South Jersey Hand and Finger Injuries – Work Injury
Every day we go to work, we use our hands to accomplish some task, whether it be typing or hammering, using a drill or moving office equipment, driving to and from work, or operating machinery while on a job site. Without the use of our hands, we are hampered in achieving what we need to do. Without the use of our hands, we may lose our job, even if one hand is still serviceable.
An injured hand is a significant disability. Such injuries may be the result of slips, trips, falls, vehicle collisions, and/or work accidents. If the cause of an accident was the negligence of another person or an entity, those legally liable must pay damages to the injured worker. The most common injuries are fractures, amputations, tendon injuries, crush injuries, and sprains.
Causes of Hand and Finger Injuries in South Jersey
The causes of hand and finger injuries in South Jersey can be due to the following:
- Motorcycle accidents – when a rider or passenger is ejected from their bike, it is the hands that try to brace their fall. The impact can result in cuts, scrapes, road rash, fractures, amputations, and nerve damage.
- Workplace accidents – workers who use equipment such as saws, drills, nail guns, claw hammers, and so forth are at a high risk of cuts, scratches, amputations, puncture wounds, fractured wrists, and hands from a fall.
- Car crashes – a crash survivor may sustain burns from a fire, crush injuries if a hand is caught in a door, bone fractures and cuts, or serious hand and face injuries caused by the high-speed deployment of an airbag.
- Medical malpractice – while not as common, there is a risk of hand and/or finger damage in the wake of carpal tunnel or other surgeries that can result in amputation or nerve damage.
- Sports events – hand and finger injuries are regular occurrences when playing most sports. All contact sports, such as soccer, hockey, baseball, rugby, and football can result in hand injuries as a player braces for a fall. Sports like tennis or golf may also result in stress fractures of the hand due to repetitive hand motions.
Roughly 43 percent of all non-fatal occupational injuries to upper extremities involve the hand and fingers. Hand injuries are the second most common type of workplace injury.
The Anatomy of the Hand
The human hand is the wrist, palm, and fingers. It consists of 27 bones, 27 joints, 34 muscles, over 100 ligaments and tendons, and abundant blood vessels and nerves. Due to the delicacy of the hand bones and joints, fractures often happen when someone is involved in an accident.
The tubular bones, which are quite small and between the forefingers and wrists, are fragile and can break on impact. Some fractures do heal on their own, but many require some surgery. A palm wound or finger injury can affect the flexor tendons resulting in fingers that do not bend. This is painful when trying to bend.
Strained tendons are common when bracing for a fall or from grabbing the steering wheel tightly during an accident. The extensor tendons on the back of the hand can sustain lacerations and puncture wounds, which slice or sever them, resulting in drooping digits. These types of injuries generally require not only surgery but also therapy to recover the use of the hand.
Other types of finger injuries can cause the flexor tendon to separate from the bone, meaning the finger cannot bend. This is referred to as Jersey’s finger. The name was derived from derived from football players who grip the jersey of an opposing player who is trying to get away. Additionally, there is a boutonniere deformity, also a trauma to the hand, in which the finger is hyperextended at the distal interphalangeal joint and flexed at the proximal interphalangeal joint.
When an accident survivor sustains a tear in the tendon connected to the finger end joint, this is referred to as a mallet finger. Mallet finger happens when an object, like a ball, hits the tip of a finger and bends the joint down too fast and too far, resulting in a tear in the tendon connected to the end of the finger joint. The hit can either tear the extensor tendon or break the bone and/or break the wrist.
Hands can also sustain ligament injuries. Ligaments connect bones and can sustain sprains of different degrees – anywhere from stretching to rupturing. Hyper or hypo extensions can affect the neighboring knuckle joints. Car crashes can result in sliced ligaments, fingertips, and/or tendons. Hand and/or wrist injuries sustained in a car accident may also result in nerve damage that affects the functioning of the wrist and/or hand, either permanently or temporarily. In some cases, surgery may resolve the situation.
Sporting activities play a large role in American’s daily lives and can often result in thumb and finger dislocations and sprains. These types of sprains and dislocations take a long time to heal as people still need to use their hands to perform daily tasks. Injuries such as this are referred to as skier’s thumb, an injury to the connecting ligament in the thumb to the metacarpal-phalangeal joint. This type of injury can be sustained during sports activities but can also arise as a result of a motor vehicle accident.
Filing a Hand and Finger Injuries Workers’ Compensation Claim in South Jersey
Filing a hand and finger injury claim in New Jersey is the same as filing any other type of work injury claim in the state. When an injury is sustained while at work, the worker reports the accident to the employer, providing as much detail as possible, and then files a workers’ compensation claim to cover medical costs, and wages lost while off work.
If the injury is serious, and the worker can no longer perform their job, they would file a permanent disability compensation claim. There are other categories to file in as well, depending on the nature of the injury involved.
It is important to note that employers pay for workers’ compensation to cover accidents at work. That is the only claim for benefits they may file unless the injuries they sustained at work were caused by a third party. If a third party caused the accident resulting in hand and finger injuries, the injured worker may file a personal injury lawsuit against that party.
At Petrillo & Goldberg Law, we take an in-depth look at the circumstances of your accident and explain what your legal rights are, and all options you have available to you. Talk to us. We’re here to help you obtain the benefits you are entitled to in the wake of your injury. We’re here to outline the differences between a personal injury claim and a workers’ compensation claim, which is proving fault. The Statute of Limitations in New Jersey to file a personal injury lawsuit is two years. If no claim is filed within two years from the date of your injury, it is barred from being litigated in court.
In a personal injury case, the injured worker must prove a negligent person or entity owed them a duty of care, but they breached that duty by engaging in negligent conduct. And, since New Jersey is a comparative fault state, the injured worker who files a third-party lawsuit may be able to recover compensation up to 50 percent even if they were half responsible for the accident that caused an injury.
However, if they were 51 percent responsible or more, and compensation recovered is offset by their responsibility in causing the accident. While this may seem confusing, the experienced South Jersey hand and finger injuries attorneys at Petrillo & Goldberg Law can guide you through the process.
Contact Petrillo & Goldberg Law
For serious South Jersey hand and finger injuries at work, contact our workers’ compensation attorneys at Petrillo & Goldberg Law. Workers’ compensation laws protect workers and job providers against occupational injuries and illnesses.
When a worker sustains injuries, workers’ compensation insurance pays the costs, up to policy limits and based on New Jersey state laws. Workers’ compensation insurance also protects employers against lawsuits from workplace accidents. We’re here to help you with your workers’ compensation claim.
