- April 3, 2020
- Workers' Compensation
Losing part or all of hearing or vision can drastically change your life. You may need to assimilate into a new community or pursue a new vocation. It’s possible that you’ll have the opportunity to improve some of the new disability through prostheses such as Cochlear implants, or that surgery.
However, the damage is done, and if it was work-related, then it is clear who should foot the bill for your recovery. Charlotte Workers Compensation Lawyers serve the entirety of the Charlotte area with workers’ comp applications, appeals, and case closure.
What Injuries Can Lead to Hearing Loss?
The ear is particularly sensitive. In fact, damage to the hair cells within the ear can lead to total hearing loss. Any loss of blood flow to key areas can lead to hearing loss, and damage to the middle hear, or tissue of the inner ear can cause hearing loss. Depending on the damage and the extent of it, hearing loss can be temporary or permanent.
For example, a person working on a sound stage without ear protection may experience temporary loss after a ruptured eardrum. However, someone exposed to chemicals that causes the hair cells within their ear to die would be permanent damage.
The unexpected injuries that often cause hearing loss, either partial or total, include traumatic brain injuries, concussions, and hemorrhaging within the brain. What happens in these instances is that the audio cortex of the brain is traumatized and does not recover. In other events that may come with head injuries, it’s possible for the bones within the middle ear to break or to severely damage the inner ear.
Will an Eye Injury Result in Blindness?
Some eye injuries will result in blindness or partial vision loss. A grease bubble popping out of a fryer and hitting someone in the eye would cause temporary vision loss, while head trauma can lead to long-term loss or complete blindness.
Usually, eye injuries are involved in head trauma as they optic nerve, the eyeball itself, or the bone structure around it may take on damage’s When that happens, it’s likely that you would recover some vision later. However, damage to certain nerve pathways and more can result in trauma that you can’t recover.
Typically the eye will appear visually distressed or not normal. An eye injury is not something that would crop up years later. It may appear that the iris is filling with blood, or that the pupil is “off-center.” Additionally, there would be irritation of the blood vessels or outright broken blood vessels within the eye.
Can You Sue Your Employer for Sensory Loss?
With over 20,000 workplace eye injures each year and many more hearing-related injuries, it’s no wonder that you’re concerned. Yes, you can claim the sensory loss as part of your worker’s compensation, but often worker’s comp will only cover specific elements of the damage.
Workers’ compensation will often only cover the extent of your medical expenses and lost wages. What you could do is to later pursue financial compensation for sensory loss as a personal injury case. To that effect, you would have to prove that your injuries were a result of the employer’s negligence and that your worker’s comp did not provide this type of compensation.
Get Help with Your Charlotte Worker’s Compensation Application
When filing a worker’s compensation claim, the application is lengthy. It requires the victim to go through, obtain medical records, prove that they didn’t have a preexisting issue associated with sensory loss, and more. The result is that the victim often feels overwhelmed until they hit a point where they stop caring. They simply want a check and to get on with life, but when you’re newly blind or deaf or experiencing partial sensory loss, then it’s impossible to forget about the injury.
If someone is not willing to help you recover, then you need to file an appeal. Denied applications are exceptionally common, and many people have to appeal these decisions.
Contact a North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
If you experienced hearing or vision loss from work-related injuries, then you should have someone speaking up for your side of these instances. It’s not every day that these instances happen, and that means that you’re working with a special circumstance.
Bring in a charlotte workers comp lawyer by contacting Charlotte Workers Compensation Lawyers. Our offices provide the public with access to workers’ compensation attorneys in charlotte, NC that are reliable and passionate about getting you the compensation that you need.
