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Roland Niemi’s blog will go slightly off-topic for today’s post to tell you about a family in need.
Kathryn Keller, an adjuster with Gallagher Bassett in Louisville, Kentucky recently learned that her 13 year old son, Jamie, had been diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma.
Jamie is currently in the cancer unit at UK Hospital in Lexington Kentucky. Kathryn is a single mother with a younger son, and has been driving daily between her home in Liberty, Kentucky, the hospital and her office.
To help assist with the increasing costs facing Kathryn and her family, a benefit fund has been set up at National City Bank. Donations can be mailed or taken to any National City Bank in the United States and can be made payable to Kathryn Keller c/o James Kuhn. Any donation amount will be appreciated.
In an e-mail Kathryn told us, “I think all parents should be aware of this disease. Although it is rare it can happen. If we had waited another 24 hrs of taking Jamie to the doctor, we would not be talking about his treatment, future treatment or his future at all. I pray that no other parent or family would have to go through what my family has gone through the past couple of weeks.”
Please feel free to forward or link to this post. Above all, keep Kathryn and her family in your prayers.
For those unfamiliar with Burkitt Lymphoma, the disease is named after Dr. Denis Burkitt who first described it in 1955. The symptoms of Burkitt Lymphoma, also known as B-cell lymphoma, High-grade B-cell lymphoma, and Small non-cleaved cell lymphoma, most commonly involve swelling of the lymph nodes. While the swollen lymph nodes can often be painless, they can have a rapid growth rate. Treatment involves intensive chemotherapy that in more than 50% of cases can result in a cure of the disease.
For more information on Burkitt Lymphoma, visit these sites:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001308.htm
http://lymphoma.about.com/od/nonhodgkinlymphoma/p/burkitts.htm
FROM THE KENTUCKY DEPARTMENT OF WORKERS’ CLAIMS: The Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Finance and Administrative Cabinet has announced the milea
ge reimbursement rate for Oct. 1 – Dec. 31, 2008 to be 49¢ per mile.
The Finance Cabinet notes that the reimbursement rate is determined using the American Automobile Association (AAA) Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Kentucky for regular unleaded gasoline.
For more coverage on AIG’s worries (as well as Wall Street’s) read this recent article by CNNmoney.com’s Chris Isidore who discusses why the AIG debacle matters to the firm’s customers and non-customers.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/16/news/companies/aig_questions/index.htm?postversion=2008091614
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — CNNmoney.com reports that things are looking like there might be egg or, AIG rather, on the face of the US’s largest insurance company. On Monday of this week potentially deadly credit ratings hit the company. According to CNNmoney.com, the ratings indicated AIG’s ability to raise cash “is ‘extremely limited’ because of its plummeting stock price, widening yields on its debt, and its difficult capital market conditions.”
In the past nine months alone, AIG has lost more than $18 billion. AIG’s motto, as indicated on its website is, “The strength to be there.” But to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there may be no there there.
To read the CNNmoney stories click the following links:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/companies/AIG/index.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/16/news/companies/AIG/index.htm?postversion=2008091608
Lexington, KY — The LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Center Powered by Larson’s recently announced the 2008 honorees for the LexisNexis Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation.
Ouch!, published by Roland Niemi Law Group, was selected as a 2008 honoree.
“These blogsites contain some of the best writing out there on workers’ compensation and workplace issues in general,” says the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Center. “They contain a wealth of information for the workers’ compensation community with timely news items, practical information, expert analysis, tips, frequent postings, and helpful links to other sites. These blogsites also show us how workplace issues interact with politics and culture. Moreover, they demonstrate how bloggers can impact the world of workers’ compensation and workplace issues.”
Marcus Roland, the firm’s managing partner, reacted to the award: “We’re delighted to be recognized with this honor. Our firm strives to embrace all aspects of technology to better represent and inform our clients. Ouch! has proven a useful tool for us and our clients. For a company like LexisNexis to recognize it is indeed a prestigious nod.”
About the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Center Powered by Larson’s:
Launched in June 2008, the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Center Powered by Larson’s is an interactive site on the free web for the entire workers’ compensation community – attorneys, judges, government officials and staff, law professors, researchers, claims managers, adjusters, third party administrators, self-insured employers, risk managers, safety managers, human resource managers, rehabilitation specialists, physicians, hospitals, interpreters, investigators, injured workers, and journalists. The site contains expert commentary, blogs, news headlines, podcasts, movers & shakers, webinars, free article downloads, web polls, top cases, Larson unplugged, and much more. Visit the site at http://law.lexisnexis.com/practiceareas/Workers-Compensation.
About LexisNexis:
LexisNexis® is a leading global provider of business information solutions to professionals in law firms, corporations, government, law enforcement, tax, accounting, academic institutions and risk and compliance assessment. LexisNexis originally pioneered online information with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. A member of Reed Elsevier, LexisNexis helps customers achieve their goals in more than 100 countries, across six continents, with over 13,000 employees. See http://www.lexisnexis.com.
The recent Kentucky Court of Appeals decision of Kentucky Employers Safety Association v. Kirkland, et al, No. 2007-CA-002360-WC began with the Louisville workers’ compensation insurer’s denial of a $700 medical bill. KESA not only lost the appeal but precipitated a to-be-published decision expanding the meaning of “traumatic event” to include contact w
ith blood or bodily fluids.
In 2005, Kirkland, an employee with Lexington Diagnostic Center, was splattered with blood while flushing a patient’s I.V. The blood landed on his face and entered his right eye. Kirkland was immediately administered the OSHA protocol for post-exposure to communicable diseases. Under the protocol Kirkland was to be tested for Hepatitis B, HIV, liver function, and Hepatitis C upon his initial visit and, thereafter, six weeks post injury, twelve weeks post injury, six months post injury and twelve months post injury.
KESA paid for the initial six-week and three-month evaluations and the initial three-month office visit, but refused payment for the six-week, six-month and twelve-month evaluations and associated laboratory testing.
The ALJ below found a work-related injury occurred and ordered payment of the contested expenses. KESA appealed to the Workers’ Compensation Board, who affirmed, commenting “[I]t would be absurd to rule that the protocol recognized by the parties that has been put in place to treat this type of exposure would not be compensable under the Act.” 
Relentless in its attempt to avoid payment of the $700 medical expense, KESA appealed to the Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the Board and held that contact with blood and other body fluids alone is sufficient to constitute a physical injury per KRS 342. It further commented that KESA’s denial of “medical benefits incurred as a result of a process that would detect any disease contracted and possibly be life saving is contrary to the humanitarian and beneficent purposes of the Act.”
All judges concurred
