Nov 20, 2018 | David Kapson
If you read my first blog, you will recall that two things I am very fond of are pop culture and stories. One of my favorite all-time pop culture phenomena is the acclaimed HBO original series, The Sopranos. I think I have watched the series in its entirety at least three or four times. Anyone who is familiar with the series knows, Tony Soprano, the anti-hero lead character and mob boss extraordinaire spends a lot of time in therapy session with his psychiatrist following panic attacks and bouts of anxiety. No doubt, those symptoms are related, at least in part, to his Tony’s work as a career criminal, but that’s not why I bring up the reference.
I often find myself thinking about a bit of dialogue between Tony and his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi in the very first episode when I advise my clients about how to communicate with their doctor following a life changing work injury. Struggling with the fact that he has to open up to his doctor in order to get to the root of his problems in therapy Tony says the following:
Tony Soprano: Let me tell ya something. Nowadays, everybody’s gotta go to shrinks, and counselors, and go on “Sally Jessy Raphael” and talk about their problems. What happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type. That was an American. He wasn’t in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do. See, what they didn’t know was once they got Gary Cooper in touch with his feelings that they wouldn’t be able to shut him up! And then it’s dysfunction this, and dysfunction that, and dysfunction vaffancul! The Sopranos Pilot (season 1, episode 1).
You may find yourself asking how does this reference apply at all to communicating with your medical provider in a workers’ compensation setting? The answer is quite simple, do not be Gary Cooper, John Wayne, or Tony Soprano when visiting with your doctor after a work injury. Put another way, to be the strong and silent type could be the kiss of death when it comes to making sure all of your rights are protected, including your entitlement to causally related medical care and treatment and money benefits.
In my first blog post I stressed the importance of telling the truth after a work injury and how that honesty has two components, one obvious, and one less so. I want to focus on this honesty and truthfulness in the context of communicating with the doctor. The obvious component is to not lie or make anything up. I’m less concerned about the obvious element. It’s easy, it speaks for itself, and frankly, I do not want to represent anyone in a legal matter that is not an honest and credible person.
I’m more interested in the less obvious component, the “do not hold anything back” side of telling the truth. I always tell clients at our very first meeting that the doctor is not a mind reader and is only going to address the complaints that the patient makes when taking a history. Not holding anything back means paying attention to your body and documenting all symptoms and complaints, in all affected body parts following a work injury. In this scenario, all means all, including all symptoms and complaints whether they are a direct result or a consequence of the work injury.
Telling the doctor all of your symptoms and complaints, means telling every doctor you see, whether your treating doctor, or the doctor the insurance company sends you to for an evaluation, all of the symptoms and complaints and when you experience them. I tell clients all the time, you need to make sure the doctor understands what you feel and go through on your worst day, not your best day. Sometimes symptoms can wax and wane, but the bottom-line is that an injured worker is not seeking treatment for how they feel on their best day, its about how they feel at their worst. This allows the doctor to get an accurate picture of the condition or conditions the injured person is experiencing and develop a treatment plan to get the person feeling better. That’s the ultimate goal after all!
Consequential Injuries
A consequential injury is an injury or medical condition sustained as a result of an employment related injury or illness. Often times, when a person has an injury on one side of their body, like knee or ankle injury, or a shoulder or elbow injury, they overcompensate for the loss of use the injured side of their body and put more stress, wear and tear on the opposite, non-injured side. Consequential injuries can develop due to this overcompensation. It’s very important to not go all Gary Cooper or Tony Soprano when this situation occurs. I urge clients to make these complaints to the doctor immediately when they begin to have these problems. I also ask clients to make certain their doctor is actually documenting the complaints in the medical reports and making treatment recommendations based on the complaints. This is especially important in the workers’ compensation setting because the insurance company may choose to deny authorization to treatment for consequential injuries, so the sooner the complaints are documented by the treating physician, the easier it tends to be for consequential injuries it is to be accepted. Whether that’s on a voluntary basis by the insurance carrier, or through the worker’s compensation court system.
Head Injuries
Sometimes folks who experience severe injuries to their bodies also strike or injure their head as a result of the work accident. Unfortunately, these conditions can go unnoticed or undiagnosed at first, especially if there is the need for emergency triage or treatment for a bodily injury immediately after the incident. Injured workers find themselves experiencing post-concussion symptoms, or neurological problems as they seek treatment with their primary care physician or an orthopedic specialist following the injury. The rule against being the strong silent type applies in this situation as well. If you find yourself if this predicament it is very important to make all of these symptoms and complaints related to a head injury to your doctor so that he or she documents them in the reports and provides a referral to a neurologist or other specialist with the skills to treat the specific problem. The same rationale as outlined above in consequential injuries about getting approval for the requested consult and treatment from the insurance company or through the court system.
Psychological Injuries
A life changing work injury can impact a person’s life many ways, including leading to feelings of anxiety, mental anguish, and depression. These conditions are compensable and if you experiencing psychological complications following a workplace injury you have the ability to seek treatment at the expense of the workers’ compensation insurance carrier. If you find yourself in this situation, do not hold anything back, make the complaints to your treating physician, get a referral for a psychological consultation, get it submitted to the insurance carrier for approval and get yourself into treatment and on the road to feeling better.
In response to Tony Soprano’s question, about whatever happened to Gary Cooper? The strong silent type. My hope is that by properly educating injured workers about their rights and how to communicate with their doctors as a means to protect those rights we can eradicate the strong silent type mentality from the culture of workers’ compensation. In doing so, it should help the injured worker get faster access to reasonable, necessary, and causally related medical treatment for any and all condition related to their work injury and make it harder for the insurance companies to deny honest hard working people access such treatment.
