Wrist Injuries At Work

Many different types of jobs in Fort Lauderdale require employees to use their hands regularly, from professions involving a significant amount of computer work to health care professions involving surgical precision to work performed by electricians and plumbers. Wrist injuries vary significantly in terms of their severity, with some wrist injuries or conditions healing relatively quickly while others may require substantial rehabilitation or could involve a permanent disability. You should seek advice from an experienced Pompano Beach workers’ compensation attorney who can help you.

Learning More About Wrist Injuries

What types of wrist injuries and disorders occur most commonly in workplaces? Since the wrist is made up of joints, tendons, ligaments, connective tissues, and bones, many different kinds of injuries can occur. According to MedlinePlus, the following are among the most common:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome;
• Ganglion cysts;
• Gout;
• Wrist fractures;
• Osteoarthritis;
• Sprains;
• Strains; and
• Tendonitis.

These injuries and disorders can happen in various ways, including from repetitive wrist motions (like the regular use of power tools or typing on a computer keyboard) or struck-by injuries that result in wrist fractures.

Proving Your Wrist Injury Arose Out of Your Employment

In order to receive workers’ compensation benefits for your wrist injury, you will need to prove that the injury arose out of your employment. In other words, you must have evidence that your wrist injury or condition resulted from work you were required to do, or that the wrist injury occurred in an accident that happened while you were working. For traumatic wrist injuries like fractures, which often occur in motor vehicle accidents or slips and falls on the job, it can be relatively straightforward to prove that the injury arose out of your employment if the accident happened at work.

Workers’ compensation claims can be more complicated when wrist injuries are likely to be classified as occupational diseases. Under Florida workers’ compensation law, in order for an occupational disease (including certain types of wrist conditions) to be compensable, the injured employee must be able to show that “the nature of the employment was the major contributing cause of the disease.”

The statute clarifies that, to prove the nature of the employment was the major contributing cause, the injured worker will need to show that “the occupation in which the employee was so engaged has “a particular hazard of such disease that distinguishes it from the usual run of occupations, or the incidence of such disease is substantially higher in the occupation in which the employee was so engaged than in the usual run of occupations.” Our workers’ compensation lawyers in Pompano Beach can evaluate your case and can speak with you about how to prove a wrist condition is compensable under Florida workers’ compensation law.

Contact Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers in Pompano Beach

 Do you need assistance with your wrist injury workers’ compensation claim? One of the experienced workers’ compensation attorneys in Pompano Beach at the Law Offices of David M. Benenfeld, P.A. is here to help you with the claims process for traumatic wrist injuries as well as wrist conditions arising out of your employment.

Sources:

medlineplus.gov/wristinjuriesanddisorders.html

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0400-0499/0440/0440ContentsIndex.html