A Guide to Common Workplace Injuries in Ohio

Securing the Workers’ Compensation Benefits You Deserve

Injuries at work can be sudden and traumatic, or they can develop slowly over years of hard work. They can affect your body, your senses, and your mental health. Regardless of how your injury occurred, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits to cover lost wages and medical care. According to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, overexertion from lifting or pushing is the single most prevalent nonfatal injury, accounting for over 25% of all claims. Workplace falls and being struck by objects also rank among the top causes of serious injury. While OSHA regulations have helped reduce workplace fatalities over the years, thousands of preventable injuries still occur every day across the United States.

However, securing those benefits can be a complex process, especially when dealing with specific types of injuries. This guide outlines the most common workplace injuries in Ohio and explains how we can help you navigate your claim.

Traumatic and Sudden Workplace Injuries

These injuries typically result from a specific incident, such as a fall, equipment failure, or chemical spill.

Construction-Related Accidents

By their very nature, construction sites are dangerous places. Workers often suffer injuries at much higher rates than those in other industries due to countless hazards. Five of the most common causes of construction injuries include:

• Falls from heights: From scaffolding, roofs, ladders, or cranes.
• Falling objects: Tools, materials, and debris striking workers below.
• “Caught between” accidents: A worker is crushed between heavy machinery or building materials.
• Trench or building collapses: Unstable structures can lead to severe or fatal injuries.
• Fires and explosions: Hazardous and flammable materials pose a significant risk.

Head and Brain Injuries (TBI)

A serious head injury can result from a fall, a blunt impact, or a vehicle accident and may require a lifetime of medical care. In severe cases, brain function can be impaired, causing permanent limitations to a person’s fine motor skills, sensory perception, and cognitive abilities.

Our firm represents clients who have suffered a range of head injuries, including:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): Including concussions, penetrating injuries, and contrecoup injuries (where the brain strikes the opposite side of the skull).
• Skull Fractures: These leave the brain vulnerable to infection and can be extremely dangerous.
• Contusions and Avulsions: Where the head is severely bruised or the scalp has been torn away from the skull.

The Long-Term Impact of a TBI

The consequences of a traumatic brain injury can be lifelong and create significant barriers to returning to work. Studies have shown that even one year after a severe TBI, approximately 50% of injured individuals are unable to go back to their jobs. The damage can affect people in various ways, causing serious, long-term deficits that impact every aspect of life, including:

• Cognitive Problems: Difficulties with memory, organizing, planning, and problem-solving.
• Communication Difficulties: Trouble speaking, writing, or understanding others.
• Ongoing Physical Issues: Persistent headaches, nausea, seizures, and muscle spasms.
• Social and Behavioral Changes: Affecting the ability to interact with others and maintain relationships.

A worker suffering from these effects often has a reduced capacity to handle everyday living situations and may require ongoing medical assistance. The lost wages can make it incredibly difficult to make ends meet, making a successful workers’ compensation claim essential.

It is not uncommon for people to suffer a serious brain injury without realizing the full extent of their injuries. Warning signs include headaches, dizziness, vision changes, fatigue, seizures, and changes in mood or temperament. If you experience these symptoms after a work accident, seek medical attention immediately.

Spinal Cord Injuries and Paralysis

Damage to the spinal cord is a frightening and potentially debilitating injury that can cause paralysis, nerve damage, and loss of motor function. These injuries often result from falls, falling objects, or worksite vehicle accidents. Victims often require extensive medical and rehabilitative care, making the pursuit of full workers’ compensation benefits vital for their and their family’s well-being.

Amputations, Fractures, and Limb Injuries

If you have suffered an injury to an arm, leg, knee, shoulder, or wrist, you may be entitled to benefits. This includes catastrophic amputation injuries as well as more common joint and bone injuries.

Common joint and extremity injuries include:

• Knee Injuries: Broken kneecaps (patellar fractures), ligament damage (ACL, PCL, MCL), and tears in the meniscus.
• Shoulder Injuries: Tears in the rotator cuff and dislocation of the shoulder or collarbone.
• Wrist Injuries: Carpal tunnel syndrome, fractures, strains, and sprains.

Under Ohio law, you are entitled to a scheduled loss award for an amputation. This may also be true if you have lost the use of a body part, even if a full amputation did not occur. If your body part is of no practical use, you are still entitled to this award. Our lawyers aggressively pursue “loss of use” cases to ensure you receive the full compensation you are entitled to.

Electrocution and Chemical Burns

Accidents involving electricity are among the most serious workplace incidents, often causing life-changing or fatal injuries. Common causes include defective products, lack of safety measures, poor weather conditions, and working too close to power lines.

Similarly, chemical burns from substances like sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, or sodium hydroxide are unfortunately common in industrial settings. In some cases, facial disfigurement can occur. We work with medical experts to document the chemicals that caused your burns and pursue the benefits you need.

Injuries That Develop Over Time (Cumulative Trauma)

Not all work injuries are caused by a single event. Many are the result of cumulative trauma that builds up over months or years.

Repetitive Motion and Cumulative Trauma Injuries

Unlike a sudden fall or accident, not all work injuries happen in an instant. Some of the most debilitating conditions develop slowly over months or even years of performing the same motions day after day. These are known as cumulative trauma or repetitive motion injuries—the result of gradual “wear and tear” on the body’s muscles, tendons, nerves, and joints.

Think of it like a rope fraying over time; each small, repeated strain weakens it until it finally fails. Similarly, your body can break down from constant, repetitive stress, leading to significant pain and disability.

Who is at Risk for Repetitive Motion Injuries?

While often associated with office work, these injuries can occur in nearly any profession. Workers at high risk often perform tasks that involve:

• Assembly Line Work: Repeating the same motion hundreds or thousands of times per shift.
• Computer and Office Work: Constant typing and mouse use can lead to wrist and hand issues.
• Construction and Manual Labor: Years of lifting, hammering, or using power tools takes a toll on the back, shoulders, and elbows.
• Healthcare: Lifting and repositioning patients can cause severe back and shoulder injuries for nurses and aides.
• Cashiers and Stockers: Repetitive scanning and lifting motions can injure wrists, elbows, and shoulders.

Common Conditions and Symptoms

It’s crucial to recognize the early signs of a cumulative trauma injury before it becomes severe. Common examples and their symptoms include:

• Carpal Tunnel and Cubital Tunnel Syndrome: Caused by pressure on the median nerve in the wrist. Symptoms include numbness, tingling, and weakness in the hand and arm.
• Lower Back and Neck Pain: Often resulting from years of improper lifting, poor ergonomics at a desk, or constant vibration from machinery.
• Tendonitis and Bursitis: The inflammation or irritation of a tendon or the fluid-filled sacs (bursae) that cushion joints. This often causes a dull, persistent ache in the shoulder, elbow, or knee that worsens with movement.
• Vascular Injuries: Affecting blood flow due to prolonged use of vibrating tools.
• Damage to Hearing or Eyesight: Gradual loss from constant exposure to loud industrial noise or straining to see in poor lighting.

The Unique Challenge of Cumulative Trauma Claims

These cases are frequently challenged by employers and their insurance carriers. The primary defense they use is to argue that the injury was not caused by work, but rather by recreational activities, a previous injury, or simply the natural aging process.

Because there is no single “accident date” to point to, it becomes more difficult to prove a direct link between your job duties and your condition. This is why consistent medical documentation and early reporting of your symptoms to your doctor are so important.

Our attorneys have over 35 years of experience fighting these specific types of denials. We prove the clear link between your work and your injury by thoroughly investigating your claim, reviewing your medical records, and working with medical and vocational experts to demonstrate how your specific job duties led directly to your cumulative trauma condition.

Occupational Diseases (Silicosis)

In many jobs, workers are unavoidably exposed to hazardous substances like asbestos or silica dust. Over time, this can lead to potentially fatal diseases like silicosis, asbestosis, or coal miner’s pneumoconiosis.

In Ohio, workers face a difficult statute for these diseases. Compensation is typically only available if you are totally disabled, or if a spouse is filing after a worker has died as a result of the exposure. There are no partial disability benefits for this type of ailment.

Occupational Hearing and Vision Loss

Our senses of hearing and sight are fundamental to how we work and interact with the world. When a workplace injury damages these crucial senses, the impact can be permanent and profound. In Ohio, specific rules govern compensation for hearing and vision loss, and navigating them is critical to securing the benefits you deserve.

Work-Related Hearing Loss

Hearing loss can happen in an instant from a traumatic event like an explosion, or it can develop insidiously over years of working in a noisy environment. Many industrial and trade workers—including those in manufacturing, construction, and aviation—are constantly exposed to loud machinery that can cause permanent damage.

Symptoms of work-related hearing loss can include:

• A persistent ringing, humming, or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus).
• Difficulty understanding conversations, especially in noisy settings.
• The perception that others’ voices sound muffled or quiet.
• Needing to turn up the volume on televisions or radios to levels others find loud.

Claims for gradual hearing loss are often challenged by employers and their insurance carriers, who may argue the condition is simply a result of aging or recreational activities. Our attorneys work closely with medical experts to definitively link your hearing loss to your work environment. If your hearing loss is connected to your job, you can receive benefits for medical needs, such as hearing aids, and may be eligible for a damage award if you suffer a total loss of hearing.

Work-Related Vision Loss

An eye injury at work can be caused by a variety of hazards, including chemical splashes, flying debris like metal or wood shards, blunt force trauma during a fall, or exposure to intense light from welding arcs.

In Ohio, compensation for vision loss is very specific. To qualify for a scheduled loss award, you must have suffered 25 percent or more of uncorrected vision loss.

A scheduled loss award is a specific monetary payment for the loss of a body part or function, separate from wage replacement benefits. The most critical part of this law is that the award is based on the vision you lost before any treatment or corrective measures.

We fight to ensure your case is settled on the basis of your vision loss at the time of the injury, not after medical interventions have improved it. Do not let an insurance company devalue your claim.

Psychological and Pre-Existing Conditions

Psychiatric Injuries and PTSD

Sometimes, the most severe injuries are the ones we cannot see. A serious physical injury can lead to debilitating psychological conditions like depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

However, a 2013 Ohio Supreme Court ruling in the case of Armstrong v. John R. Jurgensen Co. made these claims complex. To be eligible for workers’ compensation for a psychiatric condition, you must prove it is directly linked to your physical injuries. The loss of the ability to work after a career-altering injury has profound psychological effects, and we explore every avenue to help you recover benefits for the care you need, including counseling.

Substantial Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition

What happens if you aggravate a pre-existing injury like a bad back or an old knee injury? In Ohio, you are entitled to benefits for a substantial aggravation of a pre-existing condition. Whether it’s an injury or a medical condition like asthma made worse by your work environment, these cases are complex and require experienced legal counsel to prove the connection to your job duties.

Accessing the Right Medical Care for Your Recovery

Securing the right medical treatment is the most important step in your recovery and is critical for a successful workers’ compensation claim. The type of care you need will depend on the nature and severity of your injury, but the process often involves several key stages.

The Importance of an Accurate Diagnosis

An accurate diagnosis from a qualified medical professional is the foundation of your entire workers’ compensation claim. An improper or incomplete diagnosis can lead to insufficient benefits or an outright denial.

We will work with your medical providers to ensure the necessary diagnostic testing is done to present a clear and undeniable picture of the true extent of your injury. This often includes:

• Imaging Tests: Such as MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays to identify damage to bones, discs, and soft tissues.
• Specialist Consultations: Referrals to specialists like orthopedists, neurologists, or occupational medicine doctors who can provide a more detailed assessment.

Common Types of Medical Treatment for Work Injuries

Depending on your diagnosis, a comprehensive treatment plan may include a variety of medical services designed to help you heal and regain function. These can include:

• Physical and Occupational Therapy: To restore strength, mobility, and the ability to perform daily tasks.
• Surgical Procedures: For severe injuries like complex fractures, herniated discs, or torn ligaments that require surgical intervention.
• Pain Management: Including injections, medications, and other procedures to manage chronic pain and improve quality of life.
• Mental Health Support: Counseling or therapy to address the psychological impact of a traumatic injury, such as PTSD or depression.

The Role of Chiropractic Care

Many injured workers rely on chiropractic care to treat back, neck, and joint pain. Through adjustments, physical therapy, and other modalities, chiropractors can relieve pain and correct musculoskeletal problems that are difficult to treat otherwise. This care is a necessary and valuable part of the treatment plan for many common workplace injuries, and we work to ensure you can access all the treatments prescribed for your recovery.

A Note on Safety and Prevention

While many jobs carry inherent risks, employers have a legal duty to provide a safe work environment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets and enforces workplace safety regulations to prevent injuries and fatalities. Modern tools, such as safety apps that calculate heat stress or ensure proper ladder angles, can also help reduce the risk of accidents. However, when an accident does happen, injured workers are entitled to benefits through a workers’ comp claim.

Put a Renowned Authority to Work For You

If you have been injured at work, you don’t have to face the complexities of the workers’ compensation system alone. At the Philip J. Fulton Law Office, we have helped thousands of injured workers secure the benefits they deserve for more than 35 years.

Our founding attorney, Philip J. Fulton, is a highly respected authority who wrote the book on Ohio’s workers’ compensation laws—a treatise used by attorneys, doctors, and the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation itself. He personally directs every case, ensuring you receive the high-quality representation you need.

We handle all workers’ compensation claims on a contingency fee basis, which means you owe us no attorney fees unless we successfully recover benefits for you.

To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case, call our Columbus office today at 614-963-9569 or contact us online.