Kidney Injuries

If you have suffered a kidney injury, you may experience pain or bruising in your flank or upper abdomen, blood in your urine, or visible marks near a kidney. If the injuries are serious, you may also suffer from shock or anemia. Kidney injuries may result from car accidents, falls, or any blunt force to the area. When serious kidney injuries are left untreated, they may lead to high blood pressure, kidney failure, infections, or delayed bleeding. If you suffer job-related kidney injuries, the knowledgeable Boston workers’ compensation lawyers at Pulgini & Norton can help you assert your right to benefits.

In some serious cases, a kidney may be lacerated, resulting in urine and blood leaking into the surrounding tissue. A blood clot may form around the kidney, or bleeding may be significant, which may even result in death. In order to determine whether there is a kidney injury, a sample of urine may need to be taken, and the patient must usually give an account of what happened.

Generally, minor kidney injuries require little treatment beyond drinking fluids and resting in bed. However, when there is a serious injury, a doctor will need to take measures to control blood loss and prevent shock. These may include intravenous fluids or blood transfusions. Surgical repair may be needed when serious blunt injuries or penetrating injuries occur. In most cases, if the injury is promptly diagnosed and treated, the person will recover.

You may ask for workers' compensation benefits once you have been unable to earn your full wages for five days. If you have suffered your kidney injury on the job, you should go to the hospital. However, your employer need only pay you for the hours that you actually worked that day. If your employer pays you for just the hours that you worked, and these are less than the full day, the day of your injury is considered the first day of disability. If an employer pays you for the full day or shift, even though you go to the hospital, the next day is the first day of disability.

If your employer's workers' compensation insurance carrier wants you to see a doctor of its choosing in addition to your own, you should comply with the request. This is a standard procedure. Your benefits may be terminated if you refuse to see the other doctor.

Generally, you must file a workers' compensation claim with an insurer within four years of the date that you become aware of the causal connection between your disability and your employment. In most cases, however, it makes sense to file as soon as you become disabled because you need the money that you have lost from not being able to go to work because of the injury.

If your employer has failed to obtain mandated workers' compensation insurance, you may be able to make a claim against the Workers' Compensation Trust Fund, which was set up to pay benefits to employees who are injured while working for companies with no insurance. If you were hurt on the job on or after December 12, 1985, and your employer failed to obtain workers' compensation insurance, you may sue your employer in a civil action and also file a claim against the Workers' Compensation Trust Fund.

If you suffer kidney injuries on the job, you should retain an experienced Boston workers' compensation attorney to fight for the full scope of benefits to which you may be entitled. At Pulgini & Norton, we also represent claimants in Newton, New Bedford, and Hyde Park, as well as other Massachusetts communities. Call Pulgini & Norton at 781-843-2200 or submit our online form for a consultation with a workplace accident attorney.