A maze of pain: injured officers denied care
Physicians and injured workers in Fort Worth, Texas – including police officers — say city-hired bureaucrats are denying them needed medical care — for years.
In a shocking article in the December 18 edition of the Fort Worth Weekly, reporters Eric Griffey and Edward Brown tell the story of Sergeant Chip Gillette, a 27-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department. He was coming to a stop at a red light when a frantic woman covered in blood approached his squad car. The woman spoke only Spanish, but he eventually figured out that she had been assaulted and asked her to take him back to where it happened.
When he got there, three officers were wrestling with a suspect who was not yet under control. Gillette joined in the melee, and he felt his back pop.
“I knew within 15 to 20 minutes that I wasn’t going to be able to walk,” he said.
Gillette is no stranger to getting hurt on the job. In nearly three decades of patrolling Fort Worth’s most dangerous neighborhoods, he figures he’s been injured more than 20 times.
“I called for an ambulance and stood at my car,” he said. “By the time the ambulance showed up, they had to lift me up to put me inside.”
The months that followed were a nightmare. His doctor recommended surgery, but he hasn’t been able to get the procedure he needs. A company hired by the city of Fort Worth to arbitrate workers’ compensation cases for its employees has run him through a bureaucratic maze of delays and denials. He now lives in constant pain, often unable to sit for more than an hour or so.
Gillette and numerous other city employees, area doctors, and patient advocates told Fort Worth Weekly that the firm, CorVel Corporation, has created a barrier between workers hurt on the job and the care they need. They believe the corporation uses obstructionist tactics in order to prevent employees from getting treatment.