St. Louis Legal Blog

When you make your living in health care, you face numerous on-the-job hazards that have the potential to threaten your overall health. While some of the risks you face are illness-related, others involve specific injuries, and some of the most substantial injury risks you face working in health care involve lifting heavy patients.

According to Healthcare Business & Technology, health care workers, nurses, specifically, face heightened risks of suffering back, shoulder and other musculoskeletal injuries because of their job duties and work environments. Nurses are so at risk of suffering these types of injuries, in fact, that they report about 35,000 of them every year. Take note, though, that this figure refers to the number of back and musculoskeletal injuries reported by nurses, suggesting that the true number of injuries, including those not reported, may be significantly higher.

If you work construction in Missouri, you likely work at many job sites where the elevator has yet to be fully installed and working. If the building in which you are working contains multiple stories, this leaves you at high risk for sustaining an elevator-related injury or even dying in an elevator accident.

Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, America sees over 17,000 elevator accidents per year, and 31 people die in them, approximately half of whom are construction workers. In fact, elevator accidents account for a full one-third of all construction fatalities.

After getting hit by a vehicle, it can be difficult to keep in mind all of the best practices to document the incident. Still, staying calm and taking stock of the situation can be important not only for immediate needs but also for dealing with insurance companies and Missouri authorities. Car accidents can cause serious property damage as well as major injuries that can keep people out of work or require hospitalization. By keeping some key tips in mind, a crash victim can help to support their recollection of the incident.

A victim will need to tell their story to insurance adjusters, police and potentially lawyers. That's why it's important to carefully take in information at a crash scene. Of course, dealing with medical emergencies is the most important issue. Calling 911 can summon emergency aid to the scene, including police and emergency medical personnel. In general, it is best to leave the car accident scene as it is, but in some places it can be dangerous to do so. When safety is an issue, it's wise to move the involved vehicles to the side of the road and wait for the police to arrive.

Winter brings cold temperatures to parts of Missouri, and people in many occupations could experience symptoms of cold stress. Outdoor workers in industries such as construction and agriculture face the cold weather head on, but risks could affect indoor workers as well. People who labor in cold storage areas, wet conditions or in workplaces without heat could succumb to cold stress, which ultimately leads to hypothermia.

Dropping internal body temperatures reduce dexterity and sometimes cause slurred speech. Symptoms become severe when the body temperature falls to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. A person with a core temperature down to 78 degrees faces possible brain damage and death.