Greetings,
Thank you for reading! My name is Meg and I am an disabled 44 year old woman.
I used to live a happy and well balanced, active life. However, one night shift at my job changed my life forever. I’m forced to rely on the US gov’t to live, and my company’s insurance provider for treatment, there has been none in 2 years. This is my story (and paypal dot me.
The first part is sections of an email that I never sent. An explanation follows.
Hi Mr. _ _ _ _ _:
My name is https://www.paypal.me/megx and I am an employee of yours. I was with A_ _ _ _ _ _ for over 7 years. However, I was injured just after my second anniversary. And fired while on disability just after my 7th anniversary for “job abandonment” even though I was told I can never work again and am on SSDI. I have worked in two large Fulfillment Centers. I started on the east coast, and then later transferred to the west. I have worked in 5 different processes including Pick, Pack (single large and single small), Pack (restock), Pack (AFE), Quality, and as an Ambassador.
Working there changed my life. I got into fantastic shape, was earning a decent wage and was hoping to earn my CDL or degree through the programs offered to associates. Prior to working there I spent over 15 years in customer and financial services. I also have both retail and retail management experience.
I took the job because the pay and benefits were better than most other employers in my area and in addition, offered me the chance to better myself. As a mother of two, the option of not only returning to school, but doing so while working was an easy choice. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to start.
On December 15th, 2019 my world was changed completely. I was working in Pick at San Bernardino that night and seeing that a quarter pallet full of productss was a mess of empty boxes and trash, I set to clean the mess while I picked an order of approximately 120 items. On my final trip back, I took a different route from the conveyer belt and slipped on a piece of cardboard. The pain in my low back, right shoulder and right leg was instant and terrible. But since I had been injured on the job at least five times prior, I thought I could handle this time too. Turns out, this time was different. I went to Emergency Care onsite and after accepting treatment, I attempted to return to work. I could not do my job.
I was sent to Concentra for xrays (my back only) and then sent home. I explained that I was in a great deal of pain and was advised that there were no fractures and that I should return to work at my next scheduled shift. When I returned the next day, I was advised that I could not be accommodated and to go home.
I will save you the next few weeks, but I was sent to a non profit to “work”. This business was not open, there were feces on the floor and rats in the walls. The roof leaked and there was mold on most of the items. It was a generally unsafe environment and I was unable to continue to work there due to the ongoing pain and my lack of mobility.
Concurrently, the insurance company approved 6 physical therapy sessions. When I advised the PTs that the exercises were painful, they did not take me seriously and I was laughed at. On my last session, a new therapist stated he could help me and proceeded to manipulate my hips, spine and legs. I was in bed with excruciating pain for weeks after that.
Following the therapy, I was given acupuncture. I attended 5 sessions before the pandemic took hold.
In February of 2020 I was finally given an MRI. This revealed “L4 and L5 disc herniations and spinal cord injury”. I was given no further treatment.
In February of 2021 I had a terrible exacerbation and was sent to the ER after my doctor said I didn’t need treatment. The ER wanted to perform surgery after an MRI with contrast was done and revealed that my L4, L5 disc was fractured and torn. That there was spinal cord compression at 2 other levels and I was in extreme pain. They did not want to perform surgery due to the injury being work related. Every request for treatment subsequently made by my neurosurgeon has been denied, aside from being allowed a single injection in April of 2021.
Not much has happened since then, I have been home, taking my medication (which I pay for out if pocket because it is denied by Sedgwick) with no physical therapy, testing or procedures to help me at all. I was determined to help myself, but all I could do was stand for maybe an hour each day, and do some very light stretching. My condition has worsened without treatment and now I am mostly bedridden.
I am still not getting any help.
I have lost my health insurance and my shares of stock.
I was a top performer.
I am 44 years old and living on 1400 monthy.
My lawyers say that a settlement will require me to resign.
They tell me that my injury, which now will certainly surgery and includes bone spurs that have developed along with the constant pain is “worth” a single years salary.
If I can’t find someone to help me, my life will be forever filled with pain and financial hardship. All because I slipped on some trash at work whilst trying to “do the right thing “.
I deserve to be taken seriously and for these issues to be made right. I would love to put my customer service skills to use, I would love to be a liaison who helps other injured workers get through their experiences. I would love to stay, but I feel like I am unimportant and disposable.
This is why I am appealing to you. I understand that workers comp. is a slippery slope, but if there is anything you can do to work with me on a settlement that includes payment and treatment for my injury and keeping a job, I would be eternally grateful and so would my family.
I was told that writing to you was unwise, but I am taking a chance because I have nowhere left to turn.
Thank you for taking the time to read my (lengthy) email.
Respectfully,
MVC
This is the email I never sent to my company’s ceo. I updated it because it has now been ovwr 5 years since my injury.
Since then, I’ve lost almost everything. I had to move back East to live with my parents. Then, last year my mom passed away. I can’t afford a home and I can’t work. I’ve developed many other symptoms and no longer have medication to help with all of my symptoms (pain,muscle spasm,nerve pain, depression and anxiety, foot pain amd leg mumbness, bowel issues due to the L4 compression).
Here, on the East coast, no doctor is willing to take on my case. This is due to the company’s insurance company not wanting to pay the state rate here, or approve any treatments that doctors have suggested.
I now have bilateral nerve root compression, and have a hard time walking, even with my cane. I sometimes fall because my right leg goes numb or stops working. Additionally, the disc injuries now extend from L4 to S1.
My fiance believes that stem cell therapy will help me. I would like to try that so I can get my life back and start my own business! I have so many ideas and it’s so hard not being able to make any of them come to fruition. I don’t want to spend my life in bed or on the couch at home. I try to take supplement for my symptoms and move my body as much as possible, this often leaves me worse for wear. It’s so difficult watching life pass me by, year after year. I was injured at 39… I’ll be 45 in a few weeks.
NOW I’m left feeling so guilty that my fiance is now my caregiver. These years are so crucial, we should be traveling, loving ome another, happy. But no, he’s taking care of me and working full time. He deserves a life with the fullness we planned on. If I can find a way to get better, I believe we can reach our goals and live the life we see in our dreams.
I believe that I will need living expenses, money for stem cells and travel and some startup capital for my business in the future. I don’t know what to ask for, I’m kind of embarrassed to even be here but I wasn’t sure where to go.
Any and all help is so greatly appreciated, thank you for taking the time to read my story.
♡-MVC
paypal.me/megx