Back Injury

Most Idaho worker’s compensation claims come as a result of back injuries. Your back is the most vulnerable part of your body. Back injuries can turn your life upside down. They often end your career. You will have to re-invent yourself. Sometimes your back injury will be so severe that you will be left totally and permanently disabled.

There are many benefits available to you under the Idaho worker’s compensation system. The Idaho worker’s compensation insurance company adjuster will not tell you about many of these benefits. We will help you to be paid every Idaho worker’s compensation benefit you legally deserve from your back injury.

Your back injury treatment usually starts with being sent to urgent care. You will be seen by a doctor or a physician’s assistant. They will often prescribe pain medications, muscle relaxers, and anti-inflammatory drugs. They may also send you to a physical therapist. You may experience low back pain that radiates into your legs. If your back and leg pain persist, the urgent care doctor will often send you for an MRI scan. The doctor will then share the results of the MRI with you at a later appointment. If the MRI scan shows damage in your low back in the form of a disc herniation or disc bulge and if you have persistent symptoms, you may be sent to a physical medicine doctor or pain specialist who specializes in epidural steroidal injections. You may be given steroid injections directly into your low back to see if this type of treatment can help you help your back injury.

If the treatment and steroidal injections don’t help you, you may be referred to an orthopedic surgeon or a neurosurgeon that preforms spinal surgeries. The surgeon will review the MRI scan, perform a physical exam, and determine if a back surgery can fix your back injury.

As the injured party, you have to provide medical evidence to support your Idaho worker’s compensation claim.

It is important to choose a spinal surgeon that will support your Idaho worker’s compensation claim by providing testimony as to causation and restrictions. The surgeon should also be willing to calculate and give you an impairment rating under the Sixth Edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.

If your surgeon is not willing to offer these opinions, you will have to hire your own expensive expert medical doctor to offer opinions on the cause of your back injury, determine your impairment rating, and give you permanent restrictions. These types of medical opinions can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500. It is much better to have your treating surgeon offer these opinions which can be part of their treatment and paid for by the Idaho worker’s compensation insurance company.

We can help direct you to a back surgeon that will be willing to support your Idaho worker’s compensation claim. If we accept your case and your back surgeon refuses to participate in the claim, we can help find a doctor to offer medical testimony to support your claim. However, it is always better to have your back surgeon offer these opinions.

If you have a serious back injury, you will probably need back surgery. Most back surgeries can now be done with a laparoscope, which is less invasive than a traditional surgery. These surgeries are often completed in an hour or less and completed at same day surgery centers. You will be encouraged to walk around on the afternoon of your surgery and will likely be released to go home that same day. Most people are released back to some type of work within 30 to 90 days following the surgery.

The more serious back injuries will require a spinal fusion surgery. Most fusion surgeries are performed at hospitals and require at least a two day stay. Depending upon the complexity of the fusion surgery, they can take anywhere from two to seven hours to complete. The recovery time for this type of surgery can be up to one year.

You can’t climb Mount Everest by yourself. You need a guide. Fred Lewis, and Pat George are experienced Idaho worker’s compensation lawyers with decades of experience handling Idaho back injury worker’s compensation claims. Big or small, we will be your guides.

Call us today at 208.232.6101. We will answer your questions for free. We will tell you if you have a case.