I recently had a rather bad fall at work where I ended up in intensive care for 1 week in Hamilton Hospital. I have multiple breaks in both hands,which now have pins and plates in, dislocated fingers and thumb, and a nasty head wound which caused a bleed on the brain. I am now home and on the way to full recovery. Because the accident was at work I claim WSIB which pays my wage while im off sick, but all my friends tell me to go for other compensation. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Oh no!! I hope you're fully recovered soon.

I guess the obvious question is whether it was a pure accident, or something that you think could/should have been avoided and that your employer really should have had measures in place to prevent?

Compensation for what? Your wages are covered. Or do you need money to make your boo boo feel better?

His injuries sound a bit more serious than made up whiplash or a pretend bad back.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you get well soon.

What was the cause of the accident? Is there anyone to blame or was it as a consequence of a third parties inability to do something?

Hi Markan,

Firstly i am really sorry to hear about your accident and subsequent injury.

I work as a Health and Safety Specialist so if you need any advice on filling out claim forms, witness statements anything like that drop me a PM i will be more than happy to help out free of charge.

You do not say in your description how the incident occured, and you may not want to make this public knowledge, feel free to drop me a PM with the circumstances and we can discuss it further.

It appears that you sustained a fall from height either to ground level or down an open space to sustain the injuries you describe?

You sound like you are on the road to recovery, this may of course not be a perfect path with a few issues thrown in along the way, e.g. long periods of physio on your hands in particular and a long time recovering before you are able to return to your role.

The issue of compensation in my eyes is a clear one, either your employer was negligent in not providing a safe system of work including appropriate controls in which case you should consider claiming compensation OR he provided the necessary controls and you decided to ignore or override them in which case a compensation claim is not likely to be successful or warranted.

There is of course a more complicated scenario where the controls were provided but were weak, AND you also played your own part in the fall.

Feel free to drop me a line with additional info and we can discuss further.

Regards

ScottyB

I know, and I was being facetious. Apologies.
But the point still stands- what does he want "compensating" for? He's not lost any earnings, and he's on the way to full recovery.

How about the initial Pain and suffering which included time in intensive care, possible long term effects e.g. reduced strength in his hands, issues with arthritis when he is older, there may also be unseen effects in the brain e.g. loss of memory not yet evident.

Not to mention the fact that he may have lost his quality of life for a period e.g. being able to socialise with friends and family, undertake a sport/hobby, missed holidays already booked etc.

Think about it for a second, the poor guy probably couldn't even wipe his own backside due to both his hands being out of operation, he may even have had to fork out for care to help him undertake day to day tasks which we would all normally take for granted, his wife/partner might also have had to take time off work to be by his side and help him during his recovery period.

I could go on for hours!

Still think his wages from work should cover all of these scenarios if relevant especially if his employer was negligent?

If you do then your "Map of the world" is certainly different from most "resonable" people

sorry to hear, glad you are on the way to recovery now, sounds like scottyB has given some great advice, as a result of this I am sure there are a number of consequential/additional losses you may have incurred as a family aswell as the "pain and suffering" element, that if negligence can be attached to the employer you could seek compensation for.

It will all depend upon the circumstances of the incident.

Good luck

Does posting that make your boo boo feel bigger?

One would assume he has never had a member of his family suffer a very bad accident at work because if he had, I very much doubt he would be such a twerp.

If there is a reasonable claim to be made, then make it. Take advice. If it was your own fault, then take on the chin, so to speak - but if you have legitimate reasons to take it further, then fill your boots - but be prepared for a long drawn out process.

WCB will get shot of you as soon as they possibly can. Don't be sucked in by the "Worker's" part of their name - they're not really in it to help you.

My husband has suffered three separate injuries at work in the past three years, and while we are grateful that wages were covered, they do like to sign you off at "fully fit" as quick as possible because it is in their interest to do so. I would say there are lasting effects from all three of his injuries, one of which may result in surgery. We're not yet quite sure how he can "re-activate" his claim (because they closed it saying "oh, you're fine now") and get coverage for wages if the date for surgery is some months away yet.

Getting healed takes a long time (especially if you are not 20 yrs old) - best wishes for a decent recovery.

(And jericho - really? That was a pretty poor throw-away comment )

You will need to look at the legislation in Ontario. In Alberta, the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) has jurisdiction over all accidents involving "workers" in Alberta. The only way you can sue your employer is if the WCB declare it a non-work related accident. If the same applies in Ontario you will not be able to sue your employer. Under the WCB scheme damages for injuries are nothing like as high as they are in the civil courts but they will pay for things that you would be unlikely to be able to recover in the civil courts and they cover loss of earnings immediately, rather than having to waits the years that such a claim could take in the civil courts.

Take advice

[QUOTE=jericho;8670362]I know, and I was being facetious. Apologies.
But the point still stands- what does he want "compensating" for? He's not lost any earnings,
Who told you this,I lose $300 bi weekly and my wife loses $900 to $1000 bi weekly

I would like to thank you all for your advice, I shall take a closer look at your comments and weigh up my options.
I am well on the road to recovery and Dr says back to work in approx 2 months.
Mark