal with a bit of physio. I had gone for an MRI in October 2006 and had the results back that showed the herniations, yet WorksafeBC's doctor decided that it was a recoverable injury, and that even without a followup MRI I must have recovered, even though I was losing feeling in my left leg and could barely walk. They cut my claim off.
7 months later, after fighting with WorksafeBC about my damaged state, I was able to get an MRI that should my condition had gotten even worse. I now had a third disc that was threatening to herniate.
I got recommendations from a local Neurosurgeon to have an operation to remove the disc material as soon as possible, and WorksafeBC finally agreed that I was not "all better." The surgery was scheduled for October 9th, 2007.
Govender is a shitty Neurosurgeon and a worse liar. He told me that he was going to remove the disc material. He told WorksafeBC that he was going to remove the disc material. He told my parents that he was going to remove the disc material. He didn't. He basically just cut 8 inches into my lower back leaving a huge disfiguring scar. He poked around a bit and then stapled me back together. His report indicated that he did not remove the disc material, but he never told me. WorksafeBC assumed that he did the procedure but never read the surgeon's report carefully because he said he was going to remove the discs. I woke up after the surgery dazed, but in a really good mood. I dismissed the lack of feeling in my left leg because Govender told me there was only a 1% chance of failure and not one of his patients had ever not had success.
My physiotherapist treated me as if the discs had been removed. I saw a nerve specialist that told me the loss of feeling in my left leg was from the pressure of the disc coming off of the nerve root, and that it should recover within a few weeks. I got progressively worse in physio. I was being treated as if the problem was gone, but we only suceeded in making the herniations much worse than before. I blacked out in pain during a manipulation and was rushed to the hospital. A had a CT scan immediately that confused the technician, because I had told him there were no fucking discs at L4-L5 and L5-S1. He said they definitely were discs there, or something else had filled in the spaces. I had another MRI (3 now) that showed the discs were indeed still there, but that they were now obliterating (technician's word choice) the nerve root at L5-S1.
Govender is a piece of shit, so he refused to fix his fucking mistake. WorksafeBC sent me to see Splawinski in Vernon. He wanted to do surgery immediately, in Vernon. The surgery was scheduled for May 27th, 2008. I woke up feeling like shit. My arms didn't work. A nurse tried to get me to grab a glass of water and put my hand around the cup which I proceeded to drop on my chest and bash my arm on the bed railing. They lied to me for the next 2 days telling me it was normal to lose feeling like that. I couldn't feed myself, I couldn't go to the bathroom, I couldn't walk. The nurses waited until i was about to burst before they used an in-out catheter on me 3 times in a row. They bladder scanned me at over 2 litres, but each time decided that a 1 litre container would be big enough for all the pee they were about to let out of me. They spilled 4 litres of piss all over my legs those first 2 days in Vernon.
Splawinski told me a story about how I was fatter than he expected, so when he opened my back up in my second surgery he did not have tools long enoug to complete the surgery comfortably. So he left me on the OR table for 3.5 hours during a 45 min surgery. My body was laying face down, in a kneeling position. My arms were pulled out above my head with my head through a hole in the table so I could breathe. The position put an immense strain on my Brachial-Plexus nerves, which just so happen to control the movement of both arms from the shoulder to the fingers. A later visit to Craig, a nerve specialist at the hospital, confirmed the damaged to the nerves and he told me he hoped it would be better in 2 months. WorksafeBC took him at those words and decided that meant that I would be all better in 2 months. Craig also said my left leg would take 5-7 years to get better, if it actually ever did.
I had another appointment with Craig and his assessment said my arms would not get better for 2 years, if they got better at all. I was at 45% in my arms at that point.
WorksafeBC is lazy so they never bothered to request the second report from Craig, so they just assumed that I wasn't getting better because I didn't want to be better. They had me see 4 different psychiatrists to tell my story and see why I wasn't getting better, because they believed the problem was now in my head, and not in my nerves.
They sent me to Vancouver for November 2008 to January 2009 to attend the Orion Pain Clinic. I thought it was a pain management centre that would have new techniques or procedures for dealing with real physical pain. Nope. It was a daycare centre where they do what WorksafeBC tells them to do. I was treated like a child, like my pain was not real, that it was in my head alone and there was no physical reason why I was not getting better. I visited the hospital 2 times in emergency situations while I was there. The first time was for severe pain where I could not move and I was taken by ambulance and got several shots of Demmerol before I had any relief. The clinic doesn't allow you to use pain meds because they can fix you with new age relaxation classes. The second time I went to emergency was when I lost bowel control. I had reduced warning while walking in Burnaby a block away from my hotel. Sufficed to say, I couldn't stop myself from pooping, so it happened in the middle of the sidewalk. Eventually I convinced them to let me call my case manager and found out they didn't have the newest report from Craig. Now that they knew I was not faking, I was recommended to go for another MRI and further investigation into my condition.
WorksafeBC refused and started my Return-to-work program in January 2010. In March 2010 I had an episode of extreme pain and I went to the hospital where I stayed for 2 weeks while they figured out what was wrong with me. A CT scan at that time showed a third disc herniation L3-L4. WorksafeBC refused further surgery or treatment beyond physiotherapy. They tried sending me to a doctor supervised weight loss program, but the business went under 1 month in. I started a return to work program again in July 2010 just after I received my long term disability award of $20 per month. WCB closed my claim October 25th, 2010. I have been working my ass off trying to get better by myself.
October 4th, 2011: The saga begins again. I hurt myself at work. This time my lower right Lumbar spine. I suspect herniations on the right side, but there has been no real diagnosis yet. I am supposed to se a WorksafeBC physiotherapist, McCann. I saw him once in October 2006 after my first injury. He was a real asshole then, and the physician review website says he is still the same guy, paid by WorksafeBC to give bad diagnosis and to fuck over workers as much as possible. This guys gets a bonus for every claim he denies. Lucky me.
© 2011-2012 Richard Henderson