Knee injury at work. Advice?

Nurses Disabilities

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I am a nurse's aide in a small-town hospital in Tennessee.

On Tuesday morning I was called into a room I was not assigned to to assist an RN, as the aide assigned that room wasn't immediately available. Not a problem, we do it all the time.

The RN was attempting to assist a post-op knee patient back to bed after PT had gotten the patient up into a chair for a while. The patient was not elderly (early 60s), but was obese and would not follow direction to help herself. (Would not support her weight on her arms on the walker or use her good leg.)

As I was helping, the patient kept removing her hands from the walker and grabbing me. My RN repeatedly told her, "Do not grab Michelle. Use the walker." The patient kept leaning backwards away from the walker, so I was supporting her shoulders pretty strongly to keep her upright.

When we got to the bed, the patient grabbed me again and threw herself down onto the bed....taking me with her. In order to keep from falling ON her, I somehow twisted/lunged to the foot of the bed.....severely twisting my knee in the process. I heard/felt a "pop" and the knee immediately started to swell and hurt.

I tried to "walk it off" for about an hour, but wasn't able to. In fact, was experiencing increasing difficulty walking at all. About an hour and a half later, I told my director. The first thing she said was, "Were you using the lift equipment?" We have the Steady, Maxi Move, Maxi Slides, Tenor and all that stuff. However, with an elective joint replacement surgery, getting the patient up and ambulatory on their own is what we do. PT uses gait belts, but not nursing. The patients are grilled strongly before the surgery that they are responsible for getting up and walking afterwards.

Anyway, I went to Employee Health and it was x-rayed showing no breaks, but signs of degenerative arthritis, the NP said. She gave me a shot of Toradol and some Naprosyn, slapped some BioFreeze on with an ACE bandage and told me to go home and ice it and that I'd surely be able to work tomorrow. On Wednesday morning, it was still swollen and painful and I could barely bear weight on it. I called in and then called EH. I left a message with the receptionist and filled her in. A short while later she called me back and said the NP said to stay off work until Monday and I would be ready to go back then. I called my director and left her a voicemail with that info.

Today is Thursday and I'm worried. It's still giving me a lot of pain, still swollen, still feels weak and wobbly. I don't know what to do. I was told to stop by EH Monday morning to get a return to work form. If I'm still in pain, do I refuse to go back?

Any advice would be appreciated. Most of the swelling is along the outside and across the top. The worst pain is along that outside, beneath the knee cap, and deep inside the knee. It's the left knee.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Ins sorry for your pain and suffering but as per the terms of service that we all agreed to when signing up we can neither solicit nor offer medical advice. You need to follow up with employee health and/or your personal physician for advice. I hope you feel better soon.

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I was not soliciting medical advice, but for advice on how to navigate the red tape regarding a worker's comp case with a hospital. I feel as if I'm being rushed back to work too soon, and was looking for advice on that issue...not diagnosing or treating.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

That would border on legal advice which is also against ToS. Again I'm sorry for your troubles. Your other option is to contact a worker's comp attorney

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