Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a severe condition that makes you feel intense pain and discomfort when an injury should otherwise be mild or already healed. Proving CRPS can be difficult, making it harder to get compensation for it.
Our Workers’ Comp lawyers help work injury victims get compensation for their injuries, including treatment and benefits for CRPS. We can help you get evidence from medical experts to prove your condition, connect it to your work injury, and get your benefits granted.
For your free case review, call the CRPS attorneys at Cardamone Law today at (267) 651-7945.
What is CRPS (or RSD)?
CRPS stands for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This condition used to commonly go by the name RSD or RSDS, for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (Syndrome). This condition causes serious pain and sensitivity, along with some observable symptoms.
Type I
Type I CRPS is also formerly called RSD(S) and refers to CRPS that has no clear nerve injury to base the symptoms on. This is probably the harder of the two types to diagnose; proving your condition and the source of your pain can also be harder with Type I CRPS.
Type II
Type II CRPS is based on known or observable nerve damage. This often makes a lot more sense to doctors and Workers’ Comp Judges, because they can see the source of the pain and symptoms. This is also known as “causalgia.”
Symptoms
Both types of CRPS share similar symptoms:
- Increased pain at the site of an injury (with or without observable nerve damage, depending on the type of CRPS you have)
- Pain from light touch to the area
- Changes to hair and nails (or their growth) in the affected area
- Changes to skin texture or tone
- Skin feeling warm to the touch
- Numbness
- Swelling
- Decreased function/strength.
These symptoms vary widely, and many symptoms are not testable, which is part of what can make CRPS hard to diagnose. Our CRPS lawyers can help you find specialists to treat your injuries and gather evidence of the condition and its severity to help with your claims.
Work Injuries that Cause CRPS
CRPS can result from a wide range of work injuries. Essentially, anything from scrapes and cuts to bruises to broken bones can result in CRPS.
Predicting whether an injury will result in CRPS and how bad the symptoms will be is practically impossible. This injury simply happens sometimes, even with somewhat “run-of-the-mill” injuries. This can increase your recovery time, make it harder to return to work, and certainly increase the pain your injury causes you.
What Damages Are Available for CRPS?
Workers’ Compensation is designed to cover medical expenses and lost wages related to a work injury. However, other lawsuits can result in additional damages to compensate things like pain and suffering.
Medical Benefits
Through Workers’ Comp, you should be able to get coverage for medical care to treat your CRPS and help you manage symptoms. This is only available if the underlying injury was indeed work-related, or else you would have to file a lawsuit for this kind of coverage.
Wage-Loss Benefits
Lost wages can be paid under Workers’ Comp for work-related injuries and conditions like CRPS and the underlying injuries that cause CRPS.
If you are totally unable to work, your benefits are 2/3 of your pre-injury average weekly wage (AWW). If you can work to some extent, you instead get 2/3 of the difference between your pre-injury AWW and your post-injury AWW. Both are subject to a cap at the statewide AWW (set by law every year) and a floor of whichever is lower: 90% of your AWW or half the statewide AWW.
A lawsuit can recover the remaining lost wages, when available.
Specific Loss Benefits
Through Workers’ Comp, you can also receive additional payments for significant facial scarring, lost vision, lost hearing, amputation, and lost function. This might come up in a CRPS injury case, resulting in an additional 2/3 of your AWW for a set number of weeks, depending on the injury.
This is also capped at the statewide AWW, and the floor is half that amount.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages cannot be claimed through Workers’ Comp. However, these damages can be quite high, so it is worth exploring your options to sue a third party for causing your underlying injuries.
If we succeed in that lawsuit, we can potentially recover damages for your intense pain and discomfort and the mental/emotional effects it causes you.
FAQs for CRPS Claims in Pittsburgh
What is the Difference Between Workers’ Comp and a Lawsuit?
If your injury was work-related and happened while you were working within the scope of your duties as an employee, you can claim benefits for the injury through Workers’ Comp. You cannot get pain and suffering through this, but it is no-fault coverage that should pay regardless of how the accident happened, with only a few exceptions.
A lawsuit can be filed against any at-fault party for a work-related accident, except your employer. It can potentially cover higher damages, but you must first prove the defendant was at fault.
You are allowed to file both claims, with the Workers’ Comp claim against your employer and the lawsuit against an at-fault party, such as a negligent driver, equipment manufacturer, or contractor that caused your work injury.
What is RSD?
RSD is an old name for CRPS, but it is not commonly used anymore outside of referring to Type I CRPS. The name “RSD” is not to be confused with a completely unrelated condition called rejection sensitive dysphoria, which is an ADHD symptom.
How Do I Prove CRPS?
Your doctors may be able to uncover evidence of your CRPS and diagnose you. If you feel a lot of pain and symptoms of CRPS but they have not been able to identify the cause, consider seeing a specialist who can help obtain evidence for you.
How Long Do I Have to File a Claim for CRPS?
If you have CRPS from a work-related injury, you have to report the injury within 21 days (or 120 at the latest). You can file a Claim Petition before a Workers’ Comp Judge within 3 years of the injury if your employer denies your initial claim.
This claim covers both the underlying injury and CRPS, so CRPS may actually be discovered later during your treatment, after the initial injury should have healed. Claims can continue to pay to treat the CRPS, too, as long as you have not already settled.
Call Our CRPS and Workers’ Compensation Lawyers in Pittsburgh Today
For your free case review, call Cardamone Law’s Workers’ Compensation and CRPS lawyers at (267) 651-7945.
