Workers Compensation Brisbane Case Study – An In-Depth Look at Then and Now

• We’ve come a long way in terms of providing proper workers compensation, which is evident in the case study that I’ve uncovered a couple of years ago.

  

  We’ve come a long way in terms of providing proper workers compensation, which is evident in the case study that I’ve uncovered a couple of years ago.

  There was a 23 year old male working in a cinder block company in Missouri. On May 8, 1930, he was cleaning the conveyor when he lost his footing and fell into the heavy operating equipment. He severed his arm above the brachial region and received a compound fracture on the left leg, not to mention extensive rupturing of the muscles and severe nerve damage in the left crural region. There was also tearing in the rectum and perineum area. He was then taken into the emergency room for surgery where his right arm was amputated. He also received permanent loss of use of the right leg distal to the knee, muscle damage to the right lumbar region of the back and abdomen, atrophy distal to the left leg injury, severe lacerations, and partial loss of bowel control.

  The Missouri’s Worker Compensation Commission changed the status of the victim to PPD, or permanent partial disability, where he received a disability payment of 66 2/3 % of his average weekly wage. He was also awarded $23.07 a week for 400 weeks, totalling to $6,152. This was back in 1930’s.

  This case study is an in-depth study of how workers compensation was back then compared to what it is at the moment. By today’s standards, the injured worker will be receiving extensive rehabilitative care and treatment, along with comprehensive medical and adult care by a surgeon, therapist, psychiatrist, proctologist, gastroenterologist, and a vascular surgeon. The worker would also be receiving comprehensive home care, DME equipment, prosthetics and orthotics, assisted living devices, home modifications, skin integrity surfaces, and compression therapy. He would also be a candidate for employment evaluation and retraining at the cinder block company.

  In a span of more than 90 years, compensation issues between workers and employers have been settled time and time again. To this day, we can definitely see the notable improvements of how workers are now compensated.