It’s logical that if you hurt one arm, you’ll use the other arm more or if you injure one leg, you’ll favor the other. It’s also logical that when you do that, the healthy body part might get injured too.
When this happens after you are hurt on the job in Illinois, you likely have a case for two injuries instead of just one.
In fact this recently happened in case decided by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. In that case, a woman hurt her left hip at work. She had never received any medical care for a right hip problem before the accident.
While waiting for the work comp insurance company to approve her surgery, she continued to work full time and started to favor her right hip as the left got worse and worse. Eventually they both were in tremendous pain and she got diagnosed with a right labrum tear. This, per her doctor, happened because she was relying on it too much.
This case went to trial and of course the insurance company found a hired gun IME to state that the injuries weren’t work related. Fortunately the Court found that these statements weren’t credible and specifically pointed out that the IME doctor didn’t review her medical records.
In the end, the surgeries were approved and benefits were ordered. It’s kind of poetic justice because the insurance company played games and in the end it cost them way more than it would have had they just done the right thing in the beginning.
Bottom line is that when one injury causes you to overcompensate and you injure another body part, it should be covered. To win your case you need to give your doctor a history of how you were hurt, how you favored the body part that wasn’t hurt, what you noticed and what prior medical problems you’ve had on that body part. If they agree that if not for the work injury this new problem wouldn’t have happened or wouldn’t have happened so soon then you should win your case.
As always, if you want a free consult with one of our lawyers, start a live chat, fill out the contact form or call us at 312-346-5578.
