Kip’s Fractured Arm
This is Kip Malek, a workers comp attorney at Malek & Malek. I have had the misfortune of injuring my right upper arm on July 10, 2019. It was not a work accident, it was a stupid, avoidable gym accident. The point was that it was completely unexpected. So what happened?
I had pain in my right upper arm when I would bench press throughout the month of April and May. The pain was such that after a certain number of reps I would be nearly brought to tears. I stopped benching in May to allow whatever was wrong to heal. I focused on strengthening my shoulders. On July 10 I felt enough time had passed and I thought “lets see if I still have pain benching.”
I repped the bar a few times. Added plates, repped 135 eight times. No pain. Repped 225, no pain. Added 20 pounds, repped 245, once, twice, on the third rep, I heard a crack, lost all strength in my right arm. Bar crashed down to the right. I set the left side of the on the ground. Gathered my things walked down to the ER.
I’ve had two MRIs, two Xrays, have been sleeping upright in a chair. I fractured my upper arm bone. Tomorrow Dr. Dimitris, a great doctor with Orthopedic One, will perform surgery binding the fractured bones together with hardware. Everything will turn out fine.
A Work Injury is a Surprise You Didn’t Ask For
My injury was because my own stupidity. Beside the pain and discomfort of walking around with a fracture, my job is mostly sedentary. I can continue working.
What about you, you got hurt working. You didn’t ask to be hurt. You didn’t ask to fall off a ladder, or hurt your lower back lifting a heavy box, you cut a finger off using a piece of machinery. It sucks, you can’t work. You can’t make rent, can’t make your car payment. Maybe you’ll never be able to return to your job.
Bottomline is your life has changed immeasurably. Fracturing my arm sucks, I’ll probably never be able to bench press again. But everything has a silver lining. I have tasted some of the reality faced by injured workers. It has re-invigorated me to fight tooth and nail on behalf of injured workers.
If you have had a work accident and don’t know what to do, where to go, or who to talked please reach out to me, Doug Malek, Ben Churchill, James Malek, and Malek. We will help you.