Many jobs rely on your hands and fingers to do your work, and a hand injury can sideline you for months or even make it impossible to return to your job. Finger amputation, crush injuries, broken bones, and degloving injuries can seriously interfere with your ability to work or cause permanent disabilities our lawyers can help you get compensation for.
Many work injuries, including hand and degloving injuries, are covered under Workers’ Compensation, but getting your benefits can be tricky. Our lawyers have ample experience in Workers’ Comp and can fight to maximize your benefits.
For a free case review, call the Pennsylvania Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 today.
Common Hand Injuries from Work in Philly
There are many protective gloves for various jobs, from welding to construction to surgical gloves, but they do not always offer the protection we need. In some cases – such as handling table saws and circular saws – wearing gloves can even be more dangerous. This can result in a wide range of hand injuries.
One of the most obvious, serious injuries you can face at work is loss of one or multiple fingers. They can often be reattached with quick action, but this can still lead to reduced function or difficulty performing fine motor tasks our hand injury and degloving lawyers can help you seek benefits for.
Puncture wounds and large cuts can also damage the many muscles, tendons, and bones in the hand, requiring months or years of healing.
Crush injuries, broken bones, sprains, strains, and repetitive stress injuries (tendonitis, tendinosis, carpal tunnel, etc.) are also incredibly common in the hands and wrists.
What is a Degloving Injury?
Another unfortunately common hand injury is degloving. This occurs when the skin in the hand is stripped away from the muscle and bone below it. This often happens from lacerations or other shearing injuries, where the skin is pressed against something else. They are called “degloving” injuries because they often look like the skin is rolled or pulled off, like removing a glove.
Degloving injuries can involve detachment between the layers, but no actual cut or laceration. This merely creates a pocket inside the hand that still needs serious medical treatment, but may be harder to identify as an injury.
They can also be open, in that there is a physical wound. These injuries can potentially separate the skin from the hand or merely roll part of it up. More serious degloving injuries can also lead to amputation, too.
Common Causes of Hand and Degloving Injuries at Work
Power tools and machinery are common causes of injuries. Saws can cut you or cause amputations, pneumatic presses and similar tools can crush your hands, and other machinery can get you caught in moving parts. This often happens if your sleeve or glove gets caught and pulls your hand in. Alternatively, slipping with a tool and tool kickback are other common causes of hand injuries.
While many machines have safety mechanisms to stop cutting or emergency stop functions to protect you when you get stuck, these might fail, potentially because of manufacturing defects.
Many other cuts and scrapes are prevented with gloves, but even something as simple as carrying a box can lead to a serious injury if you hit your hand on something, scrape it against a narrow doorway, or drop something on top of it.
Degloving injuries often involve rings. These can get caught on items and pull off the skin or the entire end of your finger, which is why silicone rings or working without a ring is often recommended.
Other degloving injuries are often “freak accidents” that happen in strange and unexpected ways.
Getting Workers’ Comp for a Hand Injury
If you were hurt at work, then you are often entitled to Workers’ Compensation for your hand injury. This can pay for medical care and lost wages, typically at a rate of 2/3 of your wage before the accident or 2/3 of the difference in pre- and post-injury wages if you are working with reduced tasks. These are also subject to caps and floors.
These benefits do not include pain and suffering, but you can sue for that separately against a third-party defendant, if applicable. You can also get other specific injury benefits paid for amputations and total lost function.
To claim your benefits, you file your initial claim with your employer. When they deny your case, our lawyers can take it before a Workers’ Comp Judge with a Claim Petition to have your case decided by a neutral judge instead of your employer.
Specific Loss Damages for Hand and Finger Amputation, Lost Function, and Degloving
Many of these hand injuries are permanent and leave victims with partial amputation, total amputation, or multiple amputations. The Pennsylvania Workers’ Comp Act contains a list of amputation and lost function injuries that get paid 2/3 of your lost wage, subject to caps and floors, for a number of weeks listed for each injury.
Examples
For example, the loss of your index finger pays 40 weeks of benefits, and the loss of a pinky pays 28 weeks of benefits.
Partial Amputation
There are rules for partial amputation, with a loss of most of the first part or an amputation past the first joint counting as half of a lost finger and anything more than half counting as total loss. Loss of half a finger pays the same rate but for half the listed period.
Multiple Finger Amputation
There are also rules for losing multiple fingers. If you lose two or more fingers and it doesn’t result in total disability, then you get the two or more periods added together.
Lost Function
Total lost function counts the same as amputation. This means that if your degloving injury causes nerve damage that prevents you from being able to use your fingers going forward, then that would qualify the same as if it were amputated. Ultimately, many lost function cases lead to later surgical amputation.
Call Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers for Hand Injuries in Philadelphia
Call Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 for a free case review with our hand injury and degloving lawyers.
