When you’re on the job there are a variety of ways that you might experience a workplace injury that would lead to a Connecticut workers’ compensation claim. Every job has inherent risks that can lead to you being hurt for a long period of time and you have the right to be compensated for those injuries.
Depending on the type of work you do you may experience an injury in different ways. Take for instance a scenario where a forklift driver is moving goods around a warehouse and all of a sudden the forklift lurches forward and causes a crash into another vehicle along the route. The driver is thrown out of forklift and onto the ground leaving him with a neck injury that is presenting as severe pain. This type of injury would be considered sudden trauma.
Sudden trauma is the result of a quick action that leads to injury. The phrase sudden trauma does not refer to the injury itself, but rather the circumstances through which the injury was sustained. An injury that occurs as a result of a mechanical accident, or a sudden fall, or being hit by something falling off of a top shelf, all of these scenarios can lead to sudden trauma injuries.
The opposite of sudden trauma is cumulative stress which are injuries that occur over an extended period of time. In this case the phrase cumulative stress does actually refer to the injury because an injury is considered in this category if it is the result of a long-term and consistent action.
For instance, if you are someone who works in an office in front of a computer all day and you spend your days staring at the computer with very little breaks you may develop a neck strain. While this may not seem, at first blush, as serious of an impact injury as the forklift driver getting into an accident, the neck strain may be something that leads to serious injury over time. This is considered a cumulative stress injury and it should be reported as a Connecticut workers’ compensation claim.
If an injury occurs on the job, it may be considered workers’ compensation claim worthy. It does not matter how it occurs or what the severity of the injury is, it should be taken seriously by your employer and should be addressed with you if there is a need to miss work time for any reason. After you experience an injury you should report it immediately to your supervisor who can begin the paperwork of filing a workers’ compensation claim.
In the event that your company were to deny a claim for some reason you may want to speak with a board certified attorney who can review your case. Contact our office and one of our experienced attorneys can work with you to make sure you are protected for the long-term.
