“This injury could have been permanently life altering without skilled direction, thoughtful treatment, and compassionate care. All these things combined with the employer’s willingness to accommodate and the injured employee’s drive to recover is what made this journey back to work so successful.”
Challenge:
*Damian was working in a large commercial kitchen as normal when a large mixer paddle on the shelf suddenly struck him in the head. Immediately after, he started to feel dizzy followed by a strong headache and nonstop nausea. As hours and days passed, he began quickly developing uncontrolled tremors from head to toe with little relief in between. The tremors worsened if Damian tried to participate in any physical activity, and he described it as feeling like his insides were shaking. After a visit to the emergency room and multiple diagnostics, it was determined he had a serious concussion.
Solution:
Once teamed up with Bryan, his case manager, Damian was referred to occupational health and neuro rehabilitation, as well as neurology for a consultation. Neuro rehabilitation was approved and coordinated and Bryan continued to work closely with Damian, occupational health and providers, ensuring continuous seamless care. Gradually, Damian began to see improvement.
After several months, the tremors began resolving. Though it took over a year to be completely free of the tremors and his headache’s persisted, both Damian and Bryan continued to work toward full recovery. Bryan decided to look for other options that could help and brought up adding dry needling to the therapy to see if this would help with muscle spasms experienced in the cervical spine and shoulders. When this was ultimately added to Damian’s therapy, he began reporting a decrease in headaches and bodily tension. To aid his recovery, Damian was prescribed Amitriptyline short-term for his headaches and was weaned off the medication after a few months without incident.
Result:
Damian gradually returned to work with welcomed accommodations. His employer gladly allowed him to wear sunglasses and hearing protection in the kitchen to limit his headaches being exacerbated by the loud noises. Neurology also provided trigger point injections which allowed his headaches to continue to dwindle over time. After the completion of additional neuro rehabilitation, Damian was able to return to full duty with minimal complaint of headaches. In the end, he was incredibly pleased to “get his life back.”
*Name changed for privacy purposes