| Case Study: | Carpal Tunnel Syndrome injury. |
| Company: | This example involves an Ontario machine tool
company that produces computer aided machined steel products for the mining
and forest products. |
| Patient: | Fifty-four year old machinist. |
| History: | This patient had developed a high level of
discomfort in his wrists after having worked as a machinist for 26 years.
His symptoms included numbness and tingling in his hands and arms. His
right hand would become numb when driving an automobile on a long trip. He
would also be awakened at night with soreness and pain in both arms. His
symptoms would be noticeable in the mornings and evenings. |
| Diagnosis: | Work related carpal tunnel syndrome. |
| Treatment: | In this case the patient underwent bi-lateral
carpal tunnel release surgery. He was off work for 6 weeks recuperating from
the surgery as well as under-going a physiotherapy program. He noticed a
significant loss of grip strength post - op, even after undergoing several
weeks of re-hab. He was replaced by a machinist with 3 years of experience
during his time away from work. |
| Financial costs of the claim: | The company was liable for several associated
costs.
|
| The company also calculated that the injured worker was producing products at a rate of $155.00 per hour during a normal work shift. They noted that the younger less experienced worker was able to produce at a rate that was 14% less than the injured worker prior to his injury. This amounted to a loss in production to the company of $21.70 per hour for the 6 week period. | $ 5208.00 |
| Also, due to the side effects of the surgery (20% loss of grip strength and only a moderate reduction of the original symptoms) the injured worker did not return to full production after his injury. | $ 4200.00 |
| Also this injury affected potential rebates that the company might have realized from its payments into WSIB had the injury not occurred at all. | $ 4171.80 |
|
Total |
$ 23,837.52 |